An informative yet fun documentary 'Why Am I Doing This? (A Film ABout Touring)', about underground bands playing small clubs. Steve Albini and members of Bottomless Pit, Helms Alee, Wimps, the Bismarck, Nudity, Conan Neutron, Sun 0))), and Melvins talk about what really is there on tour, beyond the 1-hour pleasure they do get every day.
Billie Eilish has announced her new album with her new song 'Your Power', with a video she self-directed. On the intimate and delicate track, Eilish sings above acoustic guitar riff about power dynamics in relationships, giving a warning to “try not to abuse your power”. The video sees her alone on a mountain. Her new album 'Happier Than Ever', out July 30, was written by Eilish and her brother Finneas.
YouTuber Sabrina explores why lo-fi hip-hop has become the poster child for study music and if it even works. She also tries to teach a machine to generate lo-fi music.
Very charming Jon Batiste gave an interesting speech while accepting his best score Oscar for 'Soul': “God gave us 12 notes. It's the same 12 notes Duke Ellington had, Bach had. It's the same 12, Nina Simone, and all the nominees... I'm just thankful to God for those 12 notes, man, that's so dope".
The first trailer for Questlove’s documentary 'Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)', premiered at the Oscars last night (watch it below). 'Summer of Soul' focuses on the little-known history of the Harlem Cultural Festival, dubbed “the Black Woodstock,” which took place the same summer as Woodstock in 1969 over the course of six weeks in New York's Harlem. The lineup included Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, B.B. King, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and more. The clip juxtaposes many of these performances with the cultural and sociopolitical upheaval happening at the time. 'Summer of Soul' is Questlove’s directorial debut, and it was already awarded both the U.S. Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award in the U.S. Documentary category at the Sundance Film Festival.
Lil Nas X has released a new version of his controversial hit single 'Montero (Call Me By Your Name)' in which he recreates every sound on the song with his mouth. The new rendition of hit single arrives with a very innocent Brady Bunch-style music video.
Little Simz announces her new album 'Sometimes I Might Be Introvert' with a great single 'Introvert', a symphonic hip-hop banger with a pounding drumline. The lyrics are top-notch too, with the finishing line accentuating the message - "I’m a black woman and I’m proud one / We walk in blind faith not knowing the outcome / But as long as we unified then we’ve already won".
Rockfield is known as the world’s first residential studio - a former farm remade to a studio, where Black Sabbath, Queen, Robert Plant, Oasis, Coldplay, Simple Minds, and more made their albums. Directed by Hannah Berryman, documentary 'Rockfield: The Studio on the Farm', is out next month featuring interviews with Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Liam Gallagher, Robert Plant, Chris Martin, and the Ward family (made the studio and still, after 50 years, own both the farm and the studio, in their 80s).
The No. 1 YouTube musicologist delivers yet another fun music class, this time about "the most elegant key change in all of pop music", written by Eric Carmen and made famous by Celine Dion. Neely says it's "modal mixture, common tone, enharmonic, double chromatic, mediant modulation".
Financial Times has shared a video about a struggling hip-hop artist Dirty Blonde trying to make it in the time of coronavirus and the domination of streaming. FT also talked to some of the world's biggest music companies, record labels, and producers, how they are adapting to this fast-changing industry.
