Please, God, for the love of God and f***ing democracy, vote. | | | | Today, in a word: Demi Lovato at the Billboard Music Awards, Los Angeles, October 2020.
(Christopher Polk/NBCUniversal/Getty Images) | | | | | | “Please, God, for the love of God and f***ing democracy, vote.”
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| | rantnrave:// Hi. It's Tuesday. Election Day in America. If you've already voted, I wish you a peaceful, easy day. If you're voting today, I wish you the same. That's today's rantnrave. Below is a mix of stories about the sound of America's swing states, a portrait of the music that has filled the ears, and the air, of the people and places most likely to tip the scales today, from the bluegrass heritage of North Carolina to the techno pulse of Detroit, Michigan; from the Mormon rockers of Las Vegas, Nevada, to a Mexican American musical pioneer from Arizona. The soundtrack of America. Or, at least, *a* soundtrack of America... Music industry issues at stake in the election: big tech, consent decrees, TIKTOK (paywall)... More issues: pandemic relief, copyright, arts funding... Record execs and their employees "aren't donating to the same political candidates"... MusicSET: "Pop the Vote 2020"... RIP PHIL K... MusicREDEF is taking a day off to listen and process. We'll be back in your inbox Thursday morning. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| "It was easy to love Mac, because Mac seemed to love himself, and he reminded us of us." | | |
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| We travel to Philly with the visionary rapper and drive around her old haunts as she tells us about her creative upbringing and why she never follows the crowd. | | |
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| On a tour through his Midwestern hometown, Justin Vernon kicks back and talks about how Bon Iver isn’t just a rock band--it’s a creative sanctuary, a battle against ego, a collective catharsis. | | |
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| Milwaukee Journal Sentinel |
| From Bon Iver to Butch Vig, Les Paul to Hildegarde, 25 Wisconsin natives whose collective legacy has made a mark on the music we listened to, and still listen to. | | |
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| How a homegrown artform took over the world. | | |
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| At this moment, the Detroit rap underground is the best environment in rap music. | | |
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| The state is home to many musical worlds, as well as virtues that have inspired the likes of Doc and Merle Watson, Carolina Chocolate Drops, James Taylor and rapper Petey Pablo. | | |
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| Once upon a time, around the middle of the 20th century, there was music in the mountains that run from Georgia up through the Carolinas, into Kentucky and beyond – a high and lonesome sound that reflected the lives of hard-working people who had to be strong to survive. | | |
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| Few artists are as yoked to one place as Gloria and Emilio Estefan, who have lived only in South Florida since arriving from Cuba. "It's as close as we can be to our roots, and still live in this magnificent country with its freedom and its beauty," says Gloria. | | |
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| Deicide, Death, Morbid Angel, Obituary and more tell the story of one of heavy music's most game-changing movements | | |
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| Taking a road trip with the singer through southern Arizona and northern Mexico, a region where her roots run deep. | | |
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| He pioneered Mexican music in the Southwest and beyond, writing hundreds of songs in multiple genres, including the classics "Canción Mexicana" and "Nunca Jamás. " "He was the clock of the Chicanos in America," says documentarian Dan Buckley, "and he was always on time." | | |
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| I didn’t fully understand or feel inspired by Grandmama’s stank or freshness until I heard the albums ATLiens and Aquemini from those Georgia-based artists called OutKast. | | |
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| The Atlanta superstar rose to fame as a street-hardened rapper. For his next act, he wants to save the neighborhood that could've killed him. | | |
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| Two years ago, the Columbus, Ohio, band unexpectedly broke out big with the anxiety anthems of “Blurryface.” Can they keep doing things their own way in the face of mass success? | | |
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| And whether you realize it or not, the legendarily outrageous, endlessly enthusiastic, sartorially sensational godfather of funk is unquestionably the Queen City’s musical ambassador. | | |
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| What Arthur Russell was doing was evoking the feeling of what it is like to come from a place composed half of pain and half of love. The feeling of aching while dancing. Of standing in a thick field of corn and looking north and west and east and south and seeing only corn, and feeling, oddly, like you're on some sort of precipice, like you have to jump and like you also want to sink back into the stalks, be swallowed up. | | |
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| Before Corey Taylor, there were dead birds, duct tape and self-released album "Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat." | | |
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| Prince may have been a one-in-a-million talent, but he was also the product of multiple Minneapolis neighborhoods. | | |
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| Lizzo came to Minneapolis as an indie rapper and left to become a world-conquering music star and personality. Her friends and collaborators tell the story of how Lizzo made her career and image here. (Apparently, at one point, Lizzo was... shy?!) | | |
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| Childhood Mormonism is the tie that binds all three of the Vegas-bred pop bands that became international stars so far this century. The Vegas church is where you would have found the child versions of Brandon Flowers (from the Killers), Dan Reynolds (Imagine Dragons) and Brendon Urie (Panic! At The Disco). | | |
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| Not so long ago, a Las Vegas residency meant your career was in the can. Now everyone from Drake to Lady Gaga is fighting for a spot. What happened? | | |
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| At the inaugural Astroworld festival in Houston, Travis Scott proved he’s the city's glue-and a new caliber of rap star. | | |
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| In 1972 the Austin music scene exploded with a new, rootsy form of country that turned its back on Nashville and embraced the counterculture. Forty years later, Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Michael Martin Murphey, and a host of other cosmic cowboys and redneck rockers remember the birth of outlaw country. | | |
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| | | | | | | "Eagle's calling and he's calling your name." |
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