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Open Source Music: Get Your Hands Out of My Pocket

February 13, 2012 By Derrick N Ashong Leave a Comment

Last night I took a train back to NYC so I missed the first half of the Grammys. I got back in time to see some great performances, some wonderful tributes and a few compulsory “huh?” moments. All in all it was a great night for the music biz, though dampened by the recent loss [...]

Filed Under: Music Tagged With: Beloved Country, Chris Brown, Country Artist, Don Cornelius, Etta James, Free As In Freedom, Grammys, Great Performances, Hands Out My Pocket, Hands Out Of My Pocket, Lyle Lovett, Material Value, Million Records, Music Biz, Open Source Music, Progenitor, Real Tribute, Record Sales, Renowned Artist, Whitney Houston, Whiz Bang

Marta Eggerth, Operetta Superstar, Turning 100

February 10, 2012 By Michael Sigman Leave a Comment

What do folk icon Woody Guthrie, classical colossus Georg Solti, legendary bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins and relaxed pop crooner Perry Como have in common? And what do they share with the amazing singer/actress Marta Eggerth, queen of the Viennese operetta during that undervalued genre’s Silver Age? All five musical greats were born in 1912. But while the four men will observe their [...]

Filed Under: Music Tagged With: Arts News, Centennials, Crooner Perry, Franz LeháR, Fritz Kreisler, Georg Solti, Gorgeous Voice, Gustav Mahler, Hundredth Birthday, Jacques Offenbach, Jan Kiepura, Judy Garland, Legendary Bluesman, Marjan Kiepura, Marta Eggerth, Mid 1930s, Musical Comedy, Musical Greats, Native Hungary, Operetta, Operetta Composers, Oscar Straus, perry como, Public Consciousness, ranz Lehar, Robert Stolz, Striking Appearance, Viennese Operetta, Woody Guthrie

Free as in Freedom, Again

February 7, 2012 By Derrick N Ashong Leave a Comment

Last week I wrote about the economics of the music industry, and why it’s not necessarily such a radical idea for artists to give away their music for “free.” But there are different definitions of the word. For the purposes of this argument, there’s “free” as in no cost, and there’s “free” as in music. What [...]

Filed Under: Music Tagged With: Amp, Artistry, Community Artists, Creative Community, Creative Industries, Filmmaker, Free As In Freedom, Free Music, Fundamental Aspect, Glimpse, Motivations, Music Industry, Musician, Outliers, Peeps, Poet, Prime Targets, Radical Idea, Sake, True Artists

Wilco Rocks — And Not Just For Dads

February 1, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment

Dad Rock, my ass. OK, I’ll admit that I am over 50 and the father of two, and that when I saw Wilco at the Warfield in San Francisco the other night, I fit comfortably within the demographic most represented — relatively immobile white men over 40, holding plastic cups of beer and shaking nothing but their [...]

Filed Under: Music Tagged With: Billy Bragg, Bruce Springsteen, Captivating Voice, Dad Rock, Elation, Front Man, Honest Songs, Lyricist, Moniker, Plastic Cups, Rock Bands, Rock Musicians, Self Destruction, Self Doubt, Singer Songwriters, Unreleased Material, Voice Part, Warfield, White Men, Wilco, Woody Guthrie

Free as in Freedom

January 30, 2012 By Derrick N Ashong 1 Comment

Six months ago while in the final throes of completing this album, we did a show @ a punk Rock venue in Brooklyn (do we look punk? No, but we think that way). The jam was a blast & I got to connect with some old friends and fans as it was our first NY [...]

Filed Under: Music Tagged With: Amount Of Money, Artistry, Brand Equity, Fella, Free As In Freedom, Jay Z, Justin Bieber, Music Industry, Nj Nets, Old Friends, Pales In Comparison, Punk Rock, Record Royalties, Recording Industry, Rocawear, Rock Venue, Royalty Rate, Taylor Swift, Throes, Upper Echelons

Million Download Campaign: Open Source Music

January 25, 2012 By Derrick N Ashong Leave a Comment

I got up this morning and spent some time writing about the idea of “Open Source Culture” which I’m going to be presenting at a few different talks over the course of the next few weeks. Then I show up at the studio and lo-and-behold one of the informants for today’s episode of The Stream is referencing [...]

Filed Under: Music Tagged With: Alternate Models, Barriers To Entry, Biopiracy, Distribution Amp, Download Music, Food Crops, Glut, History Www, Informants, Music Business, Music Download, Music Source, Open Source Music, Open Source Principles, Open Source Software, Open Source Tools, Production Distribution, Promotion Processes, Service Model, Software Businesses, Successful Software, Traditional Barriers, Use Music, Using Open Source Tools, World Of Music

Christmas in Hanoi

December 19, 2011 By Jim Rhodes Leave a Comment

Coming from a Westerner, this will undoubtedly sound strange, but the only times I have ever liked or appreciated Christmas have been the times I have been in Vietnam — excluding the war years, of course! My American Christmas memories are not typical; yet, sadly, they are not that uncommon either. After I began to [...]

Filed Under: Music Tagged With: Alcohol Consumption, American Christmas, Apartheid In South Africa, Baby Jesus, Billboards, Christmas Memories, Christmas Season, Christmas Story, Corporate America, Extreme Stress, Family Conflict, Institu, Jesus Christ, Jim Crow, Life Of Christ, Linh, Mental Health Providers, Three Wise Men, Western Christians, Westerner

Thoughts on Teaching Hip Hop

December 9, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Those who criticize Michael Eric Dyson’s course on JZ as a symbol of the degenertation of university curricula have not spent a great deal of time examining hip hop lyrics or exploring the setting the music arose in. JZ, like many other great hip hop lyricists — Wu Tang, Nas, Biggie Smalls, Tupac, Big Pun, [...]

Filed Under: Music Tagged With: 90s Songs, Big Pun, Biggie Smalls, Bulwark, Community Leader, Duck And Run, Hail Of Bullets, hip hop, Hip Hop Lyrics, Journalistic Accounts, Jz, Lyricists, Michael Eric Dyson, michael erik dyson, Musical Backgrounds, Public Discourse, Sociological Works, Storytellers, Ton Of Bricks, University Curricula, Vantage Points, wu tang, Wu Tang Clan

“I Want My TV: The Uncensored History of the Music Video Revolution”

December 7, 2011 By Jim Cullen Leave a Comment

Review of Craig Marks’s and Ron Tannenbaum’s “I Want My TV: The Uncensored History of the Music Video Revolution” Before there was Facebook, before there were iPhones, there was MTV. After an unprepossessing launch in 1981, the cable network became a powerful force in American popular culture, exerting a much-noted impact not only on the [...]

Filed Under: Music Tagged With: American Express, Andrew Miller, Commercial Premise, Craig Marks, Editor Craig, Film Fashion, George Plimpton, James Andrew Miller, Kaleidoscopic Array, madonna, Mark Goodman, Martha Quinn, Miller History, mtv, Music Journalist, Musical Acts, Record Labels, Saturday Night Live, Television Industries, Tom Shales, Video Directors, Video Revolution

Jazz Duos: More Than The Sum Of Their Parts

December 5, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

When a great singer is teamed with a great jazz instrumentalist, it can either feel shallow and contrived or each musician can bring out something in the other so that the whole is more than the sum of two remarkable parts. I’ve previously identified a couple of these magical duets in the list of fifty. (e.g., The [...]

Filed Under: Music Tagged With: Afro Cuban, Baritone Voice, Billy Strayhorn, Cal Tjader, Cannonball Adderley, Clifford Brown, Jazz Collection, Jazz Giants, Jazz Instrumentalist, Jazz Singer Anita, John Coltrane, Johnny Hartman, Latin Jazz, louis armstrong, Lush Life, Nancy Wilson, O Day, Personal Favorites, Singer Anita O, Song Selections

Popular This Month

As President Obama returns to Hollywood in search of campaign dough from the “Hollywood progressives,” it is a moment to praise Matt Damon who speaks with clarity and conviction about his disappointment with President Obama. Let me state my conclusion at the beginning. For those who seek my advice (and some have) I say it’s [...]

For the past several years, Mike Price has graced these pages with some of the finest and certainly funniest writing we have had the honor to publish. Just now, we received notice from his dear friends Wayne and Marsha Williams that Mike has passed away. Here’s Wayne’s letter: Friends, I have very sad news to [...]

A few nights ago, we saw a very revealing movie. “No Strings Attached” is a silly romantic comedy. Plenty of skin was shown, but that was not the most revealing feature. I found the portrayal of gay people much more interesting. The film was targeted at young heterosexual filmgoers. Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman (shown [...]

Open Source Music: Get Your Hands Out of My Pocket

Marta Eggerth, Operetta Superstar, Turning 100

Free as in Freedom, Again

Wilco Rocks — And Not Just For Dads

Free as in Freedom

Million Download Campaign: Open Source Music

Christmas in Hanoi

Thoughts on Teaching Hip Hop

“I Want My TV: The Uncensored History of the Music Video Revolution”

Jazz Duos: More Than The Sum Of Their Parts

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