I probably write on average about 10 songs a week. I'm lucky if the world gets to hear just one of those songs. And then I'm really lucky if four songs a year make it to the radio. It's a lot of repetition and a lot of putting the hours in. | | | | Shabaka Hutchings, performing here with Sons of Kemet in Utrecht, Netherlands, was one of the bright lights of jazz in 2018.
(Peter Van Breukelen/Redferns/Getty Images) | | | | | |  | "I probably write on average about 10 songs a week. I'm lucky if the world gets to hear just one of those songs. And then I'm really lucky if four songs a year make it to the radio. It's a lot of repetition and a lot of putting the hours in."
| | | | | | rantnrave:// In this season of crowning a year's best albums and best songs, here are some other bests to ponder. The year's most successful touring act, financially speaking, wasn't U2 or the EAGLES or TAYLOR SWIFT. It was an indefatigable, unstoppable pop star named ED SHEERAN, according to POLLSTAR. For all your friends who keep insisting there'll be no one to fill arenas and stadiums when all the old rock dudes die out, please let them know that Sheeran's haul of $432.4 million makes him the first artist to make more than $400 million in a single year on the road and trounces U2's previous record by more than $100 million. If you added BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN's entire 2018 gross earnings on BROADWAY to U2's most successful year, Sheeran would still have you beat. And his ticket prices were reasonable. Rounding out the top are Swift, JAY-Z & BEYONCÉ, PINK and BRUNO MARS. Tell your friends there are going to be acts filling stadiums for decades to come and they aren't going to be old rock dudes. No offense at all to old rock dudes, just to your friends who think no one but they are qualified to keep live music alive in the years ahead... People *are* still making good rock albums, though... The top two arenas in 2018 were MADISON SQUARE GARDEN and the FORUM. It's good to be in NY or LA, obviously. It's also good to be LIVE NATION... As for the year's *best* live acts, here are votes for U.S. GIRLS and NINE INCH NAILS and Beyoncé. Who were yours?... The year's best music books, per ROLLING STONE and PITCHFORK... The year's most elaborate and (briefly) profitable crime by a onetime King of Acid House... And finally, for now, the year's best TV game-show moment: Move over, commercial music supervisor BUZZY COHEN, you are no longer the most rock and roll person to win a round of JEOPARDY! That title now belongs to JACKIE FUCHS, an LA lawyer who was known as JACKIE FOX when she played bass in the RUNAWAYS. Jeopardy's new Queen of Noise won her second game Monday and will be back tonight to go for #3. One or two rock Jeopardy points deducted, however, for not being able to figure out, in the category "Musicians' Memoirs," who wrote one called ANGER IS AN ENERGY. At least she knew who wrote DANCING WITH MYSELF... RIP HAIR composer GALT MACDERMOT and jazz pianist JOHN THOMAS WILLIAMS. | | | - Matty Karas, curator | | | |  | Pollstar | | It's all the more wildly impressive considering Sheeran was performing solo, sans backup band, at stadiums with little more than an undersized Martin acoustic and effects pedals. There were no VIP sections and the average ticket price at $88.96 is $37.79 below 2018's Top 10 average ticket price of $126.75, leaving an astounding $184 million(!) on the table. | | | |  | Vulture | | LL Cool J matters because he is a trailblazer, but if there's a case to be made for his inclusion in an institution that purports to recognize artists for "having contributed over 25 years of musical excellence," there's an equally compelling one for his exclusion. | | | |  | Rolling Stone | | Guitar loops are the foundation of new singles from established stars like Travis Scott and the breakout year of Lil Baby & Gunna. | | | |  | Los Angeles Times | | A small rules change heralds a shift for the influential but overlooked craft of music supervision at the Grammys. | | | |  | The Guardian | | Overhearing a band's conversation recently tells me we've come a long way from the awful 90s, says writer and artist Penny Anderson. | | | |  | Happy Mag | | The Mothership travelled through space for centuries before it landed on earth. From it, emerged one of the most formidable forces in modern music: George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic. With their cosmic blend of psych-rock and soul, the group crafted something unlike anything else previously heard by human ears. The Funk. | | | |  | Afropunk | | Before "Soul Train," there was "SOUL!" Ellis Haizlip's groundbreaking program from the 60s and 70s is still groundbreaking and needed today. | | | |  | Broadly | | On a dance floor, I realized that I can use my mind not to punish myself, but to invite a special brand of silence to make room for celebration. | | | |  | i-D Magazine | | If 2017 was the year BTS went global, then 2018 was K-Pop, as an industry, grabbing the axe and attempting to widen the doorway that the seven-member boy group had so spectacularly created. | | | |  | Dazed Digital | | NCT U, BTS, (G)I-DLE, Red Velvet, Shinee... | | | | | Los Angeles Times | | Kendrick Lamar is up for more Grammys than any other artist, eight total, including song of the year, record of the year and album of the year. All of them laud his work masterminding the platinum soundtrack to "Black Panther." | | | |  | GQ | | The British band brought us the best pop music of the year, and we're better off for it. | | | |  | Pitchfork | | Adrianne Lenker, Amen Dunes, Arctic Monkeys, Beach House, Black Belt Eagle Scout... | | | |  | Music Think Tank | | You've heard it before: owning and nurturing your own fan base is the key to marketing success. So, how do you enhance that relationship with fans and grow your reach? Offer a VIP experience that ensures they are the first to hear a new album when it drops. | | | |  | Magnetic Magazine | | It was the week leading up to April 28th and my Facebook feed was buzzing about Klockworks' multi-sensory event series, Photon. I checked out the lineup made up of Ben Klock, Marcel Dettmann, Dax J and Etapp Kyle for the US debut in Brooklyn. I couldn't believe what my eyes were seeing. | | | |  | FACT Magazine | | Nostalgia and optimism for the future are not mutually exclusive. | | | | | Rolling Stone | | Vintage holiday favorites still rule on streaming services, but for the right act, a new Christmas album can be a savvy move. | | | |  | NPR Music | | More than 40 years after its release, Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama is still one of the most recognized rock anthems celebrating the deep South. It's also a song with a complicated legacy. | | | |  | David Perell | | Dan Runcie is a writer who covers the business side of hip-hop culture. While traditional media outlets often scratch the surface on hip-hop business, Dan's Trapital newsletter digs deeper. Each story breaks downs and identifies the strategic moves that shape the culture. | | | |  | The Creative Independent | | "I probably write on average about 10 songs a week. I'm lucky if the world gets to hear just one of those songs. And then I'm really lucky if four songs a year make it to the radio. It's a lot of repetition and a lot of putting the hours in." | | | | |  | | YouTube | | | | | | | | | | | Their stellar third album, "Your Queen Is a Reptile," was released in March on Impulse! | | | | | | | | © Copyright 2018, The REDEF Group | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment