For our Hate It or Love It series we take a current hot topic in music news that polarizes reasonable minds in the music and entertainment world, and we have one of our writers advocate for one side of the argument and have another one of our writers advocate for the other side (trying our best to always stay fair and balanced). One of the biggest topics in music news this past month is Taylor Swift’s decision to pull her music off the popular streaming service Spotify. While Swift issued an op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journalstating “Music is art” that should be paid for, Spotify’s CEO agreed, but noted that they have paid artists over $2 billion dollars in royalties.
Last night, singer-songwriter Tahliah Debrett Barnett (better known by “FKA Twigs”) performed for a sold out crowd at The Metro in Chicago, IL. On tour in promotion of her debut and highly acclaimed album LP1, FKA Twigs gave fans a stunning and brilliant 13-song set. The show was kicked off by an opening performance from producer-singer Boots (the man highly responsible for Beyonce’s latest self-titled album) and ended with a promise from FKA to come back to Chicago soon. If you slept on your opportunity to see her last night, or if she is coming to a city near you, be sure to see why she is already selling out venues throughout the world.
Last night indie rock band alt-J played an amazing 16-song set for a packed crowd at The Fillmore Detroit with singer-songwriter Mikky Ekko opening. We sent one of our photographers, Andrew Baker, there to capture every moment.
Last night we went to WGCI‘s 2014 Big Jam and it definitely delivered! With performances from Juicy J, Migos, Rae Sremmurd, Jeremih and many more, the night was even complimented with a surprise appearance by Chicago’s own, Chance the Rapper. Check out our photos from the Big Jam here!
Last night we traveled to our neighbor to the north (Milwaukee), and caught the fourth show of Hoodie Allen’s People Keep Talking Tour, featuring Chiddy Bang.
Producer ’16yrold’ is just getting started. After debuting his music on the internet only a year ago, he’s earned himself a following. Fans anticipate his regular stream of releases and collaborations with other producers and he’s satiated them, but now he’s doing something he’s never done before: release a formal project. At this point, he’s already met and began talks of collaborating with artists he was merely a fan of a few months ago, as well as gaining attention for his eclectic remixes- ranging from reworks of songs by Yung Lean to Willow Smith to a mash-up of “Club Goin’ Up on a Tuesday” and “The Piña Colada Song” (which is quite amazing). I spoke with him about his new EP with Divine, Slayer, as well as his collaborators and how he got into the music scene.
Last night electronic musician and rapper Flying Lotus, played for a packed crowd at Detroit’s Royal Oak Theatre with Thundercat. We sent one of our photographers, Andrew Baker, there to capture every moment.
In today’s day and age phones continue to play an ever expanding role in our lives, some of the most influentia ways being through phone apps. One of the most popular isVine, this app allows users to create a short 6 second clip of whatever they please. In fact, Vine has become so popular that it has literally boosted artist’s careers. Prior to apps like vine most artists would make songs in hopes of getting onto the radio, now we are seeing a new batch of artists who go for incredibly quotable lines in hopes of becoming vine smash hits as this has increasingly translated into radio success.
Daily, the internet means more and more to finding new music and supporting it. Because of the internet, the idea of an artist being regional and having to sound like where they come from is becoming smaller. Now, listeners can enjoy music from all over the country and compare to find out who the best from each area is. Let’s see who the best new artists of America really are…
