So much wasted time. | | | | The Black Madonna has her hands full at FYF Fest, Los Angeles, Sept. 28, 2016.
(Natt Lim/Getty Images) | | | | | rantnrave:// RESIDENT ADVISOR is killing its most popular piece of content, its annual TOP DJS poll, because it doesn't like the results, and if there's a PULITZER PRIZE for responsible community stewardship, I'd like to nominate the site. The DJ poll and the accompanying TOP LIVE ACTS poll, the site says in a note to its readers, are doing an increasingly poor job of representing the breadth and diversity of that community. Readers are overwhelmingly voting for "men, mostly from the US and EUROPE" and pointedly leaving out LGBTQ artists, artists of color and women. It would have been easy for RA to do nothing. It's popular content, it makes some popular artists happy, it involves readers, it isn't doing any physical harm. It's sort of like the annual POWER PLAYER lists of a certain widely read music trade magazine, which are based partly on industry nominations and which tend to skew male and white and which, when that is mentioned, tend to elicit little more than an it-is-what-it-is shrug from editors. RA is saying, explicitly, that it isn't what it is, and that it's possible to change course—page views and relationships be damned. It's possible to understand your influence and own it. "What began as a lighthearted way to praise our favourite artists and toast the year gone by," the site writes, "had become something of more serious consequence: an industry index influencing many different parts of club culture, from event lineups to artist fees to the atmosphere of the scene in general." The atmosphere seemed off, so the site acted. The top acts poll had been won for four straight years by DIXON, who RA in 2016 praised as "technically flawless" but who is probably not who the site wanted as its public face of underground artistry. But the change isn't about him. It's about the site's, and the scene's, better angels... JAY-Z has three new 4:44 videos... OK GO has one new video featuring 567 printers and about 567 million sheets of printer paper (since recycled, the band promises)... TOMMY KEENE was once described as "the patron saint of neglected and overlooked power-pop stars," which is a strange backhanded compliment inasmuch as being neglected and overlooked is one of the essential components of being a power-pop star in the first place. It may even be the power-pop star's highest aspiration. Keene, who died Wednesday, was better than that, a rock and roll melody slinger with a yearning voice and an eye for bittersweet moments. The neglect may have had as much to do with his business sense as his musical style—he wrestled with labels and his own A-list producers almost as a matter of course—but he started out making miniature pop classics and he kept making them for another 30 years no matter what cards he was dealt and no matter who was or wasn't listening. RIP to the people and places that are gone... Jazz pianist JOHN COATES JR. wasn't anyone's patron saint; he was neglected and overlooked for more prosaic reasons. He was a homebody who spent most of his career performing in NEW JERSEY and eastern PENNSYLVANIA, ignoring calls to take to the road. Fellow jazz musicians adored him and he recorded with some frequency, but if you wanted to see him your best bet for many years was to trek to the DEER HEAD INN in DELAWARE WATER GAP, Pa.—population about 750—which is what I did with my two best friends in high school shortly after making THE JAZZ PIANO OF JOHN COATES JR. the first jazz purchase of my life. It remains one of my most treasured possessions and will live forever on a shelf in my heart reserved for first purchases, first journeys and first discoveries. RIP... RIP also JON HENDRICKS, DMITRI HVOROSTOVSKY, WAYNE COCHRAN, GEORGE AVAKIAN and MITCH MARGO. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| We're no longer running the RA polls. Here's why. | | |
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| Bruce Springsteen tells David Remnick why he waited decades to put out a memoir. | | |
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| The pop star's sexual ambiguity and androgynous style have gained him a cult following from queer women - some of whom even discovered their own queerness thanks to him. | | |
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| If streaming data is the new metric for success, we are all A&Rs. | | |
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| I was 14 years old when “Whip My Hair” came out. I was 14, and the artist behind the song was ten. I sat at home and watched Willow Smith whip her hair back and forth and back and forth on "The Ellen Show" and it felt like watching the beginning of something sensational. Seven years later that superstar is 17, and has released her most personal album. | | |
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| My colleague Clover Hope and I thought it might be fun to check out this year’s crop of new Christmas albums, which is sort of like thinking a root canal might be pleasurable. Is optimism a truly positive thing if it so often leads to pain and disappointment? No matter: Leave wisdom for the three wise men. | | |
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| Released 50 years ago, "I Am the Walrus" is endlessly analyzable, and yet somehow analysis-proof. | | |
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| Somehow, this cheesy, emotional tune, which turns 35 this year, inspires unironic, almost undivided adoration across the web. | | |
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| Inside the Internet’s quiet ode to entertainment delivery systems of days gone by. | | |
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| A fan re-evaluates her formative experiences with the band's music. | | |
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| When the punk rock thought police ruled the scene. | | |
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| Productivity tips from the guy who produced for Swift, Lorde, and St. Vincent, while working on his band Bleachers’ sophomore album. | | |
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| With a new album on the docket, the remaking of Eminem into a sensitive, woke everyman in the year of #MeToo may be one of the most cynical things you will witness in this, or any other, year. | | |
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| Distorting the intuitive selection of music is bad for artists and fans. Forced content reduces the impact of legitimate creatives whose work should succeed on its own merit and potential. Like payola, paid-for content can distort the distribution of listeners preferences. | | |
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| A Journal of Musical Things |
| A year-and-a-half after Canada lost its collective crap over the scalping of tickets for the last Tragically Hip tour, the Ontario Government is ready with legislation designed to clamp down on ticket-buying software bots and the scalpers who use them. | | |
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| Exploring the defiantly progressive path of metal’s most maligned monsters. | | |
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| We got the hot new kid out of Alabama in the studio and asked him about his massive hit "Rubbin Off The Paint", high school, girls, his supposed beef with Tay K and much more. | | |
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| I get asked “what’s the digital plan?” a lot in my job doing strategy at a record label. It usually comes when a music video is finished and handed over to the label to promote it. Every time I hear the question, I’m reminded about how limited our approach to digital strategy can be in music marketing. | | |
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| The guitarist's bad behavior got him fired from one of rock's wildest bands. Retired in Florida, he's ready to make peace with his past | | |
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