Our name was a drunken joke that was never intended to be in rotation and reckoned with two-and-a-half decades later, and I sincerely apologize for its stupidity and any negative stereotypes it has propagated. I'm not sure changing it now serves any higher purpose, but I'm certainly open to suggestions. In the meantime, you're welcome to just call us Lady DBT. | | | | In the name of love: Lady Gaga performs at Europride in Rome, June 11, 2011.
(Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images) | | | | | |  | "Our name was a drunken joke that was never intended to be in rotation and reckoned with two-and-a-half decades later, and I sincerely apologize for its stupidity and any negative stereotypes it has propagated. I'm not sure changing it now serves any higher purpose, but I'm certainly open to suggestions. In the meantime, you're welcome to just call us Lady DBT."
| | | | | | rantnrave:// We've been getting an increasingly clear picture over the past couple months of what the future of live music is going to look like as the world adapts to, and hopefully tames, the coronavirus. Virtual shows, gaming integrations, socially distanced seating, reduced capacities, temperature checks, disinfectants, etc. Probably some illegal raves. And now, thanks to a memo from LIVE NATION to talent agencies tracked down by BILLBOARD and ROLLING STONE, we've got our first real sense of what the behind-the-scenes economics of all this might look like. The giant promoter is looking for concessions from artists that, according to Billboard, would "dramatically shift the balance of power back to promoters in the post-pandemic world." Agents told the magazine they view the memo, which appears to be mostly about payments and obligations for festivals, as the beginning of a negotiation between buyers and sellers in an industry desperate to recover from the pandemic. They're going to be hardball negotiations. Live Nation wants to reduce artist fees by 20 percent from 2020 levels. It wants to stop the practice of giving artists their full guarantee if a festival is canceled because of poor ticket sales; instead it says artists should get 25 percent of the guarantee when that happens. And if an artist pulls out of a fest without good reason, Live Nation wants the artist to pay a penalty of double that guarantee. Traditionally, artists owe the promoter nothing in that case. Agents seem to be prepared to accept lower fees but, per Billboard, they say the idea of a cancellation penalty is a non-starter. This is all playing out in a sector that's been almost completely shut down for three months, with little clarity as to when it will be able to restart. The rest of 2020 looks like an almost total loss, at least in the US, and booking shows for 2021 is still a gamble. "We are in unprecedented times," Live Nation told agents, "and must adequately account for the shift in market demand, the exponential rise of certain costs and the overall increase of uncertainty that materially affects our mission." Live Nation, of course, has a uniquely broad mission. If it sent that memo to artist managers, too, it wouldn't have to travel very far, as the company is an artist management powerhouse, too. There will be interesting lunches ahead. Or Zoom meetings... Indies doin' it for themselves: "Back in the '90s," says SAM VALENTI, founder and CEO of the long-running indie label GHOSTLY INTERNATIONAL, "the paradigm was to have a major label invest in you—the SUB POP and MATADOR idea." Remember those days? Ghostly, whose artists include MATTHEW DEAR, MARY LATTIMORE and GALCHER LUSTWERK, has merged with the indie giant SECRETLY in a partnership Valenti says makes his label "part of a culturally aligned, larger company that's still independent and artist-driven. It felt like that was the dream." And the new paradigm... Behold the first (I believe) voice tweet single. Keep on tweeting, LIZ PHAIR. ("Exile in Jackville" anyone?) I assume someone's already at work on the first voice tweet album and I'm hoping it's TIERRA WHACK. (Also, while obviously we're never getting an edit button, is it too soon to ask for a remix button?)... ROLLING STONE's 50 best albums of 2020 so far... Jigsaw falling into place... Soooo many questions about the last two paragraphs of this WASHINGTON POST story about that new book named after a song from HAMILTON, which ends with an unresolved anecdote about DONALD TRUMP, KIM JONG UN and an autographed ELTON JOHN CD that the former desperately wanted delivered to the latter. Where is the autographed CD now? Does the autographed CD even exist? Whose autograph? Which CD—HONKY CHATEAU? Elton's GREATEST HITS? A blank CD that JARED or IVANKA burned an MP3 onto? Do BERNIE TAUPIN's lyrics make any more sense when translated into Korean? Are the answers classified?... RIP YOHAN, of the K-pop group TST, and VERA LYNN, Britain's "Forces' Sweetheart" and the first British artist to have a #1 hit in the US. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator | | | | | | | all this science i don't understand | |  | Chicago Reader | | Streaming your favorite artists' music is the least helpful way to support them. But they can't abandon those platforms, because we won't. | | | |  | Rolling Stone | | The music industry is debating the term "urban," but the "pop" category often helps prop up white artists at the expense of the black artists who inspire them. | | | |  | The Washington Post | | Go-go music has been percolating in local clubs since the 1970s, but D.C.'s homegrown style of syncopated funk has experienced a whirlwind 15 months. | | | |  | Stereogum | | It feels, for the first time I can remember, like a mass protest movement might actually lead to some kind of systemic change. It at least looks possible. Rap music is part of that. | | | |  | The New York Times | | As black Americans fought for equal rights in the 1960s, music reflected their calls to action. In jazz, that meant sounds that were spiritual, boundary-pushing and celebrated blackness. | | | |  | NPR Music | | Women's music is music written by, for and about women (and, more often than not, women who love women). Our starter kit includes music by Cris Williamson, Ferron, Toshi Reagan, Ani DiFranco and more. | | | |  | Variety | | A silver lining to the COVID-19 pandemic: it's revealed the resilience of artists and executives alike in continuing to push out new music. You could even look at this time as a sort of A&R boom — with songs benefitting from captive audiences and creators finding themselves with solitary time on their hands. | | | |  | Billboard | | The COVID-19 crisis has grounded the live music business to a halt, slowing the momentum of a rising new generation of headliners and costing leading concert promoter Live Nation billions in losses. But the pandemic has also created a rare opportunity for the company to push through long-term changes to how it compensates artists who play festivals like Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits and Bottle Rock. | | | |  | Toronto Star | | Honkin' Tonk music, anyone? Last weekend at an Edmonton casino parking lot, Canadian country star Brett Kissel was greeted with the blaring of car horns instead of the usual applause as he hosted two days of outdoor concerts, the first sanctioned live music events in Canada since the pandemic broke. | | | |  | Bandcamp Daily | | These artists warp the dembow beat with sinister synths, copious auto-tune, and a wild visual aesthetic. | | | | | | | it's just my job five days a week | | | NPR Music | | Patterson Hood co-founded his band, The Drive-By Truckers, in the mid-'90s. Some 24 years later and just a little wiser, he revisits that decision. | | | | | The Washington Post | | The good news is that the Music Critics Association of North America announced today that composer Jeanine Tesori and librettist Tazewell Thompson are the recipients of its 2020 award for best new opera for their two-act tragedy and breakout Glimmerglass Festival hit, " Blue." That accolade is well deserved; "Blue" is a triumph. | | | | | Billboard | | This Monday, Billboard announced that for the second week in a row, DaBaby's "Rockstar," featuring Roddy Ricch, was the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 -- already making it the longest-reigning song on the chart in nearly two months. | | | | | Rolling Stone | | How one of the most socially conscious hits of the Eighties made a comeback, just in time for a pandemic and social upheaval. | | | |  | Los Angeles Times | | Across L.A., hip-hop morning-show hosts such as Power 106's Nick Cannon and Real 92.3's Big Boy have led daily discussions on the protests against police brutality | | | |  | MOBO | | The music industry, it is fair to say, could and should have dealt better with black artists, black run companies and taken on more black executives. (An open letter to the UK's Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.) | | | |  | Penny Fractions | | If "TheShowMustBePaused founders Brianna Agyemang and Jamila Thomas' view is that of the executive power struggle, I'd like to offer a counterpoint from a little lower on the corporate ladder. | | | |  | Song Exploder | | To celebrate the 25th anniversary, Havoc told me the story of how the whole song came together. | | | | | Los Angeles Times | | Erik Satie has emerged as the composer of our pandemic/protest times, the soundtrack both for chilling out at home and for channeling psychic dread. | | | |  | NBC News | | A song Johnniqua Charles rapped while being detained by a security guard has inspired remixes and memes and has even become a protest chant. | | | | |  | | YouTube | | | | | | | | | | | This year's Glastonbury Festival would have taken place next week. | | | | | | | | © Copyright 2020, The REDEF Group | | |
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