There is no law that says metal music is not allowed or it is prohibited in Syria, but because of the people, the authorities began to arrest metalheads. And then it became a thing: automatically when someone from the government met a metalhead, they would be questioned or held. | | Young Thug at V-103 Winterfest in Atlanta, December 2016. (Paras Griffin/Getty Images) | | | | “There is no law that says metal music is not allowed or it is prohibited in Syria, but because of the people, the authorities began to arrest metalheads. And then it became a thing: automatically when someone from the government met a metalhead, they would be questioned or held.” |
| |
| rantnrave:// If you haven’t been paying close attention to who curates those trending and heritage music playlists you subscribe to, you might be interested to find out they’re not all made by the SPOTIFY curation team or by Spotify users. Several are tended by marketing companies owned by the three major label groups, who use their access to Spotify's algorithms and ad inventory (see also: sponsored song ad units) to market their artists. LIZ PELLY breaks down the secret lives of playlists, including how the relationships between the major labels and Spotify work, what their access is like, and how Spotify tests developing artists and new tracks. Frankly, it sounds similar to how major label relationships with radio, MTV and similar outlets have worked for years. But those are lay-back technologies that need to be curated, while streaming services have the ability to be both lay-back and lean-in for more knowledgeable, engaged customers. The internet was going to bring us democracy, but capitalism doesn’t exist in a void. It’s an age-old story: As soon as streaming money became a powerful source of revenue for labels (shout out to TAYLOR SWIFT, who apparently made over $400K on streaming last week), they wanted to get as much control as they could over the technology... Tributes to PRODIGY of MOBB DEEP continued rolling in Wednesday. If you only read one, make it TOURE’S for THE DAILY BEAST, in which he examines how the man’s upbringing on the crack-addled streets of Queens influenced his style... Shout out to NPR for coining the term roséwave, which is just chillwave for middle-aged WHOLE FOODS shoppers like myself. I’ll be listening to this playlist while getting my basic on all summer long (and I have almost no shame about it)... Everyone who wrote up SNOOP DOGG’s send up of YOUNG THUG as hilarious, drop what you’re doing and read BEN BEAUMONT-THOMAS’s take for THE GUARDIAN, then think about how Snoop decided it was okay to be homophobic during Pride Month. It’s far from representative of hip-hop as a whole. | | - Courtney E. Smith, guest curator |
|
| The next wave of hip-hop artists are using Instagram to subvert a changing landscape. | |
|
Imagining the 100th anniversary festival, after decades of severe climate change. | |
|
Discussions with artists about insurance, the Affordable Care Act, and the proposed Republican plan’s potential impact on their lives and work. | |
|
In an excerpt from "Rock in a Hard Place," a book about extreme music in the Middle East, the history of metal at the time of the revolution in Syria is examined. | |
|
Producer Mark Trombino recalls the sessions for the pop-punk landmark. | |
|
Not all Spotify playlists are created equally. To begin understanding this, look at them closely. Literally. | |
|
Google Play's new playlist is supposed to be a Samsung exclusive, but there's a workaround to access it from other devices. | |
|
The Queensbridge MC passed away at the age of 42, but his life and legacy won’t soon be forgotten. | |
|
Released for the first time this year, Monk's spirited musical contributions to the 1959 French film Les Liaisons Dangereuses expand listeners' understanding of his creative genius. | |
|
Today’s news of multi-million streams and six-digit revenues, may help put any discussion of the rationale behind Swift's return to streaming to rest. | |
| An argument for the iconic album's greatness for its 20th anniversary. | |
|
National anthems are among the most regularly heard and instantly recognisable pieces of music of all, so why have virtually none been written by well-known composers? | |
|
Kip Moore has announced his new album 'Slowheart,' a record that he says was born by letting the "music make itself." | |
|
INRUSSIA give us an exclusive insight into their new book, a chronicle of the 90s ravers that sprung up in post-Soviet St. Petersburg. | |
|
After it was revealed that Donald Trump’s attorney Jay Sekulow plays in a rock band, we got thinking of some other politicos who’ve been known to jam out | |
|
Two months after Spotify added a bot inside Facebook's wildly popular Messenger app, helping users search and share songs, the music streaming service is making it easy for friends to collaborate on new playlists, all while chatting. | |
|
No country in Europe has so successfully assimilated jazz into its musical history as France. We pick 17 records that capture the essence of French jazz. | |
|
In an effort to make a fresh start, Dailymotion announced today that it is reinventing its video platform with a narrower focus and a new premium service that features quality over users' videos. | |
|
As the voice of The Mountain Goats, John Darnielle has long been a master songwriter. But on his band's two most recent albums he's displayed a one-of-a-kind skill: expressing the beauty of deep subcultures via musical styles that don't naturally mesh with said subcultures. | |
|
Back in 2002, Coachella was a baby festival, Lollapalooza had yet to re-emerge as a big-ticket event and destination music fests were still the domain of the Europeans. But a handful of music promoters thought they could bring some of that European festival atmosphere to the American South. | |
| © Copyright 2017, The REDEF Group | | |