This item is for pointers to particularly interesting web journalism about music. You might submit both ongoing periodicals and specific articles.32 responses total.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48576-2001Aug22.html This is a lengthy feature about the pop music scene in Iran, where religious authorities, trying to maintain control, have people flogged for distributing bootleg recordings of Western pop/rock/rap. (And you thought the RIAA was tough! :) ) Besides the Western popular music which we know, there is also an Iranian pop music created by an exile community centered around Los Angeles, and the authorities see that as dangerous too. Recognizing that trying to bar music isn't working too well, the Iranian government is trying to develop its own Islamic-sanitized pop music industry -- similar to Contemporary Christian Music, maybe? ((This touches on one of my recurrent thoughts; that the musics of jazz, rock and rap have been among the most powerful elements of America's rise to world dominance. It echoes stories of jazz and rock music behind the Iron Curtain.))
((Yeah, and the roots of it came from our own oppressed underclass to boot. Strong stuff!))
C-Net reports that Napster has reached a settlement with music publishers
(*not* the record companies..)
I found the story in the New York Times, at:
http://www.nytimes.com/cnet/CNET_0-1005-200-7283716.html
Unfortunately the Times requires a (free) registration. If you don't have
one and don't want to create one, the story's probably on C-Net's site
somewhere..
From CNN.com: "Sanyo develops CD-ROM copy-protection system" http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/ptech/09/24/sanyo.cd.rom.protection.idg/index. html
The story doesn't live up to the promise, but my favorite music-related
headline of the week:
"Courtney Love Ends Show in Bathroom"
On another topic: there don't seem to be many high-profile stories
coming out of the music industry lately (other than benefit concert
after benefit concert..) Is it just me, or does everyone else suspect
that somewhere out there, at this very moment, there's an industry
lobbyist trying to interest a sponsor in some sort of Defense of Music
"anti-terrorism" act or sneaking very scary amendments into sure-to-pass
"patriotic" legislation? :-O
Slashdot led me to a REM fan site http://www.murmurs.com which has some recent interviews with Michael Stipe and Peter Buck. They have a few amusing comments about the current state of the music business, including their own company Warner, and also some chat about current projects.
KRJ and others may be interested in an article in one of the weekend
sections from the New York Times -- it claims to be their fourth annual
world music round-up.
I haven't had time to read the whole thing but they like a number of
albums Ken has already mentioned (such as the recent live double album
from Natalie MacMaster..)
Like everything else in the NY Times, (free) registration required:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/05/arts/music/05WORL.html?8iwea
(thanks for the pointer, Mike)
Here's a BBC story on a very retired Grace Slick, with a current photo: http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,840824,00.html
gawd, she's getting nicer lookin and cooler as she ages!
And a list of the all-time top twenty rock songs about drugs, too. What? No "With a Little Help From My Friends"? Spiro Agnew himself certified that as a drug song.
Maybe Grace Slick doesn't pay so much attention to Spiro Agnew's opinion. I'd be sorta disappointed if she did, actually.
resp:10 I'm not sure if that's always been 100% the case-- her VH1 airtime showed the years. This picture, however, is quite flattering. resp:9 Interesting article. I don't agree with her sentiments, however, that the favored drugs of the 60's are more benign than many pharmeceutical drugs. I tend to favor the opinion that any drug can be life-threatening, and medical assistance is important. People have unique enough body chemistry individually that reactions can vary. One drug my psychiatrist had me try yielded potentially fatal side effects, and I was knocked for a loop for two months. Not everyone will have that result, however; I was the one in 20 with those side effects.
which favored drugs? meth, coke, heroin?
I forget-- you'd have to read the article.
For lack of a more obvious place to put this breaking story:
http://www.salon.com/ent/wire/2003/01/13/townshend/index.html
Pete Townshend is arrested in child pornography case
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Jan. 13, 2003 | LONDON (AP) --
Rock star Pete Townshend of The Who has been arrested on suspicion
of possessing indecent images of children, police said Monday.
Scotland Yard announced that a 57-year-old man had been arrested
on suspicion of making and possessing indecent images of children
and of incitement to distribute indecent images of children.
Police, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the
suspect was Townshend. He has not been charged with a crime,
which would come later under the British legal system.
Townshend, 57, said Saturday he had used an Internet Web site
advertising child pornography.
<snip>
I cut the article off after the first few paragraphs, figuring that anyone
who wanted more details could check the URL or search their own preferred
news source, but in fairness to Townsend I should have included his
response, presented later in the article.
> Townshend said in his Saturday statement that he was not a
> pedophile and only used the porn site once while doing research
> for an autobiography dealing with his own suspected childhood
> sexual abuse.
The whole story has a really weird feeling to me because of a phone conversation I had a couple of weeks ago with a musician/computer geek friend of mine in California. We were talking about Entwhistle's death and the constant Who "reunion" tours. I mentioned I once heard Townshend claim he agreed to doing the shows out of a sense of financial obligation to the others, who made far less than he did as the songwriter. My friend said he thought the band had more on Pete than just "taking care of old friends." As he put it, "they may have something else, like pictures of Pete and little boys." I laughed a bit, as Pete had already "outed" himself to some degree over the years. Now, though, it's beginning to look like my friend was right.
Another interesting music-business story: apparently a police crackdown on a piracy/bootlegging operation in Holland has recovered a number of long-lost unreleased Beatles master tapes, recorded during the sessions for an aborted album between "The Beatles" (aka "The White Album") and "Let it Be" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2646921.stm The story describes the tapes as containing "dozens" of entire songs.
I read a long article about that today. However, they said they were not the multi-track masters (held by the record company) but instead are the audio tapes for someone who was filming the sessions.
And it wasn't "an aborted album", it was unused material from the sessions which eventually produced "Let It Be".
I think it was one of the Bootles refered to as the "Come Back" album. For instance, a track by Paul "Teddy Boy", that had a different version on his first album. From the "Let it Be" era, where the extra American LP was called "Get Back", a collection of singles and such.
Wire services are reporting that Phil Spector has been arrested on suspicion of murder. > (AP) Legendary record producer Phil Spector was arrested Monday > for investigation of homicide after the body of a woman was found > at a home in this Los Angeles suburb, authorities said.
Washington Post has an online interview with Ira Kaplan of the band Yo La Tengo: http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/zforum/03/sp_entertainment_kaplan0 40803.htm
Thanks for the pointer, though the interview questions were surprisingly lame..
If you wondered where the term "World Music" came from, here's a memoir from Ian A. Anderson of FRoots magazine, who was one of the plotters, back 15 years or so ago... http://www.frootsmag.com/content/features/world_music_history/
Just found this website run by Robert Christgau, the lead music critic for the Village Voice since forever. http://www.robertchristgau.com Claims to include all of his "Consumer Guide" reviews since 1967. Sorting through albums by year and artist seems to work nicely.
Most of the rock groups I like aren't even on his list. What the f?
Here's a good profile of Emmylou Harris from UK paper The Guardian, a mini-biography covering her entire career. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,1075750,00.html
Here's an entertaining profile of an underground, unlicensed radio station in the Minneapolis area: http://www.citypages.com/databank/24/1203/article11780.asp
Entertaining it was.
The Guardian (UK) follows up the 17th anniversary of the invention of "world music" as a marketing concept, with interviews with some of the major players, including Joe Boyd, Charlie Gillett, and FRoots' Ian Anderson. http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1249391,00.html
You have several choices: