One of the worst things you can do to somebody is get really close to who they are and then present them with something that’s close to what they want but not quite there. You don’t want to be the people who say, ‘Well, you like Fleet Foxes, so you must like Mumford & Sons.’ | | | | | Calvin Harris, Austin, Texas, 2014. (Ralph Arvesen) | | | | |  | “One of the worst things you can do to somebody is get really close to who they are and then present them with something that’s close to what they want but not quite there. You don’t want to be the people who say, ‘Well, you like Fleet Foxes, so you must like Mumford & Sons.’”
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| | rantnrave:// The good news is that the world's biggest subscription services, which are slowly but steadily taking over the music business, are trying to free music from the normal constraints of genre. The bad news is that they're trying to do so with playlists with titles like "Blogged Pop Party." REGGIE UGWU goes "Inside the Playlist Factory" in a fantastic feature for BUZZFEED that shows, in almost uncomfortable detail, how music curation works at APPLE, GOOGLE and SPOTIFY, and who's behind it (fewer than 100 full-time playlist curators at the three companies combined, by the way, which is not even close to adequate. Staff up and diversify, please)... I refuse to take sides in, participate in, or pay attention to, the TAYLOR SWIFT vs. CALVIN HARRIS ETC. war... Dear dude in the TENORS who pulled that #AllLivesMatter stunt before the MLB All-Star Game: Congratulations on disrespecting the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the CANADIAN national anthem and your bandmates all in the space of 12 seconds... As a direct rebuttal to that, here's UCLA professor SHANA L. REDMOND writing movingly on JAY Z's "SPIRITUAL." And HANIF WILLIS-ABDURRAQIB on NELLY and the COLUMBUS (OHIO) SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA... RIP STEVEN YOUNG of COLOURBOX and M/A/A/R/S. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | BuzzFeed |
| At the most powerful companies in Silicon Valley, small teams of anonymous, hardcore music fans race to solve the record industry’s toughest problem. | | |
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 | Pacific Standard |
| When prosecutors introduce song lyrics as evidence of crime, defense lawyers call the University of Richmond’s Erik Nielson, a rap expert who helps juries understand the difference between art and life. | | |
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 | The Stranger |
| On September 27, 1997, Jason and I had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. We were in our mid-20s, both college graduates who didn't want to get real jobs like all of our friends had. So we opened a record store. | | |
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 | NPR |
| In Jay Z's latest song, released last week after the shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, no amount of wealth or prestige allows him to forget that he is a black man, under threat. | | |
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 | Thump |
| Before Girl Talk and the major label lawsuits, John Oswald's plunderphonic records proved sampling's possibilities. | | |
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 | Google Public Policy Blog |
| This report describes Google's efforts to fight online piracy and shares stories of how Google's products and services create opportunities for creators around the world while also taking a firm stance against those who misuse our services for copyright infringement.. | | |
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 | Pitchfork |
| By trying to keep their music exclusively on wax, are underground electronic music’s vinyl devotees being righteous or elitist? | | |
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 | Consequence of Sound |
| Charting punk’s proud tradition of exposing presidential bulls***. | | |
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 | Noisey |
| In the last couple years, Woods has quietly become a staple in the Chicago music scene, working alongside artists like Chance the Rapper and Saba while slowly piecing together her own 13-song solo debut "Heavn." | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| They waited three hours, sometimes in driving rain, to ascend to the fifth floor of a parking garage in Miami Beach. It was the Fourth of July weekend, but the lines went down the block. The promised land was a glass box aerie filled with Justin Bieber-branded T-shirts, sweatshirts and hats. | | |
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 | Cuepoint |
| As fans of Prince, Bowie, Lemmy (and many more) confront music mortality, industry innovators revitalize the legacies of deceased artists. | | |
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 | The Ringer |
| YG and Schoolboy Q continue a long tradition. | | |
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| Thump |
| Marathon DJ sets are nothing new in the world of dance music. Selectors like Markus Schulz, Ben Klock, Danny Tenaglia, and countless others have made names for themselves over the years by slamming down sets that extend well past the 10-hour mark. But what about the idea of playing a set that lasts ten whole days? | | |
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 | Heavy Blog Is Heavy |
| Being a writer who's primary focus has been punk music (and associated subgenres) has been somewhat of an interesting experience. On one hand, I have been allowed to write about the music I love, hearing a vast array of new and exciting artists that are constantly innovating and taking the genre to new places. | | |
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 | Forbes |
| Millennials prefer streaming a lot more than radio, unlike their parents. | | |
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 | MTV News |
| In a week of pain and loss, the Midwest rapper delivered a much-needed spectacle | | |
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 | Magnetic Magazine |
| The legendary short story of the rarest breed in music, and where you can find them. | | |
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 | Okayplayer |
| This is part two of our series involving the Weaponization of Hip-Hop. What is that, you ask? It is how hip-hop-from the artists to those involved in other aspects of the culture-can be used to directly spread truths that have been suppressed by the mainstream media and give a voice to the voiceless. | | |
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| Pitchfork |
| Without us quite noticing, the '70s have carved out as exalted a place in the pop-music canon as the '60s. And in many ways, their wide-ranging masterpieces-from punk and disco to proto hip-hop and heavy metal-speak more powerfully to the present than the highlights of any other decade in the 20th century. | | |
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 | Classic FM |
| There is a theory that the soon-to-be-former PM is actually humming the opening of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony – of which more here. | | |
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 | via YouTube |
| | | | Calvin Harris ft. Rihanna |
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