On This Day…
2003 – After the controversy regarding Dixie Chicks member Natalie Maines’ comments about President George W. Bush and the Iraq war, a Colorado radio station suspended two of its disc jockeys for playing music by Dixie Chicks.
2004 – A sale at Christie’s in London, England became the most successful pop auction in the company’s history after Beatles memorabilia sold for a record £788,643. The auction included a leather collar worn by John Lennon which sold for £117,250. A signed copy of a management deal with The Beatles and manager Brian Epstein sold for £122,850. A Vox Kensington guitar used by Lennon and Harrison went for £100,000. Also sold – a coloured felt-pen drawing by Lennon (£10,000), a letter with his signature (£5,500), and a pen-and-ink drawing called Happy Fish (£9,500).
2005 – US coffee shop chain Starbucks banned the sale of Bruce Springsteen’S latest album Devils and Dust over concerns about its adult content. The retailer – which stocked CDs at its branches in the US – said it would be promoting other albums instead.
2015 – The results of the evolution of western pop music, spanning from 1960 to 2010, was published in The Royal Society Open Science Journal. The scientists who looked at more than 17,000 songs found three music revolutions – in 1964, 1983 and 1991. In 1964 the invasion of British bands introduced a radical new rocky sound. Synthesisers, samplers and drum machines, drove a second major style shift in 1983. The third, in 1991, came about when rap and hip-hop went mainstream. The team also refuted claims that pop music was starting to sound the same.
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Brand New Music
KAYTRANADA | 99.9%
It’s little wonder why KAYTRANADA has become one of the most sought after producers of 2016. After contributing to a slew of big names, dropping a few EPs, making a few remixes of other tunes, this is it – KAYTRANADA’s LP. 99.9% goes in a lot of directions, from hip-hop, pop, R&B, disco, jazz and house it’s almost exactly what we’ve come to expect from the Montréal beatmaker. At the end of it all, however, we’re left to wonder what exactly the intention was and how he could more effectively pull something like this off if he focused on one area of his craft. Maybe this is just a representation of the new-school. Somebody who has such a great understanding of a wide area of music and taste that their albums and music are such a mashup of styles that it becomes a new thing entirely. ‘Future-Jazz’, so to speak.
Julianna Barwick | Will
This is an incredibly emotional and dramatic record throughout. Beautifully and remarkably written, Will is a record that shows Julianna Barwick reaching out to a wider audience, but thankfully doing it her way. By deconstructing and rebuilding her traditional forms and creating a presence this is an ambient representation of her intentionally fragmented self-portrait.
White Lung | Paradise
This is an amazingly powerful punk record. Incrediably thrilling, it sounds like what punk will be in the 2120 let alone 2016. Heavier, shredded, expansive and yet still accessible this band is a freight train on Paradise and it is absolutely breathtaking.
