NEWS

Public Enemy’s Chuck D and Salt-N-Pepa’s Cheryl “Salt” James are set to join the 2023 Guild of Music Supervisors State of Music in Media conference. Now in its ninth year, the annual gathering of music leaders and legends commemorates the 50th anniversary of hip-hop.

Chuck D is set to lead the “Fight the Power: How Hip-Hop Changed the World” panel alongside music industry vet Lorrie Boula as they discuss their joint project, the 2023 PBS television program of the same name. Created by Chuck D and produced by Boula, the four-part TV series examines the culture’s history through the voices of Ice-T, Run DMC, Eminem, Fat Joe, KRS-One, LL Cool J and other household names of hip-hop.

Salt will join the “Origins of Hip-Hop” panel alongside Amani “Burt Blackarach” Smith of Salamani Music and West Coast rapper King Tee. The panel, moderated by John Paul McGee of Berklee College, will delve into the early days of the genre and its roots in jazz and R&B.

Also helping ring in hip-hop’s anniversary are the “Golden Age of Hip-Hop” and “The Global Impact of Hip-Hop” panels. Both discussions will explore the past and future of the genre and its impact on Black and brown communities across America.

Jedi Survivor will have its own star moment at the conference during the “Reinventing the Soundtrack of a Galaxy Far, Far Away” panel. Steve Schnur, Gordy Haab and Stephen Barton, producers and composers for the Star Wars: Jedi Survivor video game, will join Lucasfilm Games’ Douglas Reilly and Respawn Entertainment’s Nick Laviers as they breakdown the process of creating sounds for Star Wars.

The GMS conference will feature additional panels with conversations about The Last of Us (Part II) video game, Prime Video series “Daisy Jones & the Six,” scoring reality TV and music clearance. The conference will take place on Aug. 19 at the Los Angeles Film School in Hollywood.

Pictured above: Chuck D and Lorrie Boula

The 18th arrondissement so beloved of tourists has been transformed by indie record labels and musicians

Quentin Lepoutre takes a seat outside at seafood brasserie La Mascotte. As the mustachioed producer, otherwise known as Myd, looks up, he notices he isn’t dining alone. On his right is triple-platinum-selling French singer-songwriter Renaud – and on his left is Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo of electronic music duo Daft Punk, eating oysters.

“On this terrace there are maybe four tables, and there were three generations of musicians,” Myd laughs. “Classic 18th life.”

They say that in Paris you’re never more than a few metres away from a boulangerie. Now, the same might be said of record labels, electronic musicians and radio stations in the city’s 18th arrondissement. These two square miles on the city’s northern fringes, once inhabited by Picasso, Van Gogh, Dalí and Modigliani, may be known for the tourists making a beeline for the Basilica Sacré Coeur. But away from the crowds, caricature artists and multilingual restaurant menus lies a scene of dance and electronic musicians collaborating on one another’s tracks, bumping into one another in bistros and crashing on one another’s floors.

While club culture in Britain struggles – a UK nightclub shuts every two days, according to the Night Time Industries Association – in excess of 200 independent music businesses have settled in the 18th arrondissement since 2002. The change is such that Rue André Messager is now fondly known to some as Rue de la Musique.https://interactive.guim.co.uk/uploader/embed/2023/07/archive-zip/giv-13425dIaggsRZ3w0Z/

Things haven’t always been so rosy at the bottom of La Butte Montmartre. Marc Teissier du Cros, manager of the band Air and Record Makers label co-founder, remembers a time when “the neighbourhood was dead”, deserted by tradespeople at the turn of the millennium.

“It was just people walking through to get home or from one point to another,” says Du Cros, who moved his offices to Rue André Messager after being priced out of trendy Marais in the 4th arrondissement in 2004. “Nobody was hanging out. In my area I would say it was almost a ghetto.” Only Eric Morand and his label F Com had “dared” to move to the district at that time. F Com took up residence in a former butcher shop; Record Makers settled in a dilapidated old bakery where famous 1960s chanteur Joe Dassin used to pop in for his croissants.

The organisation Marché Indépendant des Labels du Dix-huitième, or Mila, which describes itself as an “incubator of musical projects”, has played no small part in this transformation, working with amenable local officials to let abandoned stores for a low rent. The area was in a state of disrepair in the early 00s when Mila was formed, according to co-founder Enrico Della Rosa, with “shops abandoned and often squatted by dealers”. From vacant butchers, bakeries and barbers shops emerged new independent record labels, management offices and studios. And it’s not only cheap digs on offer. “The proximity means it’s easy for companies to meet and collaborate,” says Della Rosa.

DETROIT (WXYZ) — The Brightmoor Music Series is kicking off the season with a line-up of lively local talent.

Returning for its third year, the Tuesday evening series kicks off Saturday and Sunday, July 15th and 16th, from noon until 8:00 p.m. each day. After opening weekend, the music will continue to flow every Tuesday from July 18th through September 5th. The eight (8) Tuesday performances begin at
5:00 p.m. and end at 8:00 p.m.

Opening weekend acts are Erich Goebel and the Flying Crowbars, Songstress Kimmie Horne, the Dangerfield Band and the Buddom Line Band, (Bottom Line Band) with Jeannie Lyles. Show times are 1:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. Music includes Jazz, Top 40’s, Blues, World Music, Light Rock, R-n-B, Motown Hits and more.

There will also be merchandise vendors and food trucks including, Dot & Etta’s Shrimp Hut, Parks Old Style Bar-Be-Que, Greedy Rice Food Truck, Nikki D’s Smoked Pizza and others. All events are free and family friendly.

The Etheldra Mae Williams Park is located at 14300 Burgess Street corner of Acacia in the Brightmoor Community of Northwest Detroit. Bring a lawn chair or a blanket and tell a friend. To learn more, visit WilliamsPark.org/schedule.

The Stews

The one word that best describes the version of indie rock offered by the Stews? Soulful. The Auburn, Ala., band’s guitar melodies are undeniable, and the drums are lively. And lead singer Preston Hall’s thrillingly raspy voice is invigorating — even, occasionally, shiver-inducing. From the Stews’ self-titled 2021 EP, the song “Make It Out” (the band’s most listened to on Spotify) is a great encapsulation of what makes the Stews so good. Throughout the song, Blake Dobbs’s rhythm guitar playing sounds almost wavy, like he’s submerged in water. It’s a rousing and introspective song about making it out of a difficult place. When Hall sings, “Oh, it’s hard to stand here when it could all burn down / You just got to know it’ll be just fine,” you can feel his gritty vowel sounds in your bones. On the Stews’ latest album, “What Was,” released in April 2022, the band is just as soulful and perhaps more reflective and moody than usual. In the breakup song “Notions,” softer percussion tiptoes around a subdued guitar. “Seems like breaking out won’t be too far in the end,” Hall sings, giving in to a relationship’s doom. July 15, doors open at 8 p.m. at 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. 930.com. $20.

Punk rock trio Destroy Boys opens its latest single, “Beg for the Torture,” with a provocative line: “Your red back with scratch marks, it’s my art.” Lead singer Alexia Roditis’s rage-filled delivery perfectly reflects the push and pull of an obsession you know is dangerous but can’t resist. Later in the song, Roditis sings, “Put me in a hole and then I made it my home,” pulling listeners deeper into lust’s spinning contradictions. Along with Roditis, guitarist Violet Mayugba and drummer Narsai Malik have released three albums of pure punk, starting with their more lo-fi 2017 debut, “Sorry, Mom.” On their latest album, “Open Mouth, Open Heart,” released in 2021, the band’s lyrics have sharpened, and, in true punk fashion, the musical risks are bigger. The explosive penultimate track “For What” is a standout. “The resistance has always been there / It grows, it dies / And it comes back again,” Roditis scream-sings the last line — a matter-of-fact statement that injustice can’t win forever. July 15, doors open at 7 p.m. at the Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW.

The one word that best describes the version of indie rock offered by the Stews? Soulful. The Auburn, Ala., band’s guitar melodies are undeniable, and the drums are lively. And lead singer Preston Hall’s thrillingly raspy voice is invigorating — even, occasionally, shiver-inducing. From the Stews’ self-titled 2021 EP, the song “Make It Out” (the band’s most listened to on Spotify) is a great encapsulation of what makes the Stews so good. Throughout the song, Blake Dobbs’s rhythm guitar playing sounds almost wavy, like he’s submerged in water. It’s a rousing and introspective song about making it out of a difficult place. When Hall sings, “Oh, it’s hard to stand here when it could all burn down / You just got to know it’ll be just fine,” you can feel his gritty vowel sounds in your bones. On the Stews’ latest album, “What Was,” released in April 2022, the band is just as soulful and perhaps more reflective and moody than usual. In the breakup song “Notions,” softer percussion tiptoes around a subdued guitar. “Seems like breaking out won’t be too far in the end,” Hall sings, giving in to a relationship’s doom. July 15, doors open at 8 p.m. at 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW.

Spotify’s video strategy has been a long and winding road down the years, taking in licensing shows from YouTubers, developing its own TV-style formats, video podcasts, and most recently short-video clips from artists.

Its next step may well be full-length music videos. Bloomberg reported that Spotify has “already begun talking to partners about the product” but gave few details on how the feature will look or work.

To some extent, this would be a catchup move.

Music videos have always been at the core of YouTube Music, of course, but Apple Music added them in March 2018, then Amazon Music followed suit in December 2020.