There’s been a fundamental change to the idea that English is pop’s lingua franca. This development has been accompanied by a remarkable shift in the pop-star system itself. While bilingual artists surge into charts and playlists, joining the American rappers who have profoundly reshaped popular music in the last 20 years (the five most listened-to tracks on Spotify in 2018 were by US hip-hop acts), it’s a different story for the stars who emerged during the era we might call Pop 1.0. “The massive pop stars of yesteryear – Katy Perry, Justin Timberlake – are fading from the public consciousness. – The Guardian
Tag: 02.06.19
Doctors: Families Should Ban Screens From Dinner Table, Bedtime
“We know that children notice if their parents are paying attention to them and we do know that one in five children wakes up at night to check their phone for social media messages and interrupted sleep decreases their quality of education the next day. So there isn’t a cause and effect, but there seems to be an association and that’s why we’ve been very cautious in making very bold statements about the harms.” – BBC
Claim: UK Is Facing A “Crisis” In Music Education
In short, music ed is disappearing from schools, parliament was told. The government “must act quickly to ensure music does not become the preserve of a privileged few”, the report claims and identifies a number of systemic challenges as a way of illustrating the scale of the crisis facing music education in England. – The Stage
Study: How Political Rap Music Has Influenced Feminist Attitudes
According to the authors, “Hip-hop feminists embrace rap music as a culturally relevant and generationally specific art form that elicits social justice, consciousness raising, and political and social activism” and the contradictions of being both feminists and hip-hop fans. Hip-hop feminism advances conversations about the portrayal of black womanhood, coalition building, black gender relations and black women’s empowerment through rap music. This perspective is distinctly different from the early academic writings on women and hip-hop that focused almost exclusively on male domination and misogyny, they wrote. – Georgia State University
Founding Director Mark Murphy To Leave LA’s REDCAT Theatre
REDCAT – located below Disney Hall, and operated by CalArts – is a center for contemporary performance. Murphy quickly established the interdisciplinary performance and multimedia arts center as one of Los Angeles’ most influential centers for contemporary and avant-garde work from around the globe, and an influential resource for local artists to develop new work. – Broadway World
A Visit To The Museum Of Failure
“To be displayed in this museum, objects have to have been an innovation, have to have failed and have to be interesting, explains the museum’s curator Samuel West. He defines failure as ‘a deviation from expected results’.” For example? “Sony Betamax, an electrocuting face mask and a Swedish alternative to marshmallows.” (video) — BBC
Messiaen in a crypt: New meaning to ‘the end of time’
The Crypt Sessions in Harlem, always a thoughtfully-curated series, offered a concert on Tuesday night with the kind of repertoire, venue, and penetrating performance that yielded fresh questions about the nature of, well, everything. — David Patrick Stearns
Daniel Barenboim Is Brilliant. But He’s Also An Egotistical Tyrant. Why?
Barenboim’s life work is awe-inspiring. But “in musical circles, Barenboim’s temper is legendary. He has thrown fits because a violist rolled his eyes, because a singer bowed in the wrong place, because a favored principal player was on vacation. He once berated a musician who lacked concentration because someone in their immediate family had died.” – Van Magazine
Foreign Policy Magazine’s List Of 100 Top Global Thinkers. Seriously?
Lists, of course, are always subjective, and of course you’re meant to quibble. That’s kind of the point. But really? Mohammed bin Salman? And get aload of the “artists and activists” category. Barely an artist to be found. And these are “the big ideas of those who shape our understanding of the world?” – Foreign Policy
Tanglewood To Go Year-Round With New Linde Center For Music And Learning
The new four-building, $33 million complex “will be the home to the Tanglewood Learning Institute (TLI) … The schedule of 140 ticketed events includes four deep-immersion weekends, numerous special events, guest speakers, master classes. a seven-week Sunday evening film series in collaboration with the Berkshire International Film Festival, and a new 200-seat indoor/outdoor cafe open to the public for mingling with artists and students.” — The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, MA)