Hello everybody! So I’ve seen a lot of people, specially teenagers my age label Quincy Jones as “Michael Jackson’s producer”, but he made a lot of hits before and after that period of time. ¿What do y’all think is the most underrated song he produced? To me: State of Independence by Donna Summer and Cry me a River by Lesley Gore.
I’d love to know your opinion :)
Regards

There is something genuinely broken about a midtier touring act charging $150 for a floor ticket in a 2,000 capacity venue. Not the megastars, not the stadiums. Just a band you grew up with playing a club show where you used to get in for $25.

The AllAmerican Rejects situation got me thinking about this more. They called out artists on ticket prices and people mostly agreed, but the conversation always drifts to the Taylors and Beyoncés of the world. The problem is just as bad one level down, where there is no Ticketmaster villain to blame and the band is still making that call themselves.

The people who followed these artists through their lean years, bought merch when it actually kept the lights on, dragged friends to early shows, those are the exact people getting priced out now. A family of four cannot do a general admission show for under $400 with fees anymore, and that is not an exaggeration.

At some point the market corrects because the rooms stop filling. But by then a lot of people will have just stopped going entirely, and streaming numbers do not replace that culture.

Curious if anyone has actually changed their concert habits over the last couple years because of this, or if you have found ways around it.

Personally my answer is Frank Ocean given the 10 year hiatus, his body of work and near mythical status among an entire generation. There are bigger artists in the world but given the once in a decade drop my gut says the world would drop everything to hear what frank ocean has to say

There's something that happens when an artist goes through a genuinely brutal public period and then puts out work that's clearly processed through that experience. Not in a vague inspirational way, but in a specific, youcanheartheweightofit way.

Been thinking about this after reading about Shakira and the years she spent dealing with the tax case in Spain. Her output during that stretch was noticeably sharper and more personal than anything she did in the years before it. The Bizarrap session alone felt like someone who had nothing left to lose, in the best possible sense.

It got me thinking about other artists who went through some kind of sustained nightmare, legal, financial, reputational, whatever, and came out the other side with a record that wouldn't exist without the damage. Not just a breakup album, but something where you can feel the specific texture of being publicly humiliated or legally cornered or financially wiped out.

The obvious examples are out there, but the less obvious ones are more interesting. Who comes to mind where the connection between the ordeal and the music is actually audible, not just something they mentioned in an interview?

Hey, I’ve seen them like 3 times in the last 10 years so I knew well the situation of Vince’s voice, but I’ve read a lot of comments lately, did it get worse? Is something particularly bad in this tour or people are just being mean?

How about Extreme and Tesla? Are they putting up good shows?

I’m on the fence about seeing them (Mötley Crüe) in Tinley Park

I’ve been dying to get my 9yo niece into music more (all my sister and BIL listen to is country and Christian music🙄). Who are some age-appropriate pop singers? I’m a pop girly myself and love Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, etc but there is so much explicit language that I really can’t justify the music for a 9yo. I think back to when I was her age (the early 2000s) and feel like there was so much pop music that wasn’t so explicit. Yes, the music could’ve been sexually charged, but as a 9yo I had no idea because it was a lot of innuendos. Where is the music you would hear on Radio Disney that wasn’t made for little kids?! Hilary Duff, Aly & Aj, Michelle Branch, Jesse McCartney, etc??

Edited to add: I guess I should have been more specific. I’m looking for recent music that is age appropriate. I put together a collection of CDs for her 9th birthday of stuff I used to listen to when I was a kid so she’s already been introduced to it lol. I’m really trying to find a current artist that fits the criteria :)

What permissions do you need if you would perform multiple covers of various artists (mostly rock and metal) live and then film and record the audio and video of the shows professionally. Whether on Youtube (video), Spotify or just another streaming services for audio, maybe even vinyl with also maybe adding different instruments like piano for guitar or else. And how hard/realistic is it to get permissions.
Also what about changing words like for example Metallica Seek & Destory (were scanning the scene in the city tonight) to (scene in CITYNAME [the name where you play live] tonight) (can do that for pretty much every song), does stuff like that already count as changing lyrics and would need an extra permission by the artist themselves?

I think I would choose Led Zeppelin. They have such a strong catalogue and enough variety that I don’t think I’d get tired of them—heavy rock, blues, acoustic stuff, and some more experimental songs. Pink Floyd would be a very close second, but Zeppelin would be my choice.

Listening to Foreign Tongues doesn’t excite me. The Rolling Stones stopped being relevant after Exile On Main St. in 1972, with only occasional flashes of genius like Some Girls or Tattoo You. Every album since Tattoo You (1981) has been a failed attempt to fuse those two records in which the Stones genuinely tried to sound modern. I wonder if Jagger or Richards even listen to relevant bands today beyond the so called indie rock of Sam Fender. What about Jack White, The Blue Stones, Rival Sons, or All Them Witches?

Foreign Tongues is a new effort to update the sound of Some Girls, to be precise. Once again, though, the Stones end up recycling their old, obsolete riffs. Foreign Tongues sometimes sounds like Hackney Diamonds leftovers.

The man tasked with “rejuvenating” the Stones’ sound is once again Andrew Watt, the favorite producer of the geriatric ward. Paul McCartney, Ozzy Osbourne, Iggy Pop, they’ve all been through his hands. Watt basically gives the Stones TRT to try to bring back some of their youth. He piles on layers of distorted guitars and cranks up the drum volume. On the album’s first track, “Rough and Twisted,” it works decently. Still, it’s nothing more than a copy of Chicago blues and an adaptation of the production style from the legendary Buddy Guy’s recent records. There’s nothing of the classic Stones in that opening track except Jagger’s trademark growl.

On “In The Stars,” Watt takes the AC/DC sound, my Rolling Stones, and applies it to the band. Did Watt draw inspiration from Rick Rubin for this one? Although the album already shows serious flaws by this point, “Jealous Lover” starts to sink it badly. Jagger’s horrendous falsetto on what is perhaps the worst track on the record simplistic and soulless. “Mr. Charm” continues with the band sounding lost and increasingly stripped of its classic identity. It’s clear the Stones died in the early ’80s.

“Divine Intervention” barely rescues the album from total boredom, with its obvious Exile inspiration. “Never Wanna Lose You” is another salvageable track that takes us back to the atmosphere of Some Girls. “Hit Me In The Head” and “Covered In You” are my favorite songs on the record, they have real bite. Here the band actually sounds inspired and evokes their glory days, obviously bolstered by Watt’s steroid-filled added guitars and drums.

The band’s cover of Amy Winehouse’s “You Know I’m No Good” is a regrettable failure. Far from making us think the Stones admired or felt any real affinity with Winehouse, it all seems like a half baked idea. In the end, we know Foreign Tongues is just another excuse for the Stones to go on tour and keep getting richer by playing “Satisfaction” every night. I doubt many of these tracks will make it into the band’s live setlist or that the Stones could even perform them without fifteen backing musicians. Any album by Chuck Berry or the New York Dolls is a million times better than this.

I came home and America’s Got Talent just happened to be on TV.

One of the acts was performing a cover of “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”

Does the show have to get the song legally cleared before it can be broadcast? Does the original artist, songwriter, publisher, or whoever owns the rights receive a royalty?

Also, are there any known examples of a talent show being refused permission to use or broadcast a particular song?

This edition of Muzorama travels through the fluid territory between psychedelic jazz, future soul, broken beat, spiritual improvisation, cinematic funk and bass-oriented electronic music. The cover presents the curator as a pilot inside a futuristic cockpit, navigating an open and unfamiliar universe. It is an appropriate visual metaphor for a programme driven not by fixed genre boundaries, but by exploration: moving between musical scenes, traditions and technologies in search of unexpected connections.

It's no secret that Michael Jackson and Prince were extremely competitive with each other in the 80s, I wonder if there was ever a mutual admiration between the 2. Works like Thriller and Purple Rain are both immortal masterpieces