I don't think there can ever be too much love. Those of us in the music community are very lucky, because not only can we present harmony in the sense of chord structures, we can show a kind of harmony between people, show them that we can and must live life in true harmony. | | | | Happy Valentine's Day from Bey and Jay.
(Kevin Mazur/Getty Images) | | | | | | “I don't think there can ever be too much love. Those of us in the music community are very lucky, because not only can we present harmony in the sense of chord structures, we can show a kind of harmony between people, show them that we can and must live life in true harmony.”
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| | rantnrave:// Twelve years after a major fire at a UNIVERSAL MUSIC warehouse on the UNIVERSAL STUDIOS lot that hardly anyone talked about in public for 11 years, the record company has publicly acknowledged for the first time, in court filings, 19 artists who lost master recordings or multitrack tapes in the blaze. Among them: NIRVANA, SOUNDGARDEN, REM, ELTON JOHN, LES PAUL and SLAYER. UMG says it received inquiries from 392 artists after the NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE reported last year that master recordings for as many as half a million songs, many of them cultural treasures, could have been destroyed. The label, which has disputed much of the Times' reporting, says that so far it's been able to tell 165 of those artists what was and wasn't lost 12 years ago. The research has involved 79 people and cost $1.4 million, and no doubt has been hampered by this detail noted in UMG's court filing: "Much of the contemporaneous record of the... vault’s assets at the time of the fire was itself destroyed in the fire." And you wonder why the metadata on millions of tracks in the digital music universe is riddled with errors and omissions. You may also wonder about the work of artists beyond the 392 who've thought to ask. Today, Feb. 14, for example, you may be curious about the classic recording of "MY FUNNY VALENTINE" by CHET BAKER with the GERRY MULLIGAN QUARTET. Citing internal company documents, the Times' JODY ROSEN reported last June that Baker and Mulligan were both among hundreds of artists who UMG believed suffered losses in the fire. Does their "My Funny Valentine," in its original form, still exist? Is it possible we'll never know? HOWARD KING, a lawyer representing artists in a class action against the label, doesn't buy its assessment of its own inventory. He tells ROLLING STONE the difference between what Universal told insurers a decade ago and what it's saying now is "inexplicable." (If he were Chet Baker, maybe he'd call it laughable.) One of King's clients is the estate of Soundgarden, which lost two half-inch stereo masters of material from its album BADMOTORFINGER in the fire. The label says it has digital copies or other backups of most of what was lost, and notes that, long after the fire, it was able to release a remastered version of "Badmotorfinger," working from a DAT safety copy. Whether it sounds the same as what a remastered version from those original masters would have sounded like—or better, or worse—is a question for audiophiles that may never be satisfactorily answered. Is "RUSTY CAGE" a little more rusty than it used to be? Could it somehow be less rusty? Can a digital facsimile of your favorite work of art still make you smile with your heart?... UMG may have other things on its mind right now: Like going public in the next three years... With subtle crescendos, some more implied than actual, and references to classic source material swirling around its edges, BILLIE EILISH's "NO TIME TO DIE," released Thursday night, is as much a commentary on JAMES BOND themes as it is an actual James Bond theme. It also may be the best Bond theme in many, many cinematic moons, and VARIETY's CHRIS WILLMAN gets why... Ticket touts guilty of fraud... Was JAMES BROWN murdered?... Can a NICK HORNBY book about awkward British music snobs that was turned into a JOHN CUSACK movie about awkward Chicago music snobs successfully be translated to a TV series set in Brooklyn with a woman named Robin replacing that dude named Rob behind the CHAMPIONSHIP VINYL cash register? HIGH FIDELITY, described by VULTURE's JEN CHANEY as "a great cover of the original," launches today on HULU... It's Friday and that means new music from TAME IMPALA, JUSTIN BIEBER, MOSES BOYD, MONSTA X, A BOOGIE WIT DA HOODIE, CARLY PEARCE, HUEY LEWIS & THE NEWS, MHYSA, KVELERTAK, TURIA, NATHANIEL RATELIFF, JAKE SHIMABUKURO, BOOSIE BADAZZ & MO3, FETTY WAP, CINDY LEE, the MEN, SUMMER CAMP, KATIE GATELY, MARLO, DRAMA, CURTIS ROACH, CHE' NOIR, TINK, TAMI NEILSON, PUSS N BOOTS, the THIRD MIND, CINDY LEE, TENNIS, BEACH BUNNY, MUSH, $UICIDEBOY$, HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD, HIGHLY SUSPECT, SUICIDE SILENCE, EYELIDS and BARRY MANILOW. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| The industry’s biggest frenemy has always helped break acts like rising rap star Roddy Ricch. Now it’s signing up more subscribers and bringing in serious revenue - and finally winning over some label executives. | | |
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| The path to a Grammy has long been opaque, even to the music industry - but since former Recording Academy CEO Deborah Dugan alleged rampant voter corruption, everyone’s been more confused. Here’s what insiders tell us about it. | | |
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| In the age of digitization and streaming, film scoring allows artists to stake their creative agency and make money in the process. | | |
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| Works by Soundgarden, R.E.M., Jimmy Eat World, and others were also lost in the 2008 blaze | | |
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| On Valentine’s Day in 1970, David Mancuso hosted a private party that turned his downtown loft into a crucial part of dance-music history. | | |
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| A sweeping look at rock’s most misunderstood genre. | | |
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| As the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property undertakes its review of the DMCA’s provisions related to the responsibilities of internet platforms, it is essential to recall the observations made by Chairman Tillis a few months ago. | | |
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| Chen of K-pop boy band EXO took the band's devoted fans by surprise last month with the announcement that he is set to marry his pregnant girlfriend. Many fans supported Chen's straightforwardness in breaking the news about his personal life and defended celebrities' right to privacy, but many others were annoyed by the sudden decision. | | |
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| Eilish's quiet contribution to the canon goes dark and lets us ponder what happens to a superspy's emotions when the party's over. | | |
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| The Malian artist Ballaké Sissoko says US border officials broke his cherished kora. He’s not alone in his plight. | | |
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| | | red roses for a blue lady |
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| The author on why Hulu’s gender-flipped series based on his music-superfandom novel speaks to a contemporary audience: “It’s about people who aren’t like you, too” | | |
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| As a writer it's about building a valuable catalog. It's the collection of all the parts over the years... As long as you have credit on songs that are meaningful and that get cut and become hits, there's real money there. | | |
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| The hit song by Tones and I started as a sensation on the streets of Australia before reaching No. 1 in 20 countries and topping 1 billion plays on Spotify. See how it was made. | | |
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| Digging up TikTok’s hidden gems. | | |
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| Black creators were helping shape country music long before it had a name, whether it was introducing the banjo to America, building a corpus of gospel songs that rang down through the centuries, or spreading musical styles too alluring for white musicians not to copy or build on. | | |
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| The creator and star of 'Insecure' always knew she was a boss. With her own music company, she’s taking a new industry by storm. | | |
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| As Tame Impala prepare to release their fourth full-length, The Slow Rush, Grant Sharples breaks down how Kevin Parker evolved from psych-rocker to pop songwriter. | | |
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| The making of a London jazz record - "it’s not just an understanding, but a lived experience.” | | |
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| Clubs tell parliament that without protection, gentrification threatens their existence. | | |
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| Lin-Manuel Miranda's hip-hop musical has made timely efforts to maximize its IP, and teamed with Disney to (inevitably) take it to the next level. | | |
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