jason hirschhorn's @MusicREDEF: 02/02/2022 - Permission Protest Marketing, The Myth of J Dilla, Tupac Tug of War, Jewish Pop Songs, Poly Styrene...

Poly [Styrene] was one of the main influences on me to keep the spirit of punk alive as a Black person. She's constantly staring at me when I wake up in the morning. Open in browser Wednesday February 02, 2022 Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex at the Roundhouse, London, Jan. 15, 1978. (Gus Stewart/Redferns/Getty Images) quote of the day "Poly [Styrene] was one of the main influences on me to keep the spirit of punk alive as a Black person. She's constantly staring at me when I wake up in the morning." - Shamir, who has a Poly Styrene tattoo on one of his thighs rantnrave:// Magnified An underappreciated, perhaps, effect of NEIL YOUNG's SPOTIFY protest: It gives permission to artists who were ambivalent about Spotify anyway to make a move they might not otherwise have made. Case in point: "Until now," the rock band FAILURE wrote on Facebook Tuesday, "our ambivalence about Spotify has been based on their draconian royalty calculation which essentially gives artists a microscopic fraction of the money being generated by their music on the platform... But now, with Spotify's recent policy shift that allows COVID vaccine misinformation to thrive on their platform, Failure have decided that enough is enough." You may agree or disagree with Failure's characterization of what's going on at Spotify, but either way, a band that was looking for a reason to quit found one. A difficult decision for a band suddenly became an easy one. Also announcing their Spexits Tuesday were Young's sometime bandmate GRAHAM NASH, who "completely agree[s]" with Young, and INDIA ARIE, who has a different beef with Spotify podcaster JOE ROGAN than Young does but who followed the rock and roller's lead. "Neil Young," she wrote on Instagram, "opened a door that I MUST walk through." I think one of the reasons this story continues to demand our attention a week and a half after Young went public with his complaint is that it's struck a nerve that goes much deeper than issues of free speech, Covid and anyone's feelings about JOE ROGAN. Joe Rogan has plenty of defenders on both the left and the right, some of whom are wondering specifically whether he's the appropriate target for artists' and fans' anger at Spotify. I've read a few passionate essays suggesting the anti-Rogan crowd is blowing a chance to raise economic issues by focusing their anger on him. But they haven't gotten very far with those issues before, and he just might have given them cover to try again, this time through the back door. If this turns into a massive revolt against Spotify—and if you're asking me today, I'd argue it's more likely it won't, for a number of reasons—it may well be because while Joe Rogan was "just asking questions" about Covid-19 to guests with terrible answers, artists were continuing to get terrible answers of their own every time they looked at their royalty statements. Yo Joe Rogan, Podcast This If you you're thinking about canceling your Spotify subscription, here's a warning from JIM HARRINGTON at the Mercury News: "You'd think you could just open the app and find a little 'cancel' button to push, right? Nope. It's more along the lines of building a carburetor blindfolded while wearing mittens." This is not specifically a Spotify problem. This is an every subscription service on the internet problem. But that doesn't make it any less wrong. There oughta be a law. Etc Etc Etc WARNER MUSIC kicked off Black History Month by announcing it'll stop deducting unrecouped expenses from the royalties of heritage artists, meaning artists whose last advance from the label was before the year 2000. Those expenses are basically the student loans of the music industry and they've been a huge burden on older acts who signed bad contracts at a time when they had little or no leverage—especially Black artists, who were often offered less favorable contracts than their white peers. SONY MUSIC did the same last year—that announcement came in June, Black Music Month—and Music Business Worldwide and Variety reported that Universal will join them later this year. This is a direct result of the industry's Blackout Tuesday in June 2020, long in coming perhaps, but a good result... The two artists calling themselves LADY A have settled their long-running legal dispute, which also dates back to the social justice protests in summer 2020, when a few people realized "Antebellum" wasn't the kind of word you'd want to associate your band with. Terms of the out-of-court settlement weren't disclosed... My father, who died in November, is officially rolling in his grave for the first time on account of the absence of ALLAN SHERMAN from the Forward's list of the 150 greatest Jewish pop songs of all time. But otherwise, this provocative, readable, listenable list, which starts with BOB DYLAN and LEONARD COHEN (duh and duh'er) but is kvelling about METALLICA, PARLIAMENT and BILLIE HOLIDAY before it's done, is a wonderfully Talmudic take on what it even means for a song to be Jewish... The first three epsidoes of HULU's PAM & TOMMY miniseries drop today... And POLY STYRENE: I AM A CLICHÉ, a doc about the X-RAY SPEX singer co-directed by her daughter, CELESTE BELL, is in select theaters... CORRECTION: Agent SAM HUNT is at WASSERMAN MUSIC, not PARADIGM, as I mistakenly wrote in Tuesday's newsletter. Wasserman acquired Paradigm's North American music division last year. My apologies. Rest in Peace Chicago blues guitarist/singer JIMMY JOHNSON, who didn't record his first album until he was in his 50s and then never stopped. He was still playing live shows in his 90s. The older brother of soul singer Syl Johnson, he was "one of those great musicians whom you could identify by hearing just one note of his voice or one note of his guitar," Alligator Records founder Bruce Iglauer said... JON ZAZULA, who co-founded and ran the indie metal powerhouse Megaforce Records with his wife, Marsha. The Zazulas, beloved figures around metal and around New Jersey who originally bonded over a shared love of jazz, released Metallica's first two albums as well as key records by Anthrax, Testament, Overkill and many others. Marsha died in January 2021. "Heavy metal lost one of its great champions today," Metallica wrote... JON APPLETON, electronic composer and educator who was instrumental in the design of the Synclavier digital synthesizer in the 1970s... TOHRU "MONAMOUR" HIROSHIMA, drummer for Japanese hardcore band G.I.S.M.... Music publishing exec ALAN WARNER, who was also a music and film historian... Australian promoter GLENN WHEATLEY. - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator the day the world turned day-glo The Guardian 'I wish I could': why it's hard for smaller artists to boycott Spotify By Kyle Mullin The feud between major artists and Spotify has overlooked problems faced by those with less power and finances. The New York Times Behind Neil Young vs. Spotify, a Fraught Relationship With Musicians By Ben Sisario The rocker touched off a debate about free speech and the responsibility of tech platforms. How many artists will follow him, now that streaming dominates the business? The Ringer Reinventing the Myth of J Dilla By Justin Sayles Dan Charnas, the author of the new book 'Dilla Time,' discusses the life and work of the legendary hip-hop producer and why music journalism doesn't often allow for this kind of storytelling. Los Angeles Times A Tupac Shakur pop-up museum becomes focus of lawsuit over who owns its contents By Kenan Draughorne 'Wake Me When I'm Free' celebrates the life and art of Tupac Shakur. But Tupac's sister is suing the trustee of Shakur's estate over what's inside. Music x Why I don't believe in music royalty NFTs, yet By Bas Grasmayer I don't believe music royalty investing is a great value proposition for fans. Here are the four reasons why. The Forward The Forward's 150 greatest Jewish pop songs of all time By Seth Rogovoy Inspired in part by all the Jewish artists on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs, the Forward decided it was time to rank the best Jewish pop songs of all time.  The New York Times How Poly Styrene Broke the Mold By Jenn Pelly A biracial woman in a predominately white, male scene, the X-Ray Spex frontwoman brought fresh perspectives and sounds to punk. A new documentary explores her impact. Vulture The Many Lives of Janet Jackson By Shamira Ibrahim How many ways will her story be told without seeing the full picture? Dada Drummer Almanach The Big Short of Streaming By Damon Krukowski Spotify used the financial model of arbitrage to obtain a cheap if not free product – digital music – and resell it in a new context to realize profit. In other words, Spotify's profit requires that digital music have no value.  The Ringer Dollars to Donuts: The 40 Best J Dilla Songs of All Time, Ranked By Justin Sayles and Paul Thompson From the Pharcyde to Slum Village to the unreleased beat tapes, we dive deep into the catalog of one of the best producers to ever touch an MPC. warrior in woolworths Billboard One Year Later, Morgan Wallen Is Back -- But Is the Country Community Ready to Move On? By Melinda Newman After a racial slur threatened to derail his career, the industry wants to shift the focus away from the controversy, while some Black leaders say he missed an opportunity to educate fans. Pitchfork Big Thief on Learning to Loosen Up and Their Epic New 20-Track Album By Sam Sodomsky The indie stalwarts talk about embracing the uncool, maintaining their integrity, and how a dog inspired their imminent double LP. The Guardian Vice Media secretly organised $20m Saudi government festival By Jim Waterson Youth media company organised March 2020 event despite pledge to stop all work in Saudi Arabia. American Songwriter Touring While Black By Jacob Uitti Despite being part of a heralded, capable three-piece rock band, my wife often insists that I come along with the group whenever they go out on tour, so as to have someone with my complexion in the car at all times. I reached out to a number of other Black musicians to see what they might want to say about the subject on the record. Refinery29 It's Time We Pay Due To The Black Latinx Music Artists of Yesterday By Marjua Estevez Since the 1940s, Black musicians across Latin America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean have used their talents to celebrate, honor, and defend Black people and their African heritage. Los Angeles Times L.A. punk's house photographer remembers her best shots By Jim Ruland Melanie Nissen was there at the creation of L.A. punk and has the pictures to prove it. She talks about "Hard+Fast," a new collection of her photos. nippon.com Okuda Hiroko: The Casio Employee Behind the 'Sleng Teng' Riddim that Revolutionized Reggae By Hashino Yukinori The "Sleng Teng" riddim revolutionized reggae music in the mid-1980s, and has spawned hundreds of versions in the decades since then. Less well known is the story of how the distinctive bassline originated in a preset sample included on a Casio electronic keyboard and the work of a young developer fresh out of college. The New Yorker Animal Collective Captures the Strange Passage of Time By Amanda Petrusich On "Time Skiffs," the band conveys how both fleeting and endless our days can feel. KQED With Her Flute, Nicole Mitchell Opens Portals Into Afrofuturist Worlds By Andrew Gilbert In her music, Nicole Mitchell doesn't just envision alternate worlds where Black creativity and humanity can thrive. The virtuoso flutist has become a major force in jazz by presenting and recording utopian communions where musicians and poets (and sometimes dancers and visual artists) improvise and explore together. GEN Spotify-Like Protests Are the Future of Online Protests By Will Leitch If you can't hit their heart, hit their ears. what we're into Music of the day "Identity" X-Ray Spex "Identity is the crisis / Can't you see?" From "Germfree Adolescents" (1978). Video of the day "Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché" Celeste Bell and Paul Sng The documentary on the late X-Ray Spex singer, co-directed by her daughter, is in theaters today. 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