I was initially skeptical that the 2003 song Maps by New York art-punk outfit Yeah Yeah Yeahs was the most influential song of the 21st century. However, the story on popbitch is strangely convincing.
Here is Maps:
Here are two songs that pay homage to it.
Source: All Mapped Out
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This might be one of best uses of digital scraping/analysis ever. Every Noise at Once is an algorithmically-generated, scatter-plot of the musical genres based on the 1467 genres by Spotify. You can see the relation between different genres and search for how groups are categorized too.
by I once got a record pulled from a jukebox at my favorite college bar by playing it a dozen times in a row.
The story of Louis Glass, the original jukebox hero.
Source: How the Jukebox Got Its Groove
by Gotta love when a song is so popular, but the band so little known that a fake group can claim their identity and tour the U.S.
Source: The True Story Of The Fake Zombies, The Strangest Con In Rock History
by Story provides insights on how the top albums are now calculated and those performers and industry leaders who aren’t happy about it.
Source: The End Of Album Privilege – BuzzFeed News
by The A.V. Club examines a song that went to No. 1 on the Billboard charts to get to the heart of what it means to be popular in pop music and why The Rembrandts’ hated it.
Source: The Rembrandts’ “I’ll Be There For You” was a golden albatross · We’re No. 1 · The A.V. Club
by Interesting story and documentary about what it was like working for Columbia House in the 1990s. One of the most interesting points is how the music industry helped create the digital ‘sharing’ of music through their marked-up CD sales.
Source: Four Columbia House insiders explain the shady math behind “8 CDs for a penny”
by Interesting story about how the idea of authenticity in modern country music makes it difficult for women to be successful in the genre. Compares current stars to some of country’s past artists.
Source: The Marginalization of Women in Mainstream Country Music | The New Republic
by In 1991 Hammer (neé MC Hammer) released a 15-minute video for his 5 minute and 36 second-long “2 Legit To Quit.” By all standards, it is beyond insane.
Source: 15 Minutes Of Shame: MC Hammer’s ‘2 Legit 2 Quit’
by Spotify is going to begin hosting streaming videos and podcasts alongside music. I’m not sure I like this change in focus. Hopefully it doesn’t mess up how they provide music.
Source: Spotify Will Stream Videos And Podcasts – BuzzFeed News
by The Atlantic has an interesting article, “Could a Robot Write the Perfect Pop Song?” It includes a section that examines the Japanese pop artist avatar, Miku.
by Here is another story about how streaming music is changing the basic economics of the music business. Kelsey McKinney’s “If you want to use music, you’ve got to pay for it: Music’s crisis, and how to fix it,” provides some new insight in the music and technology.
by Article, “How Much Is Music Really Worth?” that shows the economics behind music, especially the impact of technology on the artist revenue.
by Story by Jonathan Valania about a comeback by the Sonics: Here Are The Sonics, Again.
Although it isn’t their most popular song, my favorite Sonics’ song is Psycho.
by NYT Story: The Agony and Ecstasy of Kayne West – discusses West’s past, some of the controversies surrounding him, and his current move to design a clothing line.
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