Rolling Stone explores the power of TikTok on the example of LilyIsThatYou whose song 'FMRN' the popular social media took down due to, well, simple and explicit lyric - “Can you come fuck me right now?”. A snippet of the hither chorus on TikTok drew over a million views in 24 hours, only to be removed by the editors of the social. After RS inquired about the removal of the snippet, TikTok put it back online. "This episode illustrates the power that platforms like TikTok have over artists’ trajectories in 2021. By now, TikTok’s wide reach is the stuff of music industry legend — in select instances, it is capable of delivering a song by an unknown act to legions of new listeners before lunch. But the platform can take away as quickly as it gives. And because services like TikTok are so dominant, they don’t always have to justify their actions, especially regarding smaller, independent artists".

“YOU NO TALK! YOU NO TALK! YOU NO PLAY! YOU COST ME! WHY YOU NO PLAY? YOU WANT ME KILL YOUR FRIEND?” - a supposed boss of supposed Taipei mafia was yelling on Richard Marx's phone in 1989 when the singer postponed his Taipei show due to heavy rain. He describes in his new memoir how they took his agent Randy Garelick hostage, demanding Marx to play two shows the day after, no matter the weather. He agreed, of course. Rolling Stone brings an excerpt of the book.

"When we talk about the sexism of murder ballads, 'Omie Wise' jumps to the forefront as one of the most prominent examples" - the Songs in the Key of Death podcast says announcing their latest episode, about the 19-century murder story. "Whether the true story involves a woman who was drowned because she became inconvenient or because she stood up to a no-good man, they both end the same way — with Naomi Wise dead, and many tales that got it wrong".

Pop singer-songwriter Raye spoke about her label travails in a series of emotional posts on Twitter. “I have been on a 4 ALBUM RECORD DEAL since 2014 !!! And haven’t been allowed to put out one album" - Raye wrote. Clash Music came to the conclusion that there’s only a small number of boxes in which the industry is willing to place them – if an artist doesn’t fit easily into those boxes, then there’s an issue.

In 2008 Katty Perry released her hit-single 'I Kissed A girl'. "For as groundbreaking as it felt to hear a woman explicitly singing about being with another woman then, it would take another 13 years for a man explicitly singing about being with another man to appear on the charts — enter Lil Nas X’s 'MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)'" - The Pudding goes into the history of same-sex lyrics in pop songs.

The unpleasant story of Britney Spears' conservatorship took another twist this week. First, the Los Angeles Superior Court has denied a months-old request by Spears’ attorney, Samuel Ingham III, to remove her father, Jamie Spears, as her sole conservator. Singer's father has, however, filed documents that show Jamie Spears is the conservator of the estate, controlling her financial decisions, and that Jodi Montgomery is the temporary conservator over the person, at her request, controlling her health treatment and other personal care issues. The documents also reveal that Jamie Spears has been cut off from communicating with Britney Spears, as Variety reports. Also, Britney Spears has yet to file a petition to terminate her conservatorship.

The global dance music industry in 2021 is worth $3.4 billion, The 2021 IMS Business Report shows. The number is culled largely from the sales of software and hardware, which were up 23% this year as a result of the pivot to livestreaming, giving a total of $1.1 billion, along with music sales and streaming - valued at $1 billion, artist earnings - $0.3 billion, and clubs and festivals, hich accounted for $1 billion, a number based on Q1 being largely normal and China being open for more than a quarter. The IMS Report valuation is at the lowest it has been in a decade and is a sharp decline from the 2020 valuation of $7.3 billion and the all-time high valuation of $7.4 billion in 2016. There's also good news: the value of festival tickets sold is up 123% when comparing March through May of 2021 to March through May of 2019, Billboard reports.

Vintage dealer and a dedicated metal fan Harry Cantwell has - using his sense of history, style, and a deep love for skulls - picked up his top 10 metal shirts of all time for GQ. One of the T-shirts is from a joint Venom/Metallica 1984 tour: “I chose this shirt as an example of [one] that really captures a place and time, to show how much history you can convey with a T-shirt. It’s just a really interesting convergence of metal history that encapsulates a small period of time that's really, really important: the passing of the torch British early ’80s British [bands] over to thrash".

Streaming gives the artists an opportunity to break out from obscurity, but makes it exponentially more difficult to have a follow-up hit. That’s because like so many other viral hits, the song, not the artist, became the asset - Vox writer Charlie Harding says in an interesting essay about the artist and the album in the age of never-ending flow of music. “Streaming is a great way to make an artist faceless” - says Lucas Keller, the CEO of the entertainment management company Milk & Honey, who adds - “the song becomes bigger than the artist”. Emily Warren, who has written hits for Dua Lipa and the Chainsmokers among many others, said that she knows songwriters with hundreds of millions of streams and Grammy nominations who still drive Uber for a living. But she says that a songwriter with just two big radio hits is set up to retire.

Ariana Grande has partnered with Better Help, an online portal providing direct mental health support, to give away $1 million worth of free therapy to her fans who can't afford it, NME reports. Her effort will match those interested with a licensed therapist for one free month, which anyone can sign up for at BetterHelp.com/Ariana. After the month is up, people will have the option to renew and continue using Better Help's services while getting 15% off the second month.

"A song is a static thing, one that will outlast a memory even after it’s fully disintegrated. On 'Home Video', Dacus sounds intent on recapturing a moment that’s already gone" - Stereogum reviews the new album by the indie singer-songwriter. Pitchfork hears her suggesting - "write your own moral code... write your own worldly music". "Her wise brand of rock music blooms into something even more palpable, relatable and beautifully messy" - Paste Magazine insists.

St. Vincent has redone Metallica's 'Sad But True', adding a ton of sexy and cool, making for a surprisingly good cover. Jason Isbell goes a step further with the same song - himself and the 400 Unit reimagined 'The Black Album' classic as a thrilling country rock barn stomper. Both songs appear on Metallica’s upcoming collection, 'The Metallica Blacklist', a companion album celebrating the 30th anniversary of 'The Black Album'. Set for release digitally on September 10th and physically on October 1st, 'The Metallica Blacklist' also boasts contributions from Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan, J Balvin, Phoebe Bridgers, My Morning Jacket, Weezer, Mac DeMarco, Cage the Elephant, Kamasi Washington, Portugal. the Man, IDLES, Rodrigo y Gabriela, and Moses Sumney.

"Have you ever started listening to something and knew that you were different after? That’s how I was with 'Nia'" - The Root writer Panama Jackson in a loving tribute to Gift of Gab, Blackalicious MC who died last week, and who "seriously, seemed as if he was literally born to rap. He tried things, clearly in the name of hip-hop".

The director Beth B "is not interested in showing Lunch’s abrasive attitudes in a flattering light, and her take-her-as-she-comes approach extends to the doc’s account of musical metamorphosis" - Hollywood Reporter reviewed 'The War Is Never Over' the first career-spanning documentary of the 1970s No Wave icon Lydia Lunch. "B. leaves no stone unturned when it comes to Lydia Lunch ephemera. There’s great live footage from all of her music projects and spoken-word events. It’s a treasure trove that long-time fans will love" - Film Threat writes enthusiastically.

Sun Ra liked "the new", whether it be instruments, words, genres - The New Yorker points out in a profile about the innovator. He gave instruments new names, like the “space-dimension mellophone", the “cosmic tone organ" and the “sunharp", whereas his band the Arkestra weren't musicians, they were "tone scientists". Sun Ra himself was an exploratory soul - “the impossible attracts me, because everything possible has been done and the world didn’t change". This spring, the Chicago gallery and publisher Corbett vs. Dempsey reproduced a series of Sun Ra poetry booklets: 'Jazz by Sun Ra',' 'Jazz in Silhouette', and 'The Immeasurable Equation'.

Damon Dash tried to auction off his ownership of the copyright to Jay Z’s first album, 'Reasonable Doubt'. At first, Dash wasn't so clear he didn't want to sell the entire Reasonable Doubt album as an NFT - he wanted to sell his one-third ownership share of Roc-a-Fella as NFT. However, Jay-Z raised a lawsuit, and on June 22, a New York judge ruled in favor of Jay-Z to stop the auction. Three days later, on 25th anniversary of 'Reasonable Doubt', Jay Z and artist Derrick Adams collaborated to auction NFT artwork for the classic album. Trapital explains the hassle.

Norwegian company Elire is planning to create a doomsday vault to preserve the world’s most important music recordings for at least 1,000 years, with the same safeguards offered by the Arctic World Archive and the Global Seed Vault, two existing storage facilities housed underground in the Svalbard archipelago, Billboard reports. Buried almost 1,000 feet below a snow-covered mountain, on an arctic island Svalbard midway between Norway and the North Pole, and using future-proof digital storage, the vault will store recordings of everything from major-label pop hits like the Beatles to Australian Indigenous music. The vault is built to withstand the kind of extreme electromagnetic pulses that could result from a nuclear explosion, which could permanently damage electronic equipment and play havoc with digital files. An extra level of protection will come from Svalbard’s low temperature and dry permafrost conditions. Elire intends to make money by charging companies and individuals for deposits to the vault. It also plans to make the vault’s contents accessible to listeners around the world, when it has the permission of rights holders, and share the revenue this generates with creators.

YouTuber Rocked counts down 10 albums music critics have hated at first, only to get lauded later. It's exclusively rock albums, by AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Pearl Jam, Pink Floyd, Queen, Radiohead and some other big rock bands.

An interesting interview by the Music Journalism Insider with Courtney E. Smith, the host, writer, and co-executive producer of Songs in the Key of Death, a new podcast about murder ballads. What is it: "A historiography—it’s a storytelling podcast that examines the true crimes that inspired a murder ballad, the people who wrote the song or popularized it by singing it, and the historic times that both of those things happened in. It hopes to give listeners context around what was happening historically and when one of the most notable versions was performed. It also aims to explore how we’ve talked about these crimes in the past and what new information we have now that we should consider. Many of the songs don’t tell the real story or reflect the victim’s point of view. Giving them a voice and some life is a way to look again at a violent history".

"If the pandemic gave the general public an insight into touring life minus the hour onstage – ie, drinking earlier and earlier in the day to alleviate the tedium of being stuck in cramped, largely identical rooms with the same three or four people for months on end – for many musicians it had the opposite effect. By removing the social gigging element of their lives and careers, lockdown starkly exposed dependencies they’d previously been able to disguise as a typical rock’n’roll lifestyle" - music journalist Mark Beaumont wrote in the Independent introducing his piece about musicians who stopped drinking in the pandemic: members of Royal Blood, Deadletter, You Me At Six, Wu LYF and others.

An obvious question, for years now, which nobody has loudly set, to the very clever and way-too-serious Pitchfork writers (or, maybe, should its owner Conde Nast answer it?!). "Pitchfork is devoid of personality to a startling degree, especially in a pop culture magazine" music journalist and critic Wayne Robbins argues, defining Pitchfork texts "as post-humor assertions of importance regarding artists no one outside a young cohort of music nerds would find meaningful or important". What the P lacks, Robbins is certain, are expressions of personalities: "There isn't a single critic at this magazine that has a distinctive, look-forward-to-reading style or personality. And I bet you could make a substantial list with names of writers who are capable, but for some reason can't, or won't, let their freak flag fly".

Megan Thee Stallion won a leading four awards Sunday at the BET Awards -rapper won best female hip-hop artist, best collaboration and best video of the year for 'Wap' with Cardi B, and the viewers’ choice award for 'Savage' with Beyoncé. Chris Brown won best male R&B/Pop Artist, and Oscar winner H.E.R. won female R&B/Pop Artist. The annual awards celebrate the year in Black music, TV, film, sports and social impact and this edition touted the “year of the Black woman,” with Queen Latifah receiving the Lifetime Achievement BET Award. Billboard lists all the nominees and winners.

"In his pursuit of something he came to call Fourth World music Jon Hassell exerted an influence on his contemporaries that went far beyond the immediate popularity of his own work. To create “a contemporary coffee-coloured classical music”, Hassell drew together strands of music from around the world to make something that, without compromising its own identity, seemed to belong everywhere" - Guardian writes in the obituary to the trumpeter and composer.

"A dense, kaleidoscopic album that might take a lot of time to fully unpick" - Alexis Petridis reviews 'Call Me If You Get Lost' by the California rapper (gave if 5 of 5 stars). Vulture likes "gorgeous sonics, well-placed samples, and entertaining sparring with guests rappers and singers", whereas Stereogum says Tyler, Creator has "given the genre one of its most vital adoring tributes in recent memory". Consequence says simply 'Call Me...' "might be the best hip-hop album of 2021".

UK post-rock/post-metal band Bossk released their first full-length album, including the hypnotizing closer 'Unberth'; Angel Du$t make a turn from punk to indie pop with 'Love Is The Greatest'; Damon Albarn shares a lovely meditative piece 'The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows'; Afflecks Palace share a Blur-y 'This City Is Burning Alive'; Vince Staples is in top form on 'Law Of Averages'; She Drew The Gun share a banging indie-pop song 'Cut Me Down'.

"As clubs shut down across the world, however, a shift was occurring in China: the sleeping giant of the East was waking to the steady rumble of bass and the snipping of hi-hats. 'Literally as soon as they opened, everyone went to the club; they got really packed, especially in Beijing', explains Ranyue Zhang aka Slowcook, a resident at Beijing’s Zhao Dai Club. 'As soon as you turn on a smoke machine or a flashing light, people start screaming… It’s not even about the music; anything will make them happy'" - Mix Magazine writes announcing a shift in the Chinese electronic music scene which, for a lack of options, turned to itself.

The jazz music writer shared a passionate piece about how one wrong turn changed the destiny of a big jazz label Columbia Records was until one sad day in 1973 when they let go Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, Keith Jarrett, and Bill Evans in what is now known as “Great Columbia Jazz Purge”. "With the right leadership, the label might have held on to a roster of the greatest musicians in jazz, with all the bragging rights that entails, and made money from their recordings for decades to come. The sad fact is: Columbia could still do this, if it understood jazz the way Manfred Eicher and a few other visionaries do".

"I’ve been thinking about the idea of queer joy so much, because any kind of advocacy with anything that’s going on, any marginalized community, usually the advocacy is rooted in righteous anger or grieving. It’s actually so radical to express joy in the face of a world that writ large does not want you to have it. So, now I love Pride" - queer songwriter, singer, and multi-instrumentalist Julien Baker says in Slate podcast. She also talks about how she chooses to perform queerness or not perform it, and other themes.

Environmental charity Greenpeace has endured "a big financial hit" because only one Glastonbury festival has been held in the last four years, BBC reports. Glastonbury usually takes place on the last weekend of June but was cancelled in 2021 and 2020, due to Covid-19, whereas in 2018 it has been cancelled because of a family feud between the potential new hosts. Founder Michael Eavis is one of Greenpeace's biggest donors, often giving up to £500,000 after each festival. Greenpeace's Bob Wilson said it had also missed having a key opportunity to "sign up new supporters" at the festival which attracts thousands.

"I’ve always been a very sarcastic person and sarcasm just does not fly in Japan because everything is taken with a kind of surface sincerity. I feel like I’ve really lost my sense of humor by living in Japan (laughter)" - Japan-based producer, DJ, and cultural critic Terre Thaemlitz says in a very interesting Tone Glow interview. She goes on to define her work: "I consider myself a cultural critic, I guess if I had to label it. When I do audio work or video I refer to myself as a producer, not in a capitalist, funding sense of 'produced by', but in the constructivist sense of production over creation. I see what I do as an act of cultural criticism, music criticism, and media criticism while operating from within". Also, end of June Resident Advisor will release their latest film 'Give Up On Hopes And Dreams', a rare insight into the work and world of Thaemlitz.