jason hirschhorn's @MusicREDEF: 04/26/2022 - Country Discomfort, Kacey at the Bat, Documenting Hip-Hop History, Megan Thee Stallion, King Gizzard...

Music is the pinnacle of human expression... There is nothing to touch music. Perhaps this is why in medieval stone carvings the angels are playing instruments rather than making coffee or watching television. Open in browser Tuesday April 26, 2022 Arooj Aftab at Coachella, April 22, 2022. (Scott Dudelson/Getty Images) quote of the day "Music is the pinnacle of human expression... There is nothing to touch music. Perhaps this is why in medieval stone carvings the angels are playing instruments rather than making coffee or watching television." - Roger Eno rantnrave:// Country Discomfort Wait, is this true? "You don't see a lot of country songs in commercials," LARRY MESTEL, founder and CEO of music publisher/investor PRIMARY WAVE, told correspondent KELEFA SANNEH on CBS SUNDAY MORNING. Mestel, who's in a position to know these things, was reeling off the genres his company is interested in. "Classic rock. Urban. We do jazz. We do soul." In the past, he's described the company's core strategy as acquiring "comfort music," an approach he says has served Primary Wave well during the pandemic. The company's holdings include stakes in the catalogs of JAMES BROWN, BOB MARLEY, PRINCE, NIRVANA, WHITNEY HOUSTON and STEVIE NICKS. But, a recent deal with MARTINA MCBRIDE notwithstanding, "we don't typically do a lot of country music," Mestel told Sanneh. Sticking to what you know makes sense. Letting Nashville publishers and investors take the lead on acquiring and monetizing country catalogs makes sense. But are America's advertisers really steering clear of the traditional* music of the American heartland? Does that make sense? Do GARTH and REBA and GEORGE and SHANIA and DOLLY and LORETTA not have the commercial staying power of Primary Wave's triple-A threat of AEROSMITH, AIR SUPPLY and AMERICA? Is there no comfort in country? I'm not offering answers today, just asking questions. Genuinely curious! Does country not translate outside its region, a region that covers a fairly huge swath of America? Is country a giant bubble? Is everybody else living in a giant bubble? Hmmm. (The asterisk next to "traditional" in the above graf is intentional. Jazz and blues are also traditional musics of the American heartland. As are rock and hip-hop and Latin music. I'm using "traditional" there in the sense of how America tends to perceive and talk about its own traditions, in the broadest sense. Beyond that, the history is complicated and wonderful.) Kacey at the Bat The country industry, of course, has its own strange history of investing in its own music. Rolling Stone has a fantastic excerpt from MARISSA R. MOSS' upcoming HER COUNTRY: HOW THE WOMEN OF COUNTRY MUSIC BECAME THE SUCCESS THEY WERE NEVER SUPPOSED TO BE. The chapter-length excerpt focuses on KACEY MUSGRAVES' tireless attempts to introduce herself to radio programmers in advance of her major-label debut, especially at the 2012 COUNTRY RADIO SEMINAR, where she stunned a room of strangers into silence, followed by a standing ovation from "rows and rows of crinkled chinos and checkered shirts." And then... "crickets" from the radio dial itself. Because, well, read the title of Moss' book again. The answer lay within. Etc Etc Etc Billboard's International Power Players... Mail-order vinyl club VINYL ME, PLEASE is building a pressing plant in Denver. The company says the 14,000-square-foot space, expected to open by the end of this year, will produce audiophile-grade vinyl and will be an "experiential space" designed with visitors in mind. GARY SALSTROM, formerly GM of QUALITY RECORD PRESSINGS in Salinas, Kan., will oversee the operation... And here's a mouth-watering collection of vintage Japanese portable record players to play that vinyl on, if you can track one down. The NATIONAL company's SO-111N model came with a built-in 23-key piano for anyone who might want to play along, while COLUMBIA offered a matching set of portable record players and a portable mixer for aspiring portable DJs... The UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO is inviting non-students to audit its summer semester course on "SELENA: A Mexican American Identity & Experience"... BAD BUNNY announced the name of his next album in a classified ad for a 2019 Bugatti Chiron. The asking price for the car, if it in fact exists, is $3.5 million. The album, UN VERANO SIN TI (A SUMMER WITHOUT YOU), presumably will be available, later this year, for a little less. Also, he's becoming a movie star. Rest in Peace Longtime Earth, Wind & Fire saxophonist ANDREW WOOLFOLK II. - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator billion dollar babies Rolling Stone That Time Kacey Musgraves Wowed Nashville -- But Still Didn't Get Played on the Radio By Marissa R. Moss In this excerpt from her book "Her Country: How the Women of Country Music Became the Success They Were Never Supposed to Be," Marissa R. Moss places the reader in the chaotic midst of Country Radio Seminar, the annual Nashville gathering of radio gatekeepers, where a then-unknown Kacey Musgraves is about to take the stage.  Okayplayer Sacha Jenkins on the Importance of Documenting Hip-Hip's History By Rashad D. Grove We caught up with Sacha Jenkins and spoke about the power of storytelling, helming the Mass Appeal's #HipHop50 initiative on Showtime, and the importance of documenting hip-hop culture.  Chain Reaction ‎Chain Reaction: Crypto's music man on how NFTs could shake up the recording industry (w/ 3LAU) By Lucas Matney, Anita Ramaswamy and Justin Blau In our inaugural episode, we interview electronic DJ and Royal CEO Justin Blau on where the NFT industry moves beyond pricey JPEGs. Desert Sun Coachella 2022: COVID-19 still a concern for festivalgoers, though most go sans mask By Ema Sasic Face masks were not a popular accessory either weekend, but a minority of festivalgoers still donned them en route to concerts or while in crowds. Variety Coachella Artists Went on a Fender Bender Thanks to Guitar Company's Rebrand Push By Michele Amabile Angermiller and Jeff Miller While Fender has long been favored by older musicians, the company has made great efforts, and gains, into attracting not just a younger audience, but a female one. CBS Mornings Megan Thee Stallion on 2020 shooting By Gayle King and Megan Thee Stallion Megan Thee Stallion tells Gayle King about being shot by rapper Tory Lanez and the aftermath of the 2020 incident. She says she still has bullet fragments in a foot and remains traumatized. Lanez has pleaded not guilty to assault and weapons charges. NPR Music Her Voice Is In The Air By Ann Powers The Brazilian singer Flora Purim helped create the sound of jazz fusion. Now, as she releases what she says will be her final album, it's time to give her artistic legacy its due. Billboard Grammys on the Hill: The 4 Policy Priorities Being Pushed at This Year's Advocacy Event By Robert Levine Radio royalties, streaming payouts, cultural exchange and tax deductions for recording costs are all being stressed at this year's D.C. gathering. SPIN King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard Keep Getting Bigger, And They're as Surprised as Anyone By Jonathan Cohen The Australian rock band is often dinged its at times unbelievable level of recorded output — 20 studio albums since 2012, including five in 2017 alone. But as the group's catalog grows, so does its worldwide audience, which is poised to make 2022 the biggest year in Gizzard history. No Bells New Orleans rap is weathering the storm By Millan Verma and Nigel Washington Over a decade after peak Wayne, New Orleans rap is having a renaissance. From Rob49 to Neno Calvin, here are some of the city's new talents. super rich kids Pitchfork The 20 Best Punk Movies By Simon Reynolds A guide that runs the gamut from essential historical documents to thrilling fables of disobedience. The Guardian Cynthia Plaster Caster: the artist whose rock star penis sculptures asked big questions about manhood​ By Kate Hutchinson The 74-year-old artist, who died last week, turned the tables on rock musicians with her notorious plaster casts ‐- and complicated the image of the groupie. The Cadence What These Metaverse Websites Are Trying To Telling You Understanding the language of Web3 and the metaverse can be challenging, even for the most clued-in music and media professionals. Music Ally Music advertising has a streaming attribution problem By Adrian Burger Adrian Burger, founder of creative management agency Lafter, argues that the streaming of digital products via digital ads has not only proven difficult to measure – but that there's also a mistaken assumption that clicks lead to streams.  Variety Rising Artists Who Rocked Coachella: Get to Know Holly Humberstone, Wallows and Jean Dawson By Ellise Shafer With over 150 artists performing, the desert-based fest can be a haven for music discovery, introducing smaller acts to a wide cross-section of fans from all over the music taste spectrum and possibly launching them into the mainstream. KQED As Mask Wearing Dwindles, Touring Musicians Left to Fend for Themselves By Nastia Voynovskaya "Artists don't make a ton. ... If they do get sick, it can be a crisis," says Oakland rapper Lateef the Truthspeaker. Trapital How TikTok's Evolution Can Help Artists Grow By Dan Runcie The overwhelming narrative is that the "party is ending" since it's now tougher to grow on TikTok because the hyper-growth moment has passed. But TikTok's next stage of TikTok is where the flash-in-the-pan stories fade and the real businesses emerge. Billboard Music Business Association President on the Conference's In-Person Return By Eric Renner Brown Portia Sabin discusses the organization's flagship conference, along with the top issues facing her membership. The Guardian I love an LP, but spare me the Vinyl Snob going on like a broken record By Barbara Ellen Just what is it about a day celebrating music stores that sets off those who fetishise format over pleasure? what we're into Music of the day "twitterloser" AviT Video of the day "We Are the Best!" Lukas Moodysson Stockholm calling: Lukas Moodysson's 2012 feature about a trio of 13-year-old girls who form a punk band in 1982 Sweden. 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