In my life, music is more necessary than it’s perhaps ever been. Music is how you explain yourself. It’s how you respond to things in terrible times, how you exorcise those demons. And music is how you can celebrate the ability to stand back up on your feet. It was mandatory to play more and to play louder. | | | | Lil Yachty fans soaking it up at Camp Flog Gnaw, Los Angeles, Oct. 29, 2017.
(Frazer Harrison/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “In my life, music is more necessary than it’s perhaps ever been. Music is how you explain yourself. It’s how you respond to things in terrible times, how you exorcise those demons. And music is how you can celebrate the ability to stand back up on your feet. It was mandatory to play more and to play louder.”
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| | rantnrave:// So, um, yeah, CHARLES MANSON made some music. You probably know this. You may have bought that CD at some point in your life. I did. I was young. I was curious. Rock critics made me curious. All those covers of "CEASE TO EXIST" and "YOUR HOME IS WHERE YOU'RE HAPPY" and—you really don't want to know how many bands covered Manson, unless you already do, in which case you still may not want to know—made me curious. The CD, one of a number of reissues of LIE that came out over the years, is currently in a box in a storage closet with hundreds of other unloved discs by artists starting with the letters M or N. It's not as good as contrarians back then wanted you to think, and not as terrible as revisionists now need you to think. It's the early, unrealized work of a mediocre singer-songwriter. That's it. At least that's how I remember it. Don't think I've heard it in 20-plus years. Don't need to. Don't want to. Where do you draw the line? Do you draw a line? In this season of BRAND NEW's years-in-the-making rise and fall, XXXTENTACION's controversial stardom and R. KELLY's re-emergence as a horrible human, along with everything else happening in HOLLYWOOD, WASHINGTON and beyond, this is a good time to ask ourselves, again, is it OK to listen? Is there any reason to listen? Can bad people make good art? Is it possible that making art is exactly what they should be doing? Are there lessons to learn from their art? Can beauty be found there? I should pause here to point out the obvious: No one mentioned, or alluded to, in this rantnrave is nearly as awful a person as Charles Manson was. There is no equivalence. The universes are different. And yet the questions we might ask ourselves are similar: Is it still cool to listen to "IGNITION (REMIX)" after all we know, now, in 2017? Do you keep listening to Brand New's acclaimed 2017 album or do you book an appointment to have your old Brand New tattoo covered up? Is it OK to listen to the music, whether for professional reasons or out of curiosity, if you know the artist isn't getting any royalties? Is it worse if he or she is? (All royalties from Manson's music, for what it's worth, have gone to families of his victims.) Would you find a free, illegal MP3 just to check it out but not listen on YOUTUBE? Would you listen on YouTube but not on SPOTIFY? Would you listen on SPOTIFY but not buy an MP3? Do economics even have a place in this discussion? Do time and distance make a difference? Can you excuse a country singer's 1980s crimes more than you can excuse an R&B singer's recent crimes? How are you feeling about JAMES BROWN these days? Or MORRISSEY? What would you do if you, like TRENT REZNOR, ran into Manson victim SHARON TATE's sister sometime after recording one of your most acclaimed albums in the house where she was murdered, which you had decided to call LE PIG? "When she was talking to me, I realized for the first time: ‘What if it was my sister?.’" Reznor later said. "I thought: ‘F*** Charlie Manson.’" What will you do if you don't run into Sharon Tate's sister?... TAYLOR SWIFT's first-week sales: 1.2 million. Tenth-biggest week in NIELSEN SOUNDSCAN history... A BILLY JOEL concert will be a terrorist target in the THANKSGIVING DAY episode of ARROW. The ep will feature actual Joel concert footage... RIP DELLA REESE, LUIS BACALOV, WARREN "PETE" MOORE and STEVE DAHL. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | Pitchfork |
| A list of 20 urgent tracks that spoke truth to power this year. | | |
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 | The Guardian |
| The cult leader has inspired thoughtful works of art and literary novels but is more often used as a hackneyed shortcut to outrage. Why the fascination with a white supremacist and misogynist who masterminded the murder of seven people? | | |
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 | The Outline |
| Brand New’s Jesse Lacey is the most famous emo musician to be outed as an abuser. His world is long overdue for a reckoning. | | |
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 | Vulture |
| Reels of tape are constantly crossing the graffitied threshold of the House of Soul, a Bushwick rowhouse that has been home to Daptone Records' studio since 2003. Daptone's co-owner, producer, and bandleader of the Dap-Kings, Gabriel Roth, has his own studio close to his home in Riverside, California. | | |
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 | MusicAlly |
| The summer of 2017 is a receding memory, but July’s controversy around ‘fake artists’ on Spotify is still niggling at Oscar Hoglund of Epidemic Sound. | | |
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 | The Ringer |
| The Korean boy band’s triumphant performance at the American Music Awards proves the universal appeal of cultural specificity. | | |
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 | Rolling Stone |
| The new ways to snag an award: media campaigns, intimate performances and paying experts who know who the voters are. | | |
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 | Pigeons & Planes |
| Blackbear doesn't crave the spotlight, but after working with Justin Bieber, G-Eazy, and Linkin Park, he doesn't have a choice. | | |
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 | Saving Country Music |
| Neal McCoy---the half-Filipino mid '90s country star who amassed eight Top 5 songs, two platinum albums, and dozens of other accolades, including the excellent song "Wink"---has just relegated his entire career and all accomplishments heretofore to an internet meme in the minds of many Americans. | | |
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 | British GQ |
| Hot-shot chef Anthony Bourdain and rock legend Iggy Pop are old friends at the top of their games and show no signs of slowing. GQ plays stooge as this never-say-die double act shoots the breeze about music, mortality and mob executions. | | |
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 | The Conversation |
| "Ramparts" started as a Catholic literary magazine. But when Warren Hinckle took the helm, he developed a layout, voice and rebellious spirit that "Rolling Stone" would go on to mimic. | | |
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 | Music Business Worldwide |
| Robyn, First Aid Kit and Zara Larsson lend signatures to open letter. | | |
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 | Bandcamp Daily |
| Digi-dub democratized reggae out of the studio and brought Jamaican rhythms to British shores. | | |
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 | The New Yorker |
| In his first book, the hip-hop artist tries to retake control of a narrative that has frequently gotten away from him. | | |
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 | Vice |
| Up-and-coming shooter Elijah Dominique interviews Neal Preston, a photographer who has shot timeless photos of everyone from Led Zeppelin and Bob Marley to Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson. | | |
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| Vulture |
| Crazy Ex-Girlfriend fans, rejoice: There may be some fun, cringe-y karaoke in your future. "I am working so hard to make karaoke tracks happen," the show's star and co-creator Rachel Bloom announced at Vulture Festival L.A. on Sunday. | | |
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 | The Root |
| For the most part the world of opera has been insulated from the sort of widespread criticism that’s dogged film and television—primarily because it’s not as accessible to the American public in general, and people of color in particular. | | |
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 | The Tennessean |
| The "Soul2Soul" tour marks the first time McGraw and Hill have toured together in a decade. Hill deliberately stopped touring to raise their three daughters. But now that their daughters are older, the timing felt right for the couple to move forward with their careers, side by side. | | |
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 | Talkhouse |
| The Tanzania Albinism Collective are raising their voices for the first time. | | |
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 | Reverb.com |
| New insights on the making of the Beatles' landmark record. | | |
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 | YouTube |
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