Musician Anthony Vincent of Ten Second Songs viral fame sets his sight on Adele’s hit Hello as if Green Day performed it. If it was actually a ten-second song, there would be very little room for complaint, but as it’s the full version, this is your new standard, rock bands.
Madonna’s Interview From 1990 On Censorship Proves Nothing Has Changed
When Madonna appeared on Nightline back in 1990 discussing MTV banning her “Justify My Love” video, she was asked if MTV should have a designated time for “adult content,” the singer delivered a brilliantly spot-on answer still relevant today. “I think MTV should have their violence hour and I think they should have their degradation to women hour,” she said, eyes rolling. “If we’re going to have censorship, let’s not be hypocrites about it. Let’s not have double standards. We already have these videos that display degradation to women and violence that are played 24 hours a day, but yet they don’t want a video playing that deals with sex between two consenting adults.”
The Ultimate Christmas Gift For The Music Fan And Reader
33 1/3 is a brilliant series of short books about popular music, focusing on individual albums by artists ranging from James Brown to Celine Dion and from J Dilla to Neutral Milk Hotel. Each album covered in the series occupies such a specific place in music history, so each book-length treatment is different. Jonathan Lethem, Colin Meloy, Daphne Brooks, Carl Wilson and Gina Arnold are just some of the authors who have contributed to the series so far. Widely acclaimed by fans, musicians and scholars alike, 33 1/3 celebrated its 10th anniversary with the publication of the 100th volume in September of 2014. This boxed set includes the first 100 volumes published in the series and is a must-have for all serious music lovers and record collectors. I counted today, and I have 65 of them, so this has my seal of approval and consider it the Greatest Hits of Greatest Hits.
You can buy it now for under $1500.00 here.
Listen To Kanye West’s lyrics and Queens of the Stone Age’s riffs for charity
Producer ToToM combined Kanye West’s lyrics and Queens of the Stone Age’s riffs – where do I sign up? If you love the next President Of The United States, you can download the album for free, but ToToM will donate any proceeds to charity.
Here’s John Lennon Singing Something Hilarious On “Think For Yourself”
The audio is taken from the recording sessions for The Beatles’ Rubber Soul, as reported by Rolling Stone, while the band was working on the song “Think for Yourself.” On his way to the bathroom, he riffed the melody of an earlier Beatles ditty, “Do You Want to Know a Secret?,” but he changed the lyrics to, a private part.
Dar Williams Gets It Right On The Music Industry
“The sale of music paid for the production of the product and for a portion of my living as a touring artist. That’s the way it works. When the sale of music goes away, gigs alone will not pay for the tour bus, equipment, tour managers, and touring bands (if you pay them decently).
Already I can hear one of those angry music bloggers (the ones who have never toured or tried to make a living in music) saying, ‘Stop your whining and get back on the road!’ Then they crush their empty beer cans and throw them at my car.
They’ll say we musicians need to be lean, mean, touring machines. They’ll say to replace publicists with selfies. They’ll tell John’s girlfriend to learn Pro-Tools so his band doesn’t have to hire George Martin.
One journalist said he thought I would like this ‘DIY’ world. There’s a difference between having the final artistic say on who I hire and the new normal of not hiring anyone at all.
The Attitude of Gratitude will not fix what’s happened here.”
– Dar Williams, on the changing economics of touring, American Songwriter
Via FYI Music
Celebrities Reading the Lyrics to Drake’s “Hotline Bling” Can Only Mean One Thing
Few music videos in 2015 caused as much of a stir as “Hotline Bling” by Drake, the cover star of the latest issue of W Art. Watch, as Bryan Cranston, Amy Schumer, Kristen Wiig, Seth Rogen, and more celebrities, try to top the song that spawned a thousand memes with a dramatic reading of the megahit.
A Bad Lip Reading of Star Wars
Here’s the latest in the hilarious Bad Lip Reading, this time featuring Star Wars. Darth Vader keeps texting Leia, while Ben continues his quest for the Pickaxe of Cortez. Listen for the voices of Jack Black, Maya Rudolph, and Bill Hader, too.
Here Are The 100 Biggest-Selling Albums Of All Time
This week, Michael Jackson’s Thriller crossed the 30 million-mark in the US, edging out longtime sales rival, The Eagles. Unless something changes in the Don Henley-Glenn Frey camp, this could be the leader for a while. Fun Fact: In 2009, Thriller was added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, the first music video ever selected.
Live Music Measures Up: An Economic Impact Analysis of Live Music in Ontario
This month, Music Canada released the first comprehensive study of the live music industry in Ontario. Live Music Measures Up: An Economic Impact Analysis of Live Music in Ontario provides critical data and information that will help guide decision-making within the sector, in government and other allied stakeholders.
“This report provides a comprehensive picture of the benefits live music brings to Ontario. In fact, it only enhances our understanding of data collected in our 2012 economic impact study, and cements what we know about Ontario as a powerhouse for the music industry. It shows that a vibrant music scene drives value in many important ways, including job creation, tourism development, brand building and artistic growth. With the new data from this study, we now have the necessary benchmarks to measure and support its growth. Live Music Measures Up allows us to look at live music through a new lens, and to better understand how critical it is to the entire music ecosystem.” says Graham Henderson, President of Music Canada.
The economic profile is organized into four key areas: revenue, audience, economic impact, and future outlook. The key takeaways are as follows:
- Revenue: Live music companies in Ontario generated $628 million in revenue from live music activities in 2013 as well asprofits of $144 million. Artist management revenue from Canadian artists totalled $34 million in 2013, 54 percent of all artist management revenue, and Canadian artists generated $75 million in ticket sales.
- Audience: In 2013, 558 festivals across Ontario sold a total of 15.7 million tickets, representing 7 million unique visitors. Ontario’s 616 venues have a combined capacity of 3.6 million. The 775 promoters operating in the province in 2013 promoted 81,600 shows, which sold a combined total of 5.4 million tickets.
- Economic Impact: The total economic impact of live music in Ontario’s economy is $1.2 billion. Live music companies in Ontario were responsible for $484 million in total expenditure in 2013 and contributed $432.4 million in taxes to all levels of government combined. The economic impact of live music companies includes 10,500 full-time equivalent jobs, and tourism activity accounts for an additional 9,520.
- Future Outlook: Survey respondents reported that access to tax credits and other forms of government funding, along with the availability of local Canadian talent, were the factors that most positively impacted their company growth. And 83 percent of live music companies in the province expect revenue growth within the next two years.
You can download the report here.
