jason hirschhorn's @MusicREDEF: 06/23/2020 - The Strange Luxury of Separation, TikTok's Challenges, K-Pop Activism, Beatles, DaBaby, Lil Baby...

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These are young people who are completely willing to learn about a new culture to follow their interest in some pop-culture product. These are exactly the kind of people who are the opposite of the Trump audience that claps when he disses 'Parasite' and says that 'Gone With the Wind' is a real movie.
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Streaming life: Laura Marling plays to an empty house at Union Chapel, London, June 6, 2020.
(Lorne Thomson/Redferns/Getty Images)
Tuesday - June 23, 2020 Tue - 06/23/20
rantnrave:// Department of silver linings: In the garden where WASHINGTON POST classical critic MICHAEL ANDOR BRODEUR nervously arrived Saturday afternoon to see his first concert in nearly four months, there were flags in the ground to mark spots where listeners could stand six feet apart from each other. "It felt odd at first," Brodeur writes, "but also oddly luxurious if you've ever been vexed by the personal space afforded by seats in a concert hall." Like having an entire row of airplane seats to yourself. Little luxuries you've always dreamed of, finally available, and now you want nothing more than someone to talk to in that middle seat or an overzealous fan bumping into your shoulder every couple of seconds. Today is day 100 for me. You should have enough food in the house for 14 days, they said. LOL. March 16 was my first full day of self-quarantine. SXSW had just been canceled, a controversial decision that was going to cause a lot of economic pain and ruin a lot of people's weeks. If you had mentioned that the real issue was whether they might have to cancel the *next* SXSW, the 2021 version, you'd have been laughed out of the room. The only live music I've heard in person (sort of) since then has been the nightly 8 pm horn-and-percussion jam for first responders. From my house in Los Angeles, I can't see any of the musicians but the sound seems to be coming from every direction and it never fails to make me smile. I've listened to a lot of amazing new recorded music (artists are truly stepping up right now, in multiple ways for multiple reasons). I've watched countless livestreams. I've become a (slightly) better cook. I've discovered REAPER, a surprisingly full-bodied digital audio workstation that's proved a godsend for working with faraway songwriting collaborators on a budget (after trial-and-erroring our way through some lesser online options). I've watched, also from afar, the live music business do its creative best to serve the needs of the Michael Andor Brodeurs of the world along with tens of thousands of musicians and crew members trying to salvage a living and an army of promoters and venues trying to salvage a business. Full stage productions in front of empty houses. Small stage productions to an audience of (literally) potted plants. Virtual festivals. Drive-in tours (which, like their non-drive-in counterparts, seem to be having a weirdly hard time booking women). Wear masks, please, to any such options that require you to leave your house, your apartment or your car. That's the only message I have today. Because the only thing I know for sure about how this is going to play out is that tomorrow is day 101... LIVE NATION wait, what?... BATMAN FOREVER director JOEL SCHUMACHER, who died Monday, was largely responsible for turning a flopping single from SEAL's second album into a career-defining hit. "I owe my career in large part to Joel Schumacher," the singer says in a five-minute INSTAGRAM video... The RECORDING ACADEMY's 40-member board now includes 17 women. Nine or 10 more would be nice, as there's still a lot of work to do... Managers, agents and lawyers launch the BLACK MUSIC ACTION COALITION, plan to meet with heads of labels, streaming services and others to "mutually develop a plan to address the deeply rooted systemic racism in our industry"... Guitar auction winning bids: KURT COBAIN "Unplugged" MARTIN acoustic, $6 million. PRINCE custom-made Cloud electric, $563,500. Two of my favorite guitar players ever but, from a comparative value standpoint, you are objectively wrong, guitar auction bidders... For your consideration (literally): THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL, the 11-minute musical version, shot in quarantine to raise money for BROADWAY CARES/EQUITY FIGHTS AIDS, MUSICARES and SWANS FOR RELIEF... RIP BRIS and FREDERICK C. TILLIS.
- Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator
the bigger picture
Billboard
The Real TikTok Challenge? Turning Influencer Status Into Hitmaker Clout
by Tatiana Cirisano
How TikTok's top influencers are driving hits and gaining music industry cred.
Billboard
TikTok Continues To Launch Breakout Hits, But Can It Sustain An Artist's Career?
by Josh Glicksman
Though the viral-prone app continues to grow as a launching point for emerging acts, most want to be known as more than just "TikTok artists."
The New York Times
Why Obsessive K-Pop Fans Are Turning Toward Political Activism
by Joe Coscarelli
After claiming some credit for the fizzling of President Trump's rally in Oklahoma, the online armies of Korean pop music listeners are feeling prepared and empowered.
Rolling Stone
The Windy History of Penny Lane: The Beatles, the Slave Trade and a Now-Resolved Controversy
by Brenna Ehrlich
Was Penny Lane named after a notorious slave trader? Recent protests reignited the debate.
Los Angeles Times
The revolution is being streamed: Rappers DaBaby and Lil Baby make protest music for the masses
by Jewel Wicker
DaBaby and Lil Baby, who have the No. 1 song and album, respectively, in the country, have both released protest songs that have only added to their popularity.
JazzTimes
How Jazz Is Coping with COVID-19
by Michael J. West
Michael J. West asks musicians, institutions, club owners, festival organizations, and others how jazz is carrying on during the COVID pandemic.
DownBeat
How The Jazzworld Is Indelibly Tied To The Travel Industry
by Dave Cantor
The travel industry's indelible connection to the jazz ecosystem, like so many other economic niches, has been thrown into stark relief since the pandemic hit. It's another piece of a fractured landscape that will need to be made whole before the jazz world is fully able to function again.
The Washington Post
Going to my first concert of the pandemic felt like preparing for battle. Then I got there
by Michael Andor Brodeur
In Alexandria, an outdoor test run for live chamber music offers an escape from the noise of the world.
Stereogum
John Legend Made A More Interesting Album Than He Had To
by Chris DeVille
The cognitive dissonance is strong. "The Edge" is a 1967 instrumental by David McCallum, the Scottish actor who once starred in the '60s spy show "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." and who for nearly two decades has played Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard (yes that is really the character's name) on "NCIS."
Pollstar
Live Nation's Charles Attal: 'Artists Will Be Paid The Same; Live Nation Will Always Be The Artist-Friendly Company'
by Ray Waddell
Artists playing Live Nation festivals can expect to be paid as much for 2021 festival performances as they were in 2019, according to Charles Attal, co-president of Live Nation subsidiary C3 Presents, which oversees U.S. festivals and produces live events globally.
rockstar
WTF with Marc Maron
WTF with Marc Maron: Episode 1133 -- Janelle Monáe
by Marc Maron and Janelle Monáe
Janelle Monáe is not going to stop creating, but right now she feels the urge to use her creativity in the service of action. Marc talks with Janelle about the social and political unrest in the country today and why no one has an excuse to remain silent.
Salon
'It's time for change': New Orleans' Big Freedia on working against gun violence in new documentary
by Gary M. Kramer
The Bounce artist spoke to Salon about how deaths from gun violence have become far too commonplace in her city.
Rolling Stone
At Work With Darius Van Arman, the Architect of a 'Major Indie' Music Label
by Ethan Millman
"Independence is being pro-competitive," says the Secretly Group co-CEO, whose indie labels are home to the likes of Bon Iver, Angel Olsen, Moses Sumney, Mitski, and Sharen Van Etten.
Music Business Worldwide
'This generation of artists are savvy about their own potential, rights and commercial worth'
by Tim Ingham
For years, Conrad Withey worked successfully within a major label. Now, he works with the majors, but outside them, at powerful A&R scouting platform Instrumental.
Bitch Media
Queer Country Artists Are Reclaiming Their Place in Lavender Country
by Kim Kelly
Subversive young artists such as Amythyst Kiah, Orville Peck, Little Bandit, and Lil Nas X are discarding country music's conservative stereotypes around race, gender, and sexuality to find their own versions of success.
The Guardian
Rock against racism? Metal's varied response to Black Lives Matter
by Michael Hann
Black Sabbath and Axl Rose are among those in the metal world supporting protests, but there's no denying the opinions of others in the genre.
The Trichordist
MLC Black Box Invasion: Transparency for the 'Interim Application of Accrued Royalties'
by Chris Castle
Just when you think you understand Title I of the Music Modernization Act, another toad runs out from under a rock.  My nickname for the toad we're going to talk about today is the "Hoffa Clause," in honor of the Teamster leader and well-known pension fund raider (played by Al Pacino in "The Irishman").
The Guardian
The future of music: 'No one has anything positive to say about physically distanced gigs. At all'
by Kitty Empire
Lockdown livestreams and drive-in gigs may be flourishing, but small venues and artists will struggle in coming months.
Alan Licht News
Alan Licht's Minimal Top Ten List #4
by Alan Licht
Drastic reductions in people's way of life--the restriction of any activity outside the home to the bare essentials, the relative stasis of life in quarantine, even the visual stasis of a Zoom meeting--make revisiting Minimal music, with its aesthetic of working within limitations and hallmarks of repetition and drones, timely.
GQ
Why I Named My Son After Hardcore Punk Legend Henry Rollins
by Matthew Schnipper
Matthew Schnipper didn't love boyhood. Maybe the right name could give his newborn son a leg up.
MUSIC OF THE DAY
YouTube
"Hard Life"
Sault
The stunning transition halfway through this one. From "Untitled (Black Is)," out now on Forever Living Originals.
"REDEF is dedicated to my mother, who nurtured and encouraged my interest in everything and slightly regrets the day she taught me to always ask 'why?'"
@JasonHirschhorn


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