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brucewaynehater101 · 16 days

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What music genres do you think the batfam members listen to?I ask this because of how little Alternative music fan headcannons there are. I personally think Tim enjoys grunge and or nu metal(Specifically bands like limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Korn, and System of a Down)

I'm not too familiar with genres, so I'll be giving this my best shot. I typically listen to music by the vibe it gives. My playlists include music that makes my brain go brr (the nice dissociation), songs for muses, ones to scandalize my mother, music a garage band would play, songs that make God fear me, and a long playlist for pleasant company.

Anyways, I've seen a few fics where people say that Bruce and Tim share a love of those genres. I could definitely see Tim listening to the ones you mentioned. He probably plays it through his preferred headphones as he fixes electronics, codes, or plots destruction. He also, because he suppresses his anger a lot, probably listens to music like Ghostemane, Kim Dracula, and Freddie Dredd.

Jason definitely enjoys musicals. Dick as well, but Jason isn't as vocal about it. Instead, Jason will listen to 80's rock and 2000's girl bands if others around (he ofc listens to TLC).

I like to think that they all enjoy music in different languages. For Dick and Damian, they especially like music they grew up listening to in their respective cultures. The others, because the batfam is multilingual, just enjoy all kinds of different tunes in multiple languages. The batfam playlist, especially for hanging out in the cave, is chaotic. Bruce nearly had an aneurysm the first time he heard Touch You (Yarichin Bitch Club) over the speakers. The only reason the kids didn't get in trouble was because Damian was out with Colin at the time.

I hc that Cass likes lofi hip hop music. She typically enjoys all songs but prefers those without words (because understanding words still requires energy from her and can prevent her from fully relaxing). She does listen to a lot of classical music, a passion she shares with Alfred.

Alfred, the man the myth the legend, enjoys swing music the most. He'll put on a variety of music in the kitchen (different classical eras, opera music, the occasional musical, jazz, some more modern instrumental music, and some movie background tracks), but the whole fam knowns he's in a really good mood if swing music is playing.

Bruce is the type of person to just listen to what's on. Unless he dislikes the music, he will be fine with whatever his kids or Alfred have playing. He particularly enjoys alternative rock and old country music (like Garth Brooks), but he doesn't usually fight for the aux cord.

Barbara has playlists depending on her mood. Birds of Prey mission prep? Bruce being a dick? Dick being a dick? Batfam drama she has to once again intervene in? Coding nights? Can't get out of bed days? She also has a few playlists for each person she regularly interacts with. For calm or bad nights, she'll put the playlist in that person's comm. She also likes to hack speakers around Bruce and play her revenge music when he's being a petty asshole. Some of her revenge music includes "They're Coming to Take Me Away" by Sloppy Jane, "OoOo1" by galen tipton, "All I see is Poop" by Hobo Johnson, "I Swallowed Shampoo" by Soupy Garage Juice, "I am now going to bark at you" by thquib, and "I hope You Die in a Fire" by Grand Commander.

Duke is most definitely a Mitski, Hozier, Crane Wives enjoyer, and you can pry that hc from my cold, dead hands. He probably also likes songs similar to "Ancapistan" by Jreg or "The Fine Print" by The Stupendium.

Dick's music is either super high in energy or sad as fuck. He loves the songs "Has Anbody Seen My Will to Live" by The Tin Knees and "Copacabana (At the Copa)" by Barry Manilow because they are both sad and happy :) I hc that he likes songs by TV Girl, Yot Club, Joji, and Cosmo Sheldrake. He also has a few playlists he follows of Zumba music. The song "The Masochism Tango" by Tom Lehrer is one of his favorites.

This is already a pretty long post, so feel free to reblog with more ideas! I didn't get to Steph or more in depth with Damian :(

#dc comics #duke thomas #dc universe #tim drake #jason todd #bruce wayne #dick grayson #damian wayne #barbara gordon #alfred pennyworth #yes i do listen to every song and band I've mentioned regularly and for enjoyment #thank you for the ask!!!!#i will probably add damian and steph later #ignore any bad writings with this one cause I'm currently at work while writing it

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fictional-love-is-my-life · 2 months

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May I get hc's for which bay autobots would love to go for night drive dates? Whether it be out of town in the country, or in the city with all the lights, or in the suburb neighborhoods, or the beach, etc. And what genre of music would they play for their s/o?

Bumblebee:

He loves to go on night drive dates and he will happily drive everywhere. He just loves to drive.

He likes to take his date to a drive-in movie theater and then drive around afterward so they can talk about the movie and enjoy each other's company.

He likes to play pop, hip hop and rock. He's also very corny and will play romantic music to try and set the mood. It's usually a very well-known often obvious love song.

Dino:

He likes to drive around but only in certain areas. He likes to drive along the nice-looking, pretty, posh areas because that is where he fits in the most.

He likes to play Italian music, classical, and some romantic music. However, it is a lot more subtle, like romantic classical, unlike Bee.

He also likes to show off when he drives with his date, either speeding/racing or swerving in and out of traffic to show his driving skills.

Sideswipe:

He likes to take long night drives for dates. He thinks it is the best way for them to have time alone.

He will drive around most places, but he likes to drive around the places with the best views. Such as in the city with its lights, in the suburbs where they can see nice looking houses and parks. He'd even find a river or lake to drive past so they could see the reflection of the night sky in the water.

He likes techno, electronic, music with a good beat.

Hot Rod:

He uses any excuse to drive. Often times he doesn't even give a reason he just goes on drives. So, he loves going on drives for date nights.

He takes his S/O along the coastline, showing them the beaches and oceans. He also takes them down some back roads showing them the beautiful scenery of nature.

He plays French music, classical, and sometimes rock or dance music. He will also ask his date for their music taste and often play their favorite songs.

#ask #transformers #bumblebee #dino #sideswipe #hot rod

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starandcloud · 9 months

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MCU Loki Headcannons

Uses all pronouns

His favorite season, he likes the delicate balance of "Will I burn or will I freeze?" of Earth

He loves to read those romance books with Gods and Goddess, not cause he wants to be put into the shoes of the MC but because he enjoys pointing out things wrong with the book. Fucking nit-pick

He really likes the wooded mountain sides, it feels like home

His favorite way to waste time is by fucking with people. Whether its a huge prank or a small one, he enjoys it Chaotic lil fuck

Dark Pop, Lo-Fi, Sing-Alongs, Ballet, Country, Dubstep, Pop, Rap, Hip-Hop, Pagan Metal, Viking Metal, Folk Metal, Pop-rock, Dance pop, Pop punk. All somehow fit in his playlists

He has small scars above, and below, his lips from when the dwarves sewed his lips shut for lying to them. A few smaller scars litter his skin, playful kids and one to many tumbles earned him his fair share of scars

When Loki becomes nervous he pick at his nails and cheeks on the inside of his cheeks

I can see him having ADHD, so they have a lot of soothing techniques. Like covering a sheet of paper with her favorite words or shape. Just Loki things

When they have nightmares, they tend to just walk the nerves and stress off

He has a fair share of collectibles from his devotees. Things that don't spoil are his favorite

Loki's most prized possession is a little, wittled, wooden horse a devotee gave him

They do this thing when they have to do something special. He fiddles with a small bottle of sand (shaking it three times) and then takes a hot bath. He says it "Melts away the nerves"

Rainy days he's either out in the rain, playing in it like a child OR bundled up in blankets by the fire. No in between

MASSIVE "doodler". His doodles are more of actual art pieces and he does write poetry, but not that often. It takes more brain power

This bitch starfish sleeps. Leg over there arm over his face one leg off the bed other arm under him chaotic sleeper, you cannot share a bed with him.

Loki hugs... protectively. Like he'll have both arms around your waist holding you close OR they'll have one arm around your waist and the other crossed over your back so his hand in almost on your shoulder

He's naturally flirty with everyone, but he's more-so with someone he genuinely likes. He'll leave everyone gifts and do small things around HQ to make peoples lives easier. EX: If Natasha's favorite cup was on the highest shelf *cough* Thor *Cough cough*

Loki would be able to finish a fucking project. Whether it's a small one or a huge one, he just doesn't have the attention span and/or patience to finish a project

If he found out he only had a day left to live, he'd keep is a secret. He wouldn't tell anyone and would spend the day making other's day happier, he'd spend the day at the park or just doing little things he enjoys or things he's always wanted to do. Like pottery or painting

Their spirit animal is a black cat or a white snake

He's definitely a Slytherin with Hufflepuff traits

#loki laufeyson #mcu loki #marvel loki #loki odinson #loki #loki headcanons #faeriesberries

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mielmoto · 5 days

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@dcviated asked:

What are honey's music tastes like?

...which I'm finally answering as it combines neatly with this question, asked by anonymous: what is a genre of music your muse won't listen to?

So, first and foremost, I present:

Which is still a fledgling at best, but the process of me trying to figure out a good response to this question is simply going and listening to a TON of music and laying there, thinking to myself, would Honey like this song?

Honey likes music that has a lot going on. That can mean folktronica / epic fantasy-style scores, organ-heavy metal tracks, or whimsical jazz-infused tunes the like of which you'd find on a katamari soundtrack. Dance/Electronic stuff tends to dominate, but she's almost certainly something of a K-pop / J-pop girlie as well. Enjoys following idols, and can get into the groove of almost anything that's up-tempo and jammin' enough.

When it comes to songs with lyrics, that "tempo" note is nearly a rule. She'd tell you there are exceptions in every category, and she hesitates to completely brush aside any genre at large, but she generally doesn't listen to a lot of straight folk music, nor country, singer-songwriter-y, and even more classic jazz fare because sleepy, languid vocals don't do it for her. Doesn't go in for much classic rock, either, though there are more than a few exceptions she's heard in time.

That said, when it comes to purely instrumental tracks, her taste opens up again. Lo-fi hip hop beats, wandering piano tracks, anything that has a good melody and steady rhythm to it can find its way into her circulation— and she has a great fondness for orchestral or otherwise instrumental pieces which make her feel like she's in her own little romantic drama, or perhaps in a light-hearted, brightly-hued video game. See the Cosmic Cove Galaxy track above, and Balamb Garden. Honey loves singing along to songs when she's casually going about a task or riding/walking somewhere, but if she's really focused on her work or some-such, she prefers instrumental stuff.

Some harder, edgier tunes can sneak in from time to time, (i.e. the referenced metal dabblings), but it's also worth nothing that most of the music she listens to is playful. It might be light and chipper and whimsical, or punchy and exciting (like OTONABLUE), or even sort of gentle and sweet as in Farewell by Erikson Jayanto; but in sum... it mostly matches her, and the sort of personality she exudes— her brand is consistent.

**(note: the music just has to SOUND bright and fun. the lyrics/subject of the song may actually be much darker, but if it's sung in the right key and vibe? lyrics are secondary baby!)

#answered.#isms.#music.#♥ 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 (musings)#Spotify

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dropout-if · 8 months

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🩹🎶💯 pls?

🩹 ADHESIVE BANDAGE — does your oc have any physical and/or mental disabilities?

Heavy spoilers for one of the ROs sorry!

🎶 MUSICAL NOTES — what type of music does your oc like? do they listen to music very often?

Jade/Jean- mostly listens to movie ost. Either really chill or dramatic music basically. Loves Frank Sinatra and Elvis Costello.

Uma- Alternative and indie rock. Loves Garbage and The Cure.

Statler- Pop music mostly, pop rock. Is a Taylor Swift stan. Also loves Mitski.

Wanda- Hip hop, pop, rock… Listens and likes every genre and artist. She can’t commit to a favorite artist.

Kai- Punk, punk rock and grunge. Their favorite artists are The Gits and The Clash.

Travis- Likes dad rock lol. His favorites are Pink Floyd, Velvet Underground, etc. He also used to listen to lofi while studying.

💯 HUNDRED POINTS SYMBOL — share three random facts about your oc that others may not know.

Jade/Jean-

J practices meditation daily.

They are fluent in three languages and do translation work when in a pinch.

J is one of the few ROs who has a healthy relationship with their family and that deserves a shout-out.

Uma-

Uma has a talent for baking and makes the most mouthwatering cinnamon rolls.

They have an impressive green thumb and has turned their apartment into a mini jungle with various exotic plants.

Uma's first tattoo was a well-kept secret for many years (everyone knew but their parents).

Statler-

They have an impressive knack for fixing things and can repair anything from a broken phone to a malfunctioning car engine.

Statler collects vinyls.

Has a family dog named Gold.

Wanda-

Wanda is a huge fan of astronomy and often goes stargazing in the nearby countryside.

She's passionate about environmental conservation and volunteer regularly for local cleanup initiatives.

Has not seen her parents in the past four or so years.

Kai-

They're a closet fan of cheesy romantic comedies, and they secretly binge-watch them when they think no one is watching.

Kai has an impressive collection of vintage comic books.

Kai enjoys learning about different cultures and travelling. They would like to visit many different countries.

Travis-

Travis used to be a competitive chess player in high school and even won a few local tournaments.

He is a part-time volunteer at an animal shelter. Travis adoped his cat Byron there.

Has a fascination with history and enjoys visiting museums.

#dropout if #dropout #ask #j gray #ros #ask game #kai alofa #travis camaro #statler amani #uma bharat #wanda pavon

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vampylily · 8 months

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In honour of manifesting international dates for tourdust 2024 (2ourdust 2 furious), here's a snippet of Pete's email interview with a publication in Korea about their upcoming performance in 2009. (source.)

[T/N: May contain errors, I am not a professional by any means.]

Q: After debut, Fall Out Boy has been rising in popularity world wide, what do you think fans are enthusiastic about?

Pete: There’s two things, and one is Patrick’s voice. His voice is different from that of other young rock band’s vocalists in tone and feel. Second thing is that we go to various different countries to play shows. Fans want to see bands perform in person at concerts, but in many cases, bands can’t do so.

Q: How to define Fall Out Boy’s music. From punk to heavy metal, it even merges hip hop.

Pete: People call us “pop punk, punk rock,” but it’s difficult to say which genre it really is. Just as it’s difficult for you to define who you are.

Q: You can feel the sense of wit when you listen to Fall Out Boy’s music. How do you make music?

Pete: Haha, that’s a secret… To be honest, I don’t know how I come up with ideas for lyrics either. Because it just comes out. But for Patrick, he seems to get ideas for music from his experiences.

Q: Over the years, You’ve worked with many musicians including Elvis Costello, Lil Wayne, John Mayer, Jay-Z and Babyface. Any fun anecdotes?

Pete: It’s always an honor to work with great musicians. At first, we were worried that we’d get rejected if we asked them to participate in our albums. But thankfully, everyone agreed readily and we had a good time working together. Elvis Costello, in particular, amazed us with his charisma the moment he walked into the studio, but it was good to hear his secrets on having a long lasting career while still having fun making music. I think he’s a really cool musician.

Q: Any words for Korean fans eagerly waiting for the concert in Korea?

Pete: I’m sorry that it took so long for us to go to Korea. As it’s our first concert in Korea, we’re also looking forward to it. It’s very exciting to be able to go to Korea. I’m looking forward to meeting you soon and having a fun time!

Photos from Jisan Valley Rock Festival 2009:

#fall out boy #fob #pete wentz #pre hiatus fob #folie a deux era #vampylily.txt #sorry no andy close ups :(#the interview is fairly standard #but i thought it was cool #theres like only 2 fob interviews with korean publications from what i can find?

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thisaintascenereviews · 9 months

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Tanner Adell – Buckle Bunny / Willie Jones – Something To Dance To

Country music is having a big moment in the spotlight right now. Depending on who you ask, that’s either a good thing or a bad thing. The top three songs as of this moment on the Billboard 100 are country songs, which might be the first time that’s ever happened, or the first time in many years that’s it’s happened. Regardless of who the artists are, or the quality of the songs, it’s a big deal, regardless. With that said, though, I wanted to avoid one of these songs. Jason Aldean’s “Try That In A Small Town” debuted at number two last week, but it shot up to number one. I could sit here and talk about how the song is full of racist dog whistles that allude to “sundown towns,” or how the song paints small town living as this Andy Griffith-style utopia, where everybody gets along and there no problems whatsoever, even though the reality is a lot more nuanced, but I don’t want to do that. A lot of other people already have, and there’s a great podcast episode from The New York Times’ pop culture podcast Popcast that does a great job going into detail about the song and how this type of song is nothing new in country music, and how Aldean is fully embracing his conservative beliefs by putting that into his music.

I don’t have anything else to add to the conversation, but the reason I bring it up is because I was hoping the song would crash and burn within its second week on the Billboard 100. It might take a couple of weeks for that to happen, as the only reason the song has any pull is through the push from Aldean’s conservative base, and with the way conservative discourse usually runs, they’ll find something new to champion or try to boycott within the next week. Maybe the song will start to drop next week, but right now, it’s part of the zeitgeist and so is country music. The other two artists in the top three are Morgan Wallen, who faced a similar controversy within the last couple of years, and Luke Combs, whose cover of “Fast Car” has been doing quite well, and that’s why I wanted to bring that up. Country music has only been getting more popular as time has gone on. Despite how reviled “bro-country” was in the early 2010s, it did numbers. Florida Georgia Line, Luke Bryan, and all these guys sell records, despite how bad most people think they are, but it shows they have their fans.

On the flip side, however, you have artists like Tyler Childers, Colter Wall, Jason Isbell, and a lot of artists that are more “progressive” within the country genre, whether it’s politically and/or musically. A lot of them started out in the independent circuit, but a guy like Tyler Childers has blown up considerably, especially with his new song that has the same conservatives that love “Try That In A Small Town” in a tizzy, but there is still a bit of an issue with the artists I mentioned – they’re all straight white guys. Country music has always been a genre for straight, white, and conservative white men. The same goes for most styles of music, such as rock and metal, but country has always been very much a man’s game, considering the “bro-country” moniker, named for songs about girls, beer, and trucks, that was popular in the early 2010s. You don’t see a lot of women or people of color in the genre, at least in the upper echelon of the genre. Sure, you have Lainey Wilson, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood, and other artists like that, but they’re not often taken as seriously, because they’re women. People of color are rarely found in the genre, minus Charley Pride and Darius Rucker, but that’s starting to change.

Looking back at bro-country in retrospect, maybe it was necessary for what’s happening in country now, since there’s a subset of country music that’s blurring the lines between genres, including elements of pop, hip-hop, and R&B, but in a more genuine and interesting way that doesn’t sound like it’s coming from a straight white guy that is performing a song written by other people. I think it started with Lil Nas X back in 2019 when he released “Old Town Road,” but since then, a few other artists have emerged that do something very similar, including Breland, Willie Jones, and Tanner Adell. I’ll be talking about the latter two artists today, because they dropped new records this year. Tanner Adell’s new album just came out, but that inspired me to go back and listen to Willie Jones’ new one from a few months ago. The reason I wanted to talk about them both at the same time is because I feel very similarly about both albums, but there’s a larger point to be made about inclusivity within country music, and how exciting it is that more voices are being able to be heard, whether it’s a Black woman or a Black man. Both Adell and Jones are very fascinating because they take country music and ultimately throw in a myriad of other influences, such as pop, R&B, and hip-hop.

I’ve been a fan of Willie Jones for a minute now, as I found his debut record, 2021’s Right Now, and it was a rather fun, catchy, and interesting combination of sounds that felt very genuine and exciting. The lyrical content was quite solid, too, not saying anything too different from your average country songs, such as about romance, drinking, heartbreak, and things of that nature, but there was a song on that record that brought a unique perspective to the genre by speaking openly about Jones being a Black man within country music. His newest LP, Something To Dance To, doesn’t have anything that deep, or even anything remotely sad or depressing, but the album is surprisingly very positive. While Right Now had a few songs that were about heartbreak, Something To Dance To is a very happy-go-lucky record with song titles like “Let’s Be A Love Song,” “I Can’t Complain,” or “Lil Vibe.” A lot of this record is about celebrating what you have and who you have it with, or just making the most of the moment. Some songs stray from these ideas, such as “Down By The Riverside,” or “No Tellin’,” which is a song that tells a story of Jones and another woman cheating on their partners with each other, and songs like “Slow Cookin’” and “Soul Food” use a lot of southern food metaphors to describe love. Hell, the title track is almost a spiritual successor to “Country Soul” from Right Now, because both songs are about the same thing – how Jones either listens to and/or performs different genres of music. The title track to this record, however, is more so about how it doesn’t matter what you listen to, but if you put on “something to dance to.” That’s where I’d say this album shines, not necessarily the subject matter of the lyrics, but how seamless Jones is able to combine certain styles of music, usually country with something else, such as R&B, soul, hip-hop, or pop music. He’s very blatant about being influenced by other kinds of music, but country music is always the backbone, whether it’s in the subject matter or his very smooth southern drawl that sounds unique.

Tanner Adell is a bit different, both in terms of the way she combines pop, R&B, and country, but mainly for her subject matter. She originally got popular on Tik Tok through releasing snippets of the title track of her debut, Buckle Bunny, and it was an R&B-meets-country song, but the whole record is rather diverse. A few songs on here have a more pop-country tone, such as “Throw It Back,” “FU-150,” or “See You In Church,” but songs like “Buckle Bunny,” “Bake It,” and “Trailer Park Barbie” have a prominent R&B tone to them. “Strawberry Crush” and “I Hate Texas” are more pop-centric songs, and the latter track doesn’t feature any country instrumentation in it, but more so in its vocal and lyrical tone. Adell is a wonderful singer, and a lot of these hooks are utterly fantastic. Granted, nothing sounds incredibly unique, especially the pop-country stuff, like on “Throw It Back” or “See You In Church,” but it’s where she goes for unorthodox sounds that really work, such as “Bake It,” or the title track. The lyrical content on this record, aside from her voice, is honestly what sells it. “Strawberry Crush,” for example, is about Adell fantasizing about hooking up with a woman that she randomly sees in a grocery store while shopping with her boyfriend. I’ve never heard a bisexual country song before, but it’s rather unique subject matter, especially for country music. “Throw It Back” is a clever and fun song that says to treat a man like a fish and “throw it back” if he treats you badly, and “I Hate Texas” is a song that talks about how Adell hates Texas for getting heartbroken as a teenager and realizing that she wouldn’t get her “storybook ending,” ultimately only hating it for the memories she has of this person.

Both of these records ultimately make me feel the same way, and it’s that I enjoy them very much, and I’m very excited for where certain parts of country music are going. It looks like the genre is getting more inclusive and artists that have never gotten the chance to get a voice are doing just that. These are both wonderful records that are also very short. Jones’ new album is only 34 minutes, whereas Adell’s debut is only 24, and because of how much I enjoy them, I’ve been listening to them a few times a day. I wanted to highlight both of these records, not just because they’re new and I had something to say about them, but because with the discourse surrounding “Try That In A Small Town,” I wanted to highlight a couple of artists that are making country music exciting. People who aren’t into country, or already have a negative connotation with it, might look at that song, or any number of popular songs right now, and write off the whole genre. Country music isn’t my favorite kind of music, but I’ve found there’s a lot in it that’s worth enjoying. There are also a lot of artists that are doing unique or interesting things, such as Willie Jones and Tanner Adell. These are most likely going to be a couple of my favorite albums of this year, whether it’s for how catchy they are, how unique they are, and how much fun I have listening to them.

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bubblesandgutz · 7 months

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Every Record I Own - Day 787: Lord Huron Strange Trails

It's weird that I know so little about a record in my collection considering Lord Huron has songs with over a billion plays on Spotify. I guess when you spend all your time obsessing over krautrock obscurities, low-brow death metal, and Miles Davis records, you develop big blindspots in your musical knowledge.

This blindspot was first apparent when I moved to New York and took a job working the door at Webster Hall in Manhattan. I was touring a lot at the time and had a steady stream of writing jobs to supplement my income, but I still felt like I needed a job that got me out of the house. So I worked a few shifts a month at the 1400-person venue, mainly manning the guest list line. It was a decent job. I could pick my shifts. I liked most of my co-workers. And I could usually take off about halfway through the headliner's set and either head home or get a shift drink and watch the band.

It was an interesting job because the size of the venue meant that I was usually working shows for bigger indie artists or mainstream artists doing underplays. Either way, I often wound up working shows for artists I'd never heard of. I remember the Lord Huron show being sold out in advance, which was weird to me because they were completely off my radar. Around the same time, Hot Water Music and Torche---two bands that were a fairly big deal in my world---played the same room to half as many people. It made no sense to me. Being unfamiliar with Lord Huron, and assuming it was some sort of pop / electronic / hip hop mashup, I took off after my shift without catching any of their set.

Later that year, my older brother gave me this copy of Strange Trails. I could've kicked myself for not having checked out their set. Lord Huron plays a reverb-drenched brand of vintage rock n' roll laced with country and folk elements. This kind of stuff is a bit of a minefield for me... if it's too kitschy it feels shallow, if it's too earnest it gets cringey. But Lord Huron does a good job of summoning a nostalgic, dusty vibe without injecting too much overbearing drama. Considering that the band name suggests a central character in their sound, it's interesting that the overall sound of Lord Huron is that of a band where every component sits at a similar level in the mix, meaning the vocals come across as more of a texture than a focal point.

I love a lot of Americana / roots rock / singer-songwriter stuff where the singer adds a whole new depth and dimension to the music, but considering that Lord Huron came out at a time where there was no shortage of indie folk stuff with over-enunciating singers in old-timey garb out there, I appreciate that Strange Trails is a uniquely impersonal album. I don't feel like it's a window into an artist's soul as much as I feel like it's a conjuring of a certain aura---a lonesome bygone sound made by anonymous troubadours. And maybe the reason I've done so little further investigating into the band is because I worry that knowing anything more about Lord Huron or probing any deeper into their catalog will undermine that sense of mystery.

#everyrecordiown #lord huron

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taste-in-music · 2 years

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My Ongoing Spotify Playlists

Hello everyone. Just realized that the playlist masterlist I had in my pinned post is woefully outdated, so here’s a new one! If you look at my Spotify, all the playlists I continuously update are bracketed in emojis. Here’s a guide to the moods and artists you’ll find on each one. (The starred playlists are the ones I find myself listening to the most.)

the dreaming: brain-melting ambient music with an underlying darkness. includes artists like Beach House, Sega Bodega, and Perfume Genius.

plucky ingenue and her vampire companion: delicate songs for a dark academia paranormal romance. includes artists like Hozier, Weyes Blood, and James Blake.

luxardo: luxuriously opulent party music tinged with hyperpop and bloghouse influences. includes artists like Uffie, Rina Sawayama, and Kilo Kish.

shadow season: pure sensuality, dark indulgence, and a bit of a god complex. includes artists like FKA Twigs, BANKS, and Lana Del Rey.

watermelon gum: easy breezy indie pop. includes artists like Foster The People, Maggie Rogers, and The 1975.

tangerine dreams: pure, feel-good summer vibes from an idiosyncratic blend of genres. includes artists like Dominic Fike, Emotional Oranges, and Gorillaz.

✰ helter swelter: rock so hot you can practically feel the steam rising off the pavement. includes artists like Hippo Campus, Yves Tumor, and Snail Mail.

spacefolk: the soundtrack to the space western I’ll never write through a blend of rock, folk, and country. includes artists like Sturgill Simpson, Orville Peck, and David Bowie.

✰ youphoria: dreamy pop that ponders the losses and liminality of adolescence. includes artists like King Princess, Olivia Rodrigo, and Lorde.

funky town: a blend of city pop, throwback hip-hop, and modern funk that is groovy above all else. includes artists like Thundercat, Tame Impala, and Kero Kero Bonito.

satin: just chill. includes artists like SZA, Clairo, and Frank Ocean.

animalism (extended): cathartic indie and rock from (mostly) women that’ll make you want to scream into the night. includes artists like Fiona Apple, Mitski, and Florence + The Machine.

hype in an alternate dimension: intergalactically energetic songs that’ll hype you up, both bombastic pop and hard-hitting rap. includes artists like Charli XCX, Grimes, and Kendrick Lamar.

✰ chill in an alternate dimension: same goal as the playlist above with an opposite approach. songs meant for stargazing and getting lost in the cosmos. includes artists like Kanye West, Daft Punk, and Caroline Polachek.

buttercup daydreams: sweet and soft songs that’ll put a smile on your face. includes artists like dodie, Taylor Swift, and Kacey Musgraves.

leather pumps: getting ready music to make you feel like a bad bitch. includes artists like Doja Cat, Ariana Grande, and Megan Thee Stallion.

alien nation: either music from the 80s or music that sounds like the 80s, whether that be pop, techno, flashdance, or electronic. includes artists like CHVRCHES, The Weeknd, and Depeche Mode.

bloom: love songs with lush soundscapes. includes artists like Carly Rae Jepsen, Troye Sivan, and Ryn Weaver.

serenity base hotel and casino: oldies and indie that you’d hear in a jazz lounge on the moon. includes artists like Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, and The National.

Enjoy!

#playlist #playlist masterlist #indie music #pop music #country music #rock music #r&b music #taste in music #taste in music playlist

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strangledeggs · 4 months

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The Best Albums Of 2018

If you want to see a full review of any specific album on this list, or are wondering why a particular album did or didn’t make the top 10, or are wondering why an album you like from the year in question isn’t on this list at all, send me an ask about it and I’ll try and respond!

The Top 10

Room 25 by Noname

Invasion Of Privacy by Cardi B

A Laughing Death In Meatspace by Tropical Fuck Storm

Wide Awake! by Parquet Courts

Whack World by Tierra Whack

Superorganism by Superorganism

Transangelic Exodus by Ezra Furman

Be The Cowboy by Mitski

Oil Of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides by SOPHIE

Três by Thiago Nassif

The Rest

Care For Me by Saba

Conexão EP by Amber Mark

DAYTONA by Pusha T

Dirty Computer by Janelle Monae

Ephorize by CupcakKe

Foreign Ororo by Riton + Kah-Lo

Guatemaya by Doctor Nativo

Hive Mind by The Internet

I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life by tUnE-yArDs

Interstate Gospels by The Pistol Annies

Queen by Nicki Minaj

Quite A Life by Lyrics Born

Record by Tracey Thorn

Snares Like A Haircut by No Age

Streams Of Thought Vol. 1 by Black Thought

Tantabara by Tal National

Temet by Imarhan

The Terror End Of Beauty by Harriet Tubman

DROGAS WAVE by Lupe Fiasco

There’s A Riot Going On by Yo La Tengo

Things Have Changed by Bettye LaVette

Twerp Verse by Speedy Ortiz

Twin Fantasy by Car Seat Headrest

Un Autre Blanc by Salif Keita

What A Time To Be Alive by Superchunk

What Happens When I Try To Relax by Open Mike Eagle

Your Queen Is A Reptile by Sons Of Kemet

Coming off of a previous year I described as lackluster, this is more like it. 38 albums in total, but more importantly, I had a particularly difficult time picking the top 10 for this year. The top 3-4 proved especially difficult – I was pretty certain after a while that Noname’s “Room 25”, perhaps the peak of what one can accomplish with the “personal is political” mantra, was going to take the top spot, but was I prepared to admit that Cardi B’s pop triumph “Invasion Of Privacy” was better than Parquet Courts’ best album yet? And so, apparently, was Tropical Fuck Storm’s unrelenting “A Laughing Death In Meatspace”? It hurt me to rank some of these things the way I did, but because of this, I’m fairly confident that you could pull any of the top 10 albums at random and have a great time regardless. Just make sure to watch the videos for Tierra Whack’s album, too, since they’re a whole work of art in themselves (it’s 15 minutes of your life for one of the most creative hip-hop visual spectacles of the century so far, come on, just do it).

What’s more, typing out the rest of the list made me realize what an awesome year this was simply by how many I realized I was sad to have to leave out of the top 10. Let me tell you, in any number of weaker years (like the last, or perhaps the next one, as you’ll see), contributions by Speedy Ortiz, Superchunk, Open Mike Eagle, Harriet Tubman, No Age, The Pistol Annies, Saba, Amber Mark and more would have made it into that upper tier. It’s a true testament to the strength of this year’s releases that they didn’t; I would strongly recommend checking out much of the second-tier list as well if you’re looking for the outstanding accomplishments in hip-hop, country, indie rock, desert rock and believe it or not, avant-garde jazz (Sons Of Kemet deserve a shout-out here, too, for their unique brass band approach).

One strange quirk I’ve noticed about this year is that it features several artists who seem either to have peaked here, releasing a lesser follow-up in the next few years, or who have yet to release a follow-up at all. Parquet Courts, No Age, Noname, Nicki Minaj, Pusha T, The Internet, Cardi B, Tierra Whack, Mitski, Superorganism and sadly even Tropical Fuck Storm and the aforementioned Sons Of Kemet all fall into these categories to varying extents. Hopefully I’ll be proven wrong in some way on at least a few of those soon, but even if they don’t bounce back, many of those artists can rest easy knowing they’ve created at least one masterpiece, which is more than most can say.

Speaking specifically to a few trends I noticed from the previous year, I will acknowledge that “mainstream”-leaning pop remains under-represented here, though I think this may just be my general bias as a critic to ignore most of it or even to recognize that the stuff that makes it on to my radar as interesting enough to write about is still too inconsistent to make a year-end list in terms of quality. Then again, I put Cardi B, breakout pop-star of the year, at #2, so you can’t complain too much there. Second, I should clarify that while I said in the previous year’s essay that I was ready to re-listen to Mount Eerie’s follow-up grieving-process album “Now Only”, I ultimately felt that it couldn’t hold its own against the other albums I selected for this year’s list. Which, again, is just an indication of how good 2018 was; nothing against “Now Only”, it’s still a very good album and you should listen to it if you...enjoyed(?) “A Crow Looked At Me”.

Finally, I’m glad to see a bit more music from outside the “western” pop sphere sneaking onto this year’s list as well. Thiago Nassif’s Tom Zé-like “Três” made the very end of the top 10, but you’ll find Guatemala’s Doctor Nativo, Nigeria’s Kah-Lo, Niger’s Tal National, Algeria’s Imarhan and Mali’s Salif Keita elsewhere on the list, each of which is worth checking out and each of which brings their own unique sound to the table. And on a sadder note, it’s still hard for me to believe SOPHIE is no longer with us after releasing such a final masterwork as “Oil Of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides”. We truly lost a once-in-a-generation talent with her.

#Music Criticism #Music #2018 #Best of project #Albums #Pop Music #Albums of the year #Best of 2018

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cyarsk52-20 · 5 months

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Missy Elliott. Chaka Khan. Willie Nelson. Rage Against the Machine. These are just a few of the legends that make up the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s class of 2023—and here we look back on their incredible contributions to culture.

November 3 marks the 38th annual induction ceremony for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Things have certainly changed since the mid-’80s, and this year’s class demonstrates the strides the organization has made to include, and celebrate, artists who have left a huge impact on the genre—even if they’re not necessarily rock ’n’ roll artists themselves. Take Missy Elliott, who’s not only the first female MC to be inducted, but a prolific artist and producer responsible for some of the most enduring hip-hop and pop hits of the early 21st century. There’s also Willie Nelson, whose career could be summed up as one of the quietest but most sustained rebellions not just in country music but in music in general.

Then again, the attitude has always been more important than the sound, and the most compelling artists have often been the ones willing to do things differently, whether it’s the abstraction of a Bob Dylan lyric or DJ Kool Herc manually running a copy of James Brown’s “Sex Machine” back at a party, creating a seemingly infinite drum loop that became the very foundation of hip-hop. With that, we’ve broken down this year’s inductees into four categories as a way to highlight the various—but essential—ways each contribute: the voices that lead, the rebels who question, the architects who lay the groundwork for future discoveries, and the team players who quietly help bring the show together.

Looking over this year’s inductees, the starting point is almost always the voice. Not only is it literally the first thing out of an artist’s mouth, it’s a metaphor for what sets us apart from the crowd—an especially crucial factor when you’re talking about the individuality and sense of self-expression at the heart of rock ’n’ roll. The fact that you didn’t have to be great in the old-fashioned or technical sense never hurt, either: This is music for—and by—the people.

MISSY ELLIOTT

Missy Elliott is one of the most distinctive voices in modern hip-hop, not to mention the first female MC to make it into the Rock Hall. But take a closer look and you’ll see an artist who has changed pop on pretty much every level, both onstage and off. Raised in the Hampton Roads area of coastal Virginia, she started her career writing for artists like Aaliyah (including “One in a Million” and “I Care 4 U”), Total, and SWV with fellow genius—and childhood friend—Timbaland. By her own admission, she would’ve been fine behind the scenes but decided to step out anyway, creating a sound that combined the flash of pop with the attitude of classic hip-hop and a playful, futuristic production style that helped reshape the sound of pretty much everything we’d consider popular music since (“Get Ur Freak On,” “The Rain [Supa Dupa Fly],” “Work It”). Casual, collected, easily imitated but never replicated, Missy stands out.

“I think when you creative, you know that you have something that is different,” she told Apple Music of finding her voice, in a 2016 interview. “You just have to step out in faith and not be scared. You have to be true to yourself. That’s the biggest thing. If I’m true to myself, then I’m able to sleep at night if it don’t work. When I was out, there was a certain look and style and sound, and I just came out doing me—and people gravitated to it. You just got to take that chance. I know people always say there’s nothing new under the sun. I don’t necessarily believe that. Before a Missy, there was nobody like Missy.”

CHAKA KHAN

In terms of raw power, you don’t get a lot of voices like Chaka Khan. From her early days with the band Rufus (“Tell Me Something Good,” “Sweet Thing”) to solo tracks like “I’m Every Woman” and “I Feel for You,” Khan is one of the few artists who managed to ride the transition from soul to funk to disco, synth-pop, and club music without missing a beat. She’s nurtured her roots in jazz and classic vocal pop (Echoes of an Era, Classikhan) while continuing to keep an eye on the present, and has collaborated with artists as free-ranging and influential as Miles Davis, Prince, and Mary J. Blige, with whom she won a Grammy in 2008 (“Disrespectful”). A great instrument, yes—but in her voice you can also hear the evolution of Black American pop. “I heard quite a few people who were great in what they did, but a lot of times greatness lacks charisma,” she tells Apple Music, when asked if she found inspiration in other vocalists when she was young and coming up. “There’s something else, a component, a magical source, a recipe. I don’t know what mine was at the time. I think one of the best things about me then and still is that I don’t really recognize or see myself like other people say they see and feel me. To me, singing is natural—it’s just second nature. It’s the easiest thing for me to do.”

GEORGE MICHAEL

Even during his fresh-faced pretty-boy days in the early-’80s synth-pop duo Wham!, you could tell George Michael had something special. He didn’t just sing “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” and “Careless Whisper” and “Last Christmas,” he wrote and produced them—and all before he turned 22, no less. His first two solo albums—Faith and Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1—made him one of the most visible and successful pop artists of the ’80s and ’90s, each exploring masculinity and male sexuality with a tenderness unmatched at the time by anyone outside Prince. And while he didn’t record much in the decade before his death in 2016, he continued a vibrant touring and philanthropic life, donating freely to children’s counseling services, AIDS awareness and research organizations, and—famously—the occasional stranger. His voice was powerful—but his restraint was inspiring.

“It was validation, it was affirmation for him,” Michael’s Wham! bandmate Andrew Ridgeley shared with Apple Music, about his rise to pop stardom. “It went some way to confirming his belief in himself and his personal self-image... There’s a photo of us backstage at the final [Wham! show], and it’s a wonderful photo of him. He has become George Michael, the man he was destined to be. It was a long, long way from the kid who started out at Bushey Meads, and the kid who started out in Wham! as well.”

SHERYL CROW

Sheryl Crow has the kind of resume that can sneak up on you. It isn’t just realizing how many of her songs you already know (“All I Wanna Do,” “Everyday Is a Winding Road,” “Soak Up the Sun”) or the way she quietly splits the difference between country, roots-rock, and adult contemporary pop; it’s that she’s done it all while standing seemingly just outside the spotlight—an insider’s outsider, or vice versa. Born in small-town Missouri in 1962, she started her career as a backup singer for artists like Michael Jackson and Don Henley while writing songs that ended up being recorded by Tina Turner and Céline Dion. Her 1993 debut, Tuesday Night Music Club, was the kind of unassuming phenomenon that set the pace for one of the more varied careers in pop music. Really—who else can say they not only sang with both Prince and Johnny Cash, but had their songs covered by both, too? Then again, if she blew her own horn, she wouldn’t be Sheryl Crow. “For me, I’ve just always been so in the journey that, getting to this point, it’s hard for me to even relate to the fact that I’ve been doing it now for over 30 years,” Crow told Apple Music upon hearing the news that she was going to be inducted. “It doesn’t seem like that long. I feel like my best work’s in front of me.”

Talking about punk rock during his induction of Patti Smith in 2007, Rage Against the Machine lead singer (and 2023 Hall of Fame inductee) Zack de la Rocha said, “The movement she helped define explained why people like me related more to the Bad Brains than the Eagles, why we championed The Clash and hated Ronald Reagan…. Expanding rock’s boundaries, Patti Smith, the poet, revealed truth regardless of the political and social consequences.” Not every artist worked at such a grand scale, but de la Rocha’s broader point is clear: Without rebellion, it isn’t really rock ’n’ roll.

KATE BUSH

From the minute she walked into her label’s offices insisting that her first single be “Wuthering Heights” (over the label’s first choice) at 19, Kate Bush has done it her own way. Her ’80s albums—self-written and -produced—stand as some of the most formidable and influential music of their time, walking the line between relatively straightforward art pop like “This Woman’s Work” and the suite-like experiments of Hounds of Love’s second half. When 1985’s “Running Up That Hill” suddenly went triple platinum in the UK in 2022 on the heels of a feature in the Netflix show Stranger Things, it was, on the one hand, a surprise: After all, not many songs go triple platinum nearly 40 years after their first release. But to longtime fans, it made a poetic kind of sense: When you’re on your own clock, there’s always time for people to catch up.

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE

There are quiet rebellions, and there’s Rage Against the Machine. Not only did they successfully combine the delivery of punk and metal with the rhythms of hip-hop and funk, they exposed a generation of listeners to politics and modes of thinking they’d never heard on mainstream rock radio before, whether it was the way “Killing in the Name” framed the police as domestic terrorists (“Some of those that work forces/Are the same that burn crosses”) or the anti-colonialist history of “People of the Sun.” This was music you could lift weights to, blast at the bar to, and contemplate to in equal measure. The rebellion wasn’t just in the sound or ideas—it was in making itself accessible enough to turn millions of heads inside out. The band’s members were as uncompromising as their sound. “Around the origins of Rage Against the Machine, for the first time in my life, I was able to write music that I loved,” guitarist Tom Morello told Apple Music in 2019. “Prior to then, I had been in another band, we had been dropped by a label. I vowed to myself that I was only going to play music that I really believe in. I’ve held true to that. My only bar for releasing something is: Do I love it? When you love it, you rock that shit.”

WILLIE NELSON

Few artists have brushed so casually and yet so continuously against the grain as Willie Nelson. From his days writing future standards like “Crazy,” “Funny How Time Slips Away,” and “Hello Walls” to his outlaw period in the ’70s to the mix of covers (the Sinatra album My Way) and originals (Last Man Standing) he’s continued to put out in his eighties and now nineties, Nelson has managed to avoid the ever-shifting winds of fashion while continuing to sound vital—not to mention nurturing the jazz, bluegrass, and early American pop that make up country music’s roots. So much of his natural tendency to cut his own path is rooted in the way he grew up in Abbott, Texas, a small town of 350 people outside of Waco. “We are very independent up there, have always been all our lives,” he told Apple Music in 2020. “All Sunday, we used to go out and fight bumblebees, and then we’d come home all swole up with our eyes closed and talk about how much fun we used to have. I come from a crazy bunch of people, and I’ve always stood up for what I believed in and looked forward to somebody to disagree, because I don’t mind arguing or stating my opinions. You have yours. I have mine.”

2021 was the first year in which the Rock Hall stretched the Early Influences category (later renamed “Musical Influences”) to include artists whose careers postdated the birth of rock ’n’ roll, inducting R&B poet Gil Scott-Heron and electronic-pop pioneers Kraftwerk. The shift not only made room for contemporary artists, but for artists whose influence was less about the direct passing of a stylistic torch—the way, say, The Clash and Sex Pistols spawned punk—than laying the foundation for entirely new ways of approaching their music, whether it was Kraftwerk’s embrace of synthesizers and electronics or the way Scott-Heron’s experiments led to what eventually became rap. The work wasn’t done single-handedly, of course—but without their contributions, we might not have gotten there at all.

DJ KOOL HERC

When DJ Kool Herc debuted the record-spinning technique we later came to call the “break” at a Bronx house party back in 1973, he didn’t know he was helping to create an art form in hip-hop. The short version: Take two copies of the same record on adjacent turntables; get to the funkiest, most danceable part; and manually run the records back—one, then the other—to stretch the section out as long as you wanted. Of course, DJs had played an essential role in spreading culture since the advent of recorded music. But the idea that a record itself could be played like an instrument was radical, to say nothing of working-class kids in the Bronx—many of them, like Herc, from families of Caribbean immigrants—starting a revolution that changed American pop. That Herc never really made the leap to recording music the way his peers did makes his induction all the more significant: Like early blues and folk artists whose work was either undocumented or lost, Herc’s legacy lives on in story.

LINK WRAY

Few guitarists had as profound an impact on the sound and feel of rock music as Link Wray. Born in North Carolina in 1929, he started out playing country before developing a spooky instrumental style that culminated in 1958’s “Rumble,” a track whose raw distortion came in part from Wray playing through an amp whose speaker he’d stabbed with a pencil. Generations later, his early recordings still sound like a blueprint for the attitude and menace that has lurked in rock music’s darker corners ever since, from slicked-back rockabilly to thrash. Pete Townshend of The Who famously said that if it hadn’t been for “Rumble,” he would’ve never picked up a guitar. But the best talking-head testimonial for Wray’s influence was Jimmy Page in the 2008 documentary It Might Get Loud, basking to the track in smiling air-guitar reverence, saying nothing at all.

THE SPINNERS

The Spinners are one of the great second-chance stories in pop. Formed in Detroit in the early ’60s, they spent a mostly unremarkable decade with Motown Records before moving to Atlantic, where they connected with Philadelphia songwriter Thom Bell. The work that followed—including “I’ll Be Around,” “Could It Be I’m Falling in Love,” and the Dionne Warwick collaboration “Then Came You”—didn’t just rejuvenate the group’s career, it helped define the romantic, soft-focus sound of ’70s soul at a time when Black pop was moving further into the American mainstream. Their recording career petered out by the ’90s, but their influence continues to resonate. When asked what made the group’s take on soul so distinct, current member Jessie Peck is clear: “Definitely the music,” he tells Apple Music. “The way in which the music was delivered by the guys. The style and the class—The Spinners have always been a class act—not to mention the harmonies that The Spinners sing in. I mean, those things are different from what other groups were doing. It was far from the norm. And that remains the case to this day.”

Everyone knows the stars out front. But it’s the faces at the side of the stage that often make the biggest impact, which is why the Rock Hall’s awards for musical excellence (formerly known as “sidemen”) and non-performers (the Ahmet Ertegun Award) exist. Here’s where we honor the producers, songwriters, DJs, executives, session musicians, and other figures who might not necessarily make the music, but who make the music—and the culture surrounding it—possible. Take Ice-T inducting the late Sire Records founder and Warner Bros. vice president Seymour Stein back in 2005: “When you’re a musician and you’ve never had a record deal, basically, you’re on the street. You just have a hope and a dream…. [Seymour] took a cat out of the street—and I was a no-good cat—and basically not only changed my life, but for all practical purposes saved my life.”

DON CORNELIUS

As author and Roots drummer Questlove once put it, Soul Train’s Don Cornelius was, next to Motown founder Berry Gordy, the most crucial non-political figure to come out of the post-Civil Rights era. A radio broadcaster by trade, Cornelius became not only the first Black man to create, host, and own his own nationally syndicated television show, but the first to put Black artists and audiences on a national stage in what felt like a genuinely Black context. It wasn’t just the outfits or the dancing, either: Even the show’s commercials—for products like Ultra Sheen and Afro Sheen—reflected images of Blackness and Black pride most of America hadn’t yet seen, and especially hadn’t seen on the screen.

BERNIE TAUPIN

When Elton John got onstage to give his induction speech at the Rock Hall back in 1994, he offered a disclaimer: “I feel cheating standing up here, because without Bernie, there wouldn’t have been Elton John at all.” “Bernie” meant Bernie Taupin, who wrote the lyrics to pretty much every major Elton John song since the two met after they both answered an ad in the English music magazine New Musical Express back in 1967.

In Taupin’s lyrics you could hear the grandeur and nostalgia we came to associate with classic rock come alive line by line, whether it’s the boys out for a rumble on “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” or the beautiful ache of “Tiny Dancer” and “Rocket Man.” “The thing that I’m proudest of is Elton and I’s relationship,” Taupin told Apple Music, upon hearing of his own induction. “Musically we are completely in sync. We have never faltered in our desire to create the best that we possibly can.”

AL KOOPER

Al Kooper might be one of the best decorated rock musicians most listeners have never heard of. Born in Brooklyn in 1944, he started playing professionally while still a teenager, co-writing a few hits for artists like Gene Pitney and Gary Lewis & The Playboys. At 21 he found himself in a session with Bob Dylan, improvising the organ part to “Like a Rolling Stone” despite apparently not even having known how to turn the instrument on. He helped form Blood, Sweat & Tears in 1967 but left a year later, and collaborated with the guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills on the seminal blues-rock album Super Session in 1968. He played piano on The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” and signed Lynyrd Skynyrd after hearing them at a bar in Atlanta in 1972, eventually producing their first three albums, which included “Free Bird” and “Sweet Home Alabama.”

Tune in to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on November 3 at 8 pm ET, live on Apple Music 1 and on Disney+ live and on demand.

And don’t forget to watch the induction ceremony, New Year’s Day on abc and next day on Hulu

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silverfoxlou · 2 years

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Why Indie Artists Are a Rarity on Radio: ‘If You Don’t Pay, You Don’t Move Up’

Promotion executives from independent labels tell Billboard that a pay-to-play "toll" is keeping them off the airwaves.

Not long ago, a major-label radio promotion executive had a song climbing into the top 10 in his format. Eager to maintain the track’s upward momentum, he tried to get a station in a small city in the Northeast to put the song into rotation. There was only one problem: That station worked with a middleman, known as an independent radio promoter, who controlled what tracks received airplay. And that middleman demanded $3,000 for an “add.”

“It frustrates the hell out of me,” the executive says. “But if you don’t pay, you don’t move up,” he notes, referring to the radio airplay charts.

Adding to the frustration: The cost was high enough to make even a deep-pocketed major label think twice. In the world of independent labels, though, $3,000 to get one song played on one station in a small market can be prohibitive. “Majors can throw so much money at a release and get it running up the chart,” says one executive with experience running radio campaigns for indie labels. “As an independent label, you can get something played at a small handful of commercial stations. Once your budget runs out, you almost have a built-in ceiling.”

This has become a growing concern for indie labels, according to promotion executives who spoke on the condition of anonymity, to the point where some are considering appealing for help from government regulators or investigators. While radio rarely breaks hits in the streaming era outside of country music, it remains important in building recognition at a mass scale, as well as raising awareness in local markets for artists on tour. Radio airplay charts continue to be a metric of success in the music industry internally, and airplay remains one of the components of the Billboard charts.

Over half a dozen promotion executives say it is still common to have to pay in money or goods to get a song added to a station’s playlist or to increase its spin count. Independent labels are battling to gain exposure for their artists by any means necessary in a ruthlessly competitive musical landscape, and these sorts of promotional costs put them at a distinct disadvantage with the majors.

Promotion executives offer varying estimates of the costs of campaigns, but sources say a serious push at triple A can run $30,000 and up, while making an impact at alternative radio is likely going to cost at least $40,000, but could take more than $60,000. A campaign at active rock and adult top 40 will often set a record company back even more, these sources say, and if a label sets its sights on the top of the mainstream R&B/hip-hop or top 40 airplay charts, the budget is likely going to be six figures. (Though one source claims you can launch a campaign at top 40 with $70,000.) A pair of promotion executives say that between 20% and 40% of this money, depending on the format, will go to independent promoters who control access to specific stations.

But several indie-label executives say a budget of $15,000 for a radio campaign is their ceiling. Shelling out for airplay “is the cost of doing business,” says one promotion executive at an indie label. “The problem is that the cost is getting more and more.”

It’s not surprising, then, that major labels accounted for more than 85% of the tracks on Billboard’s year-end 2021 Radio Songs chart. For comparison’s sake, a conservative estimate from December 2021 pegs the major labels’ share of recorded-music revenue for the year at 66.1% — indicating that indie labels play a larger role in the overall music ecosystem than they do on the airwaves. The three biggest radio companies either did not respond to questions about promotional costs or declined to comment.

Paying to get songs on the air has been a fixture of the music industry since the early days of rock’n’roll. Congressional hearings in the 1950s resulted in a 1960 decision that prohibited direct payments by labels (aka payola), but a loophole opened the door to independent promoters as middlemen. In 1990, when Fredric Dannen published Hit Men, his investigative history of the music business, he reported that major labels were laying out as much as $80 million a year (the equivalent of $210 million today) to middlemen to get their songs spins during the 1980s.

A 2004 investigation by the New York attorney general’s office — then under Eliot Spitzer — made it clear that the practice of paying for airplay was still flourishing: “Please be advised that in this week’s Jennifer Lopez Top 40 spin increase of 236 we bought 63 spins at the cost of $3600,” one promotion executive wrote in a 2005 email obtained by the attorney general.

In 2007, following the Spitzer investigation, the Federal Communications Commission secured a pledge from four major radio chains to play more independent music on the air. But little changed. A 2008 study by the Future of Music Coalition noted that “over 92% of independent labels report no change in their relationship with commercial radio since the settlement.” What’s more, “nearly half of respondents [surveyed] reported that payola remains a determining factor in commercial radio airplay.”

Today, promotion executives say the pay-to-play “toll” remains in place at some stations, and radio playlists have narrowed even further, making each slot on the airwaves that much more competitive. “It’s hard to work a record through the system if you don’t have some type of resources,” says one radio promotion veteran with extensive major-label experience. “It can be a struggle for some of these smaller labels that are trying to get things going, especially at the stations that have those deals [with specific independent promoters who require a toll]. Certain companies aren’t going to be able to compete with [a major] when it comes to payments and what they can afford to pay an indie promoter.”

As a result, some independent labels have chosen to tap out. “There are certain formats that indie labels don’t venture into because they just can’t afford it,” says one longtime member of the independent music community who has worked at a variety of labels, pointing especially to top 40 and country radio. “Most independents I know have just given up.”

“The airwaves are designed not to be built for all,” adds one frustrated promotion executive who works at an indie label. “You can only come to the table if you’re spending the right amount of money and you know the right people.”

#billboard #radio #i believe this is behind a paywall so if anyone was curious and wanted to read the full thing #also #if billboard knows this... and cares.. why do they still include radio when they calculate the charts?#not that streaming is much better but anyways

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glitterslag · 2 years

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modern day!Eddie headcanons

perhaps i am soft launching my return to fic writing..?😳😳😳 i've been thinking about this since i made this post. And i have a LOT of thoughts ok 🥺👉👈

oh, and there's also a light smattering of eddie x reader somewhere in there🤠

Warnings: 18+ for mild sexual references and drug references

Ok so just for starters: 2022 Eds would ID as bisexual and use he/they pronouns, got it? Good.

He isn't necessarily all the way out at school, but he's not exactly hiding it either. His friends know about it, and Eddie can think of a certain couple of basketball jocks who definitely know about it (case in point, the captain of the basketball team who drunkenly tried to give him a handjob round the back of the house at a party once, who'd DIE if anyone ever found out about it (and Eds won't tell cause he's cool like that).

Eddie's struggled with honestly pretty debilitating ADHD since childhood, but thankfully it eventually got picked up on by the school after one-too-many trips to the behavioural unit. He got referred to the educational specialist and managed to get on meds in time for starting high school, so he managed to graduate in one try, even if it was by the skin of his teeth.

He'd enjoy history, physics and english lit, especially once he got more of a handle on his adhd and with good teachers who knew how to help.

I could write a whole separate post about Eddie's opinions of the books on the A Level curriculum, but I will say I feel like he'd get quite into some of the more gothic stuff like macbeth and wuthering heights

Sadly I think in regards to his popularity in school, not much would've changed since the 80s. Although I don't think people would be scared of him exactly (the whole satanic panic thing would've died down at this point and people would be more familiar with the metalhead subculture), he'd still get made fun of for being alt and for living in a trailer :/

But he'd still have a core group of good friends and I feel like he'd be a little more popular with girls, too, as it's so much more acceptable now for guys not to be a hyper-masculine stereotype.

I could also write a whole separate post based on eddie's music taste!! I think in 2022 he'd totally branch out from just metal. He'd be into people like bowie and maybe even the smiths (actually i think 80s!eddie would also be into these on the quiet). This might be my most controversial take but i also feel like he'd appreciate people like lana del rey, regina spektor, GRIMES, etc. He'd be into horror rap and maybe even some old school hip hop. He'd be into new wave and glam rock and space rock. Also anyone who's just a genuinely really skilled musician/artist, anyone who does like high concept stuff etc. Could also see him getting into really dark, atmospheric country music

I think he'd just be really knowledgeable about music in general, like a special interest

He'd definitely still be a metalhead first, though

HE'D MAKE IT TO COLLEGE

college is the only place i see eddie after high school. He'd definitely thrive there. Sadly the scholarship options aren't great as he doesn't play sports or anything, but hopefully he'd manage to get to a community college or get a low income scholarship or something similar

He'd BLOSSOM at college. He'd come out of his shell so much more with his style - he'd paint his nails and experiment with make up and get his ear pierced and all that kind of thing

Imagine you meet him in college and have so much fun spending your Saturdays thrifting, going to antiques stores and second hand book stores and record stores and comic book stores and board game cafes and arcades and exploring the local small music scene and swapping clothes and doing each others makeup and getting drunk and getting high and generally being public nuisances I- 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

Matching tattoos. MATCHING TATTOOS

Imagine floating about in his band t-shirts and not much else

If you became a couple it'd be a given that you'd share a wardrobe. No matter what gender/size you are as his partner it's all good cuz like one of your shirts being huge and baggy on the other? Or tiny and cropped? No matter - you'd just be constantly exploring and experimenting and rebranding yourselves

to be honest you'd probably be the quintessential insufferable, pretentious hipstery douchbaggy college kids lol but like it's such a special time!!!!!! all can be forgiven cause what college kid isn't like that

Pulling all-nighters abusing his adhd meds and coke, probably to get essays finished.

Him and his group of friends probably wouldn't be the partying kind. More like staying up all night in someones dorm room smoking, drinking, etc, a baseball sock over the fire alarm so they don't set it off. They'd go on such douchey, existential, substance-fuelled RANTS thinking they were such philosophers and beat poets and the like

Speaking of philosophy, Eddie would probably minor in it. I think he'd probably choose something he felt was "practical" to major in in his first year of study, but end up switching his major with encouragement from his friends and teachers to like, music production or english lit or classics

Dark academia vibes for days🤪🤪🤪

I somehow feel like he'd be all over social media. He'd definitely have twitter and instagram and tiktok. He'd probably have like an instagram spam account where he just shit-posts all day

Would literally send you the. most. CURSED memes on the planet

He'd have the most elite taste in film - lots of classic horror and arthouse stuff

You'd have so much fun watching really low budget badly-acted slasher flicks, too, laughing your asses off the whole time

Of COURSE there'd be a D&D club at college, which Eddie would be all over, obviously. IMAGINE college D&D, it would be so fun with added alcohol. And don't get me started on the meme references. And he'd be in the campus library for hours making the most high-tech character sheets

And the best part? No-one would make fun of him for liking it cause hello it's 2022!!!!! And its college!!!!!🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

Eddie may have been the underdog in school, but when it comes to college? That boy is DROWNING in e-girl pussy, let me tell you. And he would get so much dick too. I think if single, college Eddie would be the biggest, happiest slut on the planet. In fact, he'd probably have people queuing up to be part of his D&D group

big BNOC energy

I feel like he'd amass a bit of a following on tiktok

Final thing: I actually think he'd get into sports in college. After he shakes off high school and the chip on his shoulder about his masculinity, he explores different sports clubs that he could potentially join and i can really see him doing something like hockey and getting all of his aggression out??? My other hypothesis is that he'd enjoy racket sports like maybe badminton or raquetball or something

that's it good night

#eddie munson #eddie munson headcanons #eddie munson x reader #stranger things s4 #my wriitng

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