Or at least it COULD change, according to those at Janelle Monáe’s “Fem the Future” brunch. Stacy L. Smith, founder and director of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative: “Collective action takes place when people lock arms, each group pushes a lever and we all do this in unison. … I’m expecting to see change in this industry quickly because of these simultaneous efforts.”
– Los Angeles Times
Category: music
The Classical Grammys Are Irrelevant Right Now, But That Might Change Quickly
Anne Midgette: As more and more orchestras record their live performances for broadcast and for sale, the Grammys may change. “Since, as we’ve seen, recordings tend to feature different repertoire than standard subscription programs, this trend of recording concerts for release is contributing, slowly but surely, to a perceptible broadening of the orchestral repertoire.” – The Washington Post
The Final Grammy Predictions?
Yes, the Los Angeles Times has some ideas about who will win, or who should win, and it’s all focused on the Classical Gramm … just kidding. Face-off: Cardi B and Kendrick Lamar. – Los Angeles Times
Pop Music Used To Be All About The Album. Now, That Model Has Been Blown Up
“While it does take longer for artists to get to their first album, once they are there, everything accelerates. Suddenly they reach a level that might have previously been reached by album two or three. Are they rising fast to then decline just as fast? Only time will tell.” – The Guardian
The Opéra-Bastille, The House That Gets No Respect
When it opened (not quite finished) in Paris in 1989, this joke made the rounds: “What is the difference between the Bastille Opera and the Titanic? The Titanic had an orchestra.” It was over budget (of course), the acoustics didn’t work, it was put in an awkward location, and it was (and still is) considered the ugliest opera house in Europe. As the behemoth hits its 30th anniversary, Joshua Barone pays a visit — and, while he acknowledges its flaws, he points out some successes as well. — The New York Times
The Symphony Orchestra Of India (And Why There’s Only One)
Western classical music, and orchestral music in particular, has caught on in a huge way in East Asia, but it has only ever had the most tenuous of holds in the Indian subcontinent (which has a long and still-vibrant classical tradition of its own). Writer Simon Broughton looks at the history of attempts to establish orchestral music in India — culminating in the Symphony Orchestra of India, founded in Mumbai in 2006 and about to make a tour of the UK. — Gramophone
Global Pop Music 2.0 – A New Kind Of Star
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
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
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