My inspiration does not take orders from me. I take orders from my inspiration. | | | | All ears: DJ Jeff Mills at the Mayday festival, Dortmund, Germany, May 1, 2001.
(Jim Dyson/Getty Images) | | | | | |  | "My inspiration does not take orders from me. I take orders from my inspiration."
| | | | | | rantnrave:// You learn, early in your life as a fledgling rock star, that the average A&R rep or music supervisor or anyone else you might send your demo tape to will give it maybe 15 seconds before throwing it in the reject pile, 30 seconds if you're lucky. The trick, therefore, is to make sure you put your best hook somewhere in those first few seconds. You will get rejected anyway, but you'll perhaps get their attention for 2 or 3 seconds before you do. That, at least, is how I was taught the art of the demo tape. (Lesson #2, in which you learn to stop wasting your time trying that route, comes later. That's another rant.) I was thinking about that 15-second window as I watched this video by QUARTZ's MADIS KABASH and EDUARDO ARAÚJO explaining how the logistics of streaming music seem to be causing two significant changes in pop songs: They're getting shorter, and they're frequently starting with the chorus. Pop has always adapted and conformed to changes in formats and technology, from 45 RPM vinyl singles, which dictated how long a pop hit could be, to the introduction of CDs, which nearly doubled how long an album could be. It adapts to economics, too: The number of songs on albums were routinely capped by labels' tolerance for paying mechanical royalties. From FRANK SINATRA to FRANK OCEAN, artists have figured out the prevailing rules and worked accordingly. No one should be surprised or alarmed, then, that the streaming revolution has imposed its own rules. That's what formats do, and that's one of the ways pop evolves. In this particular case, artists aren't adapting to the technology itself—a track or album on TIDAL or SPOTIFY can be as long or as short and as weird or conventional as anyone wants it to be—but to the way it's being programmed and monetized. Shorter tracks, if these reporters are correct, are more likely to be picked up by playlist algorithms. They also, as we long ago learned, pay out faster, allowing artists to get to their next 0.004 cents that much quicker. And then there's the issue of how fans are using the services. Having unlimited choice means they also have unlimited alternatives to any choice they make. If a song doesn't grab a user in those first 15 or 30 seconds, the streaming format makes it exceedingly easy for the user to stop and try something else. Streaming listeners, some of them anyway, aren't unlike those A&R reps with piles of demo tapes, their fingers hovering over the eject button, waiting impatiently for a hook or a chorus, not listening so much as previewing. Are pop artists, writers and producers already adapting to that reality? Where will they go next in their effort to keep you away from the skip button? What will be the crass response? What will be the creative response? Which will be the better response?... But also: What, besides streaming, is causing pop song shrinkage? A 2018 analysis by data scientist MICHAEL TAUBERG suggests the average pop hit has been getting shorter since the beginning of the century, which aligns with the rise of NAPSTER but pre-dates the wide adoption of legal streaming by nearly a decade. The decline became sharper around 2013, which is when BILLBOARD started including YOUTUBE video views in its pop charts and updated the way it counts streams in general. Are songs actually getting shorter, or is Billboard's algorithm "seeing" short songs it would have missed before? Which is the cause and which is the symptom?... Acting on an antitrust complaint from SPOTIFY, the European Union will formally investigate APPLE's practice of charging a fee for subscriptions sold through its app store, the FINANCIAL TIMES reported SUNDAY (paywall; here's a followup from BLOOMBERG)... The top 1% of touring artists took home 60% of all worldwide ticket revenues in 2017, and the top 5% gobbled up 85%, according to an upcoming book by the late economist ALAN KRUEGER (story, paywalled, via WALL STREET JOURNAL). The gap between those one percenters and everybody has been steadily widening over the past three decades. Music reflecting the world around it, as it were... RIP JOHN STARLING, ADAM SKY and STEPHEN DIENER. | | | - Matty Karas, curator | | | |  | NPR Music | | The city of New Orleans is on a first-name basis with Quint Davis, who has happily occupied a central role in the city's beloved Jazz and Heritage Festival since the very beginning. | | | |  | CBS News | | "It's not for everybody," Tagaq says, but her unique music, a blend of an ancient art form with elements of punk rock, heavy metal and electronica, has been called "transfixing" by "Rolling Stone." | | | |  | Quartz | | New metrics are changing the way musicians are making music.. | | | |  | Los Angeles Times | | The K-pop group, after a pair of No. 1 albums, is a stadium act in the U.S. And they've arrived at the pinnacle of stardom on their own terms. | | | |  | The Overtake | | The music legend who knew Stevie Wonder, Burt Bacharach and Elvis tells us how he ended up living in a small town near Leeds | | | |  | The Future of What | | While little attention was given by the U.S. population at large, the creative class, and musicians in particular, paid close attention to the wars waged over the EU's new copyright directive, known colloquially as Article 13. | | | |  | Billboard | | Nine music-technology companies presented their creations at TechStars Music's third annual Demo Day, the culmination of a three-month, mentorship-driven startup program. | | | |  | The Ringer | | On May 4, 1999, a hit was born-an unkillable one. Twenty years after the song's release, the band's songwriter relives the creative process behind it and explores why the sensation has continued to permeate pop culture through memes, YouTube videos, and even an as-yet-unstaged Broadway musical. | | | |  | The Independent | | Fifty years ago, the sound of a woman having an orgasm was a No 1 hit. Its singer talks to Simon Hardeman about sex, Serge Gainsbourg and heavy breathing. | | | |  | The New York Times | | Bikini Kill, Heavens to Betsy, Tribe 8 and more: Hear 25 songs that fueled a rock revolution. | | | |  | Trapital | | Today's rappers only link up if there's additional value to gain. And those link ups are rarely in-person. | | | |  | NPR | | A grassroots drive to preserve a historic building in downtown Atlanta is highlighting the city's somewhat forgotten role in early country music. | | | |  | Pitchfork | | We revisit an album that changed ambient music forever. | | | |  | Variety | | It was fitting that ASCAP president/chairman Paul Williams took the stage Thursday morning at the opening of the 14 th annual "I Create Music" Expo to the strains of Kermit the Frog crooning "Rainbow Connection," one of the many hits he's written as one of Hollywood's go-to tunesmiths. | | | |  | Louder | | Bad Religion are back with new album "Age Of Unreason" -- we catch up with guitarist Brian Baker to find out more. | | | | | Billboard | | As it goes through inevitable cycles, the goth subculture in America recharges and soldiers on. | | | |  | Genius | | Genius spoke to the author of the 2018 book, 'Humming,' for insight. | | | |  | Ernie Ball | | "There's politics in it, there's obsession in it, there's romanticism in it, there's poetry in it, and there's your own personal relationship to it. It's an entire world really." | | | |  | Slate | | Jules Indelicato on repeatedly performing the Rolling Stones classic for "Romantic Songs of the Patriarchy." | | | |  | NME | | Once known for his outrageous onstage antics and cult-leader-like effect on his followers, Mac DeMarco has, of late, settled into a hermit-like existence in Los Angeles. The result is 'Here Comes The Cowboy', an album of minimal, sparse and intimate songs, which is out next week. | | | | |  | | YouTube | | | | | | | | Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi | | | | From "There Is No Other," out now on Nonesuch. | | | | | | | | © Copyright 2019, The REDEF Group | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment