If you write about music, your job takes you to these places on a regular basis. In the past few weeks I have been to Wembley Stadium, Twickenham and the London Stadium; I’ve been to the O2 Arena and almost ended up at Wembley Arena too. I feel as if I’ve spent most of the early summer negotiating poor transport, incomprehensible entry arrangements and interminable queues. And, in between times, seeing some musicians.
Month: July 2018
Remembering Oliver Knussen
Besides definitive interpretations of his own music, he must surely have given more first performances than any other conductor, alongside an outstanding body of recordings. He was the central focus of so many activities, and an irreplaceable mentor to his fellow composers, who constantly sought and relied on his advice and encouragement.
How Puerto Rican Musicians Became A Global Force
Puerto Ricans such as the Despacito duo were responsible for 27 of the top 100 most-viewed music videos on YouTube in 2017. Over on Spotify, four of the six most popular Latin artists are also Puerto Rican: Fonsi and Yankee again, plus Bad Bunny and Ozuna. All this from an island of just three and a half million souls, plus the other five million Puerto Ricans who live in the US.
Netflix Dominates This Year’s Emmy Nominations
Netflix had the most nominees by platform for the first time ever, beating HBO with a total of 112 nominations. That’s even as Game of Thrones, which was ineligible for last year’s awards, returned to dominate this year’s crop with 22 nominations, the most for a single show.
Why The Semicolon Is A Truly Great Punctuation Mark
“Semicolons are useful when two thoughts are related, independent yet interdependent, and more or less equally weighted. They could exist as discrete sentences, and yet something would be lost if they were, an important cognitive rhythm.”
US Appeals Court Strikes Down California Law Giving Royalties On Resale Of Artists Work
On Friday, the court said that the state law conflicts with the federal copyright law’s first-sale doctrine that claims once a copyright owner sells work a first time, they lose control over future sales. “This quixotic action, which was based on an obviously unconstitutional statute, is finally nearing its end,” the auction house Sotheby’s said in an email statement. Christie’s said in a statement that it “is pleased with the court’s decision.”
Running A Theatre Is About So Much More Than The Plays, As These First-Time Artistic Directors Found Out
“Most UK theatres are run by people with the title of ‘artistic director’. But many taking over a building for the first time, even if they are not doing the job of chief executive as well, very quickly understand that being artistic is only one part of the job. … Lyn Gardner talks to those in the know and finds they all agree the overall experience of an audience is as important as the plays they stage.”
Now In Middle Age, How Hip Hop Is Moving On
Over the past three months, four superstars have released albums that assess, from different angles, what a genre-dominating rapper does when the genre is beginning to move on: Kanye West’s “Ye” (as well as his collaborations with others); Drake’s “Scorpion”; J. Cole’s “KOD”; and Jay-Z’s “Everything Is Love,” which he and his wife, Beyoncé, put out as the Carters.
Television Is Dead, Cinema Is Dead And Resurrected, And The Future Is Streaming, Says Filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn
“Television is dead. And television will not be reborn. It will not come back. What has surfaced instead is the digital platform of entertainment. Cinema will come back with different meaning.” The digital platform to which Refn seems to be referring in particular is his own byNWR.com, which he calls an unadulterated cultural expressway for the arts. It’s there to inspire the youth!”
Robert Lepage’s Slav Will Go On After All After Protests
The Montreal International Jazz Festival closed the production, a “theatrical odyssey based on slave songs,” after only a handful of performances in the wake of an outcry over a majority-white cast portraying black slaves. Only two of the seven people in the show, directed by Robert Lepage and starring Betty Bonifassi, were black. While critics of the show have welcomed the closure as a necessary cultural reckoning, several leading theater directors in Quebec rallied behind Mr. Lepage this week, citing their concerns that closing a production by such an internationally acclaimed director could have a chilling effect on artistic expression in Canada. At least four theaters are proceeding with productions of “Slav,” even if that means braving protests.