(via How To Do Chicago Footwork like a pro; watch it now – Beatport News) It's time for a Chicago Footworkout video. This must burn 800 calories an hour!
It’s not the worst music I’ve ever heard (that’s reserved for Toby Keith’s special brand of xenophobic country songs), but I wouldn’t say that I’m a fan of disco. I would say most disco sucks. But Sparks on disco? That’s pretty good.
Prior to the No. 1 in Heaven album being released in 1979, disco had already started to feel old. Saturday Night Fever hit theatres in December of 1977. Blondie’s “Heart Of Glass” dropped the following year. And 1979, was the height of disco backlash, with KISS releasing “I Was Made For Lovin’ You” and alienating the hard rock fan base they spent years building. Less than two months later was Disco Demolition Night at Chicago’s Comiskey Park. Disco might not have been dead, but it was certainly not faring well.
And here comes Sparks’s No. 1 in Heaven album in September of 1979.
So why would Sparks release an album that fans, especially the Kimono My House crowd, would identify with a soulless style of music listened to by the vapid populace? Why jump on a sinking ship?
Because Sparks would not be making an album that sounded like the disposable disco hits of the day—that means you Rick Dees’s with your god-awful “Disco Duck” and its equally repulsive follow-up, “Dis-Gorilla.” Instead, Sparks crafted an album of richly layered synthesizers, witty lyrics, and the well-utilized falsetto of Russell Mael. At that point, Sparks didn’t need disco’s popularity, which was a good thing because that was fading fast. Disco needed Sparks to exhibit how to craft a synth-heavy dance album and not fall into the trite void that would be disco’s fate. Disco did not take heed. Disco is dead.
"The Number One Song in Heaven" “Tryouts for the Human Race” “Beat the Clock”
British singer-songwriter who’s been around for a while proves that what Ariel Rechtshaid productions secretly yearned for was violins and heavily reverbed guitars. I am shocked that this is not absolutely everywhere; it’s gorgeous.
gracebello is a freelance writer in NYC, a Filipina, and a hustler so I was going to be a fan. But she says a lot of smart things about writing and freelancing and living in NYC in this interview. Her advice is practical. Just going to quote some of the best/most relevant Q&A parts here:
TRP: I’m curious what your living situation was like when you first got here and were trying to figure things out after college.
GB: For almost a year, I was living with my aunt and uncle in Westchester, maybe an hour north of the city. So I didn’t have to pay rent, but I had to pay for my MetroNorth commute, so it was maybe $300/month or something. So that’s still far less than you would expect to pay sharing an apartment, so I was already saving money. Which made sense because I was an unpaid intern for much of the time. So when I continued to be an unpaid intern, I was a restaurant hostess by night, so that really helped me just kind of pay my rent once I moved to Manhattan, pay my bills, pay off my college
...
I think people assume everyone comes from the same financial place, which is a really dangerous assumption. People who live in New York and do creative work are often in the 1% thanks to their parents or their spouses. When you’re in that financial situation, risk isn’t important to you, risk doesn’t apply to you. So I guess depending on your financial situation, you have to think a lot about what’s realistic for you, and how to make the math work for you.
TRP: I wish I had known more when I was in school. I think I had one professor who was really trying to influence me to get big internships. No one else ever said to me, “Ok, so it's great that you love this little literary journal and want to intern there. But they're never going to hire you because they don't have any money. So try to be an intern at Conde Nast."
GB: Yeah and I think for me in particular - so my parents are immigrants. They went to college but they went in the Philippines. They didn’t know the American system so it was even more up to me how to navigate this power structure of the university and the corporate world. It was particularly fraught for me more than like an American kid, so I think that if you’re kind of in a marginalized position that you have to try even harder, which really sucks. But that’s how it is. It is really difficult to navigate power structures without mentors or peers ot help you, and so you just have to find those people. Make friends and share what you’ve learned, and maybe if your fellow students got an internship somewhere, buy them coffee and ask how they can maybe help you get an internship there. It’s not just about finding older mentors, it’s also about finding peer mentors, because sometimes older mentors - their advice is no longer relevant. They’re telling you to call up editors on the phone and they’re giving you all sorts of outdated advice, and they’re not telling you maybe you should be seeking opportunities through social media.
TRP: What are your biggest challenges as a writer?
GB: Honestly, money.
I’m reading this book right now called The People’s Platform, and it’s about how we expected the internet to be this liberating democratizing thing and instead it kind of replicates the power structures that already exist. So Facebook monitors our data and many advertisers are in control of what we see and read online, not just advertisements but also editorial, because they’re the ones who pay for editorial, so therefore publications online are always trying to play nice with advertisers or please advertisers. So a big challenge is convincing these publications that they should spend that ad money on me - the writer - and that my content is valuable not only because it’s going to get clicks but because it’ll make their publication look really smart and timely.
It’s really challenging because once you start doing content creation for the internet you’re part of the structure where you’re just making the stuff that goes between the ads. Like I would be making more money if I were a copywriter, as opposed to writing the editorial content that runs alongside these brands.
There’s a really interesting portrayal of it on Girls right now, where Hannah is writing advertorial for Neiman Marcus or something. So basically if you want to make a feasible amount of money as a writer oftentimes you’re doing brand-sponsored content. It’s something to think about.
As idealistic as a lot of writers and creative people are, we have to figure out how to be a part of this capitalist structure. It’s not just like “follow your dreams,” it’s “how does your dream intersect with the market.” As much as we want to be creative independent people, if you want to pay your rent, you also need to see how your work is going to interplay with ad dollars and sponsored content and all that. How you’re gonna make money, in what ways are you comfortable making money, etc. Some people would never be OK with sponsored content, and other people need to pay their rent. I’m sure if you interviewed a group of writers you would have wide array of commentary on this topic.
So as writers we’re not just in the business of crafting sentences, we’re in the business of drawing clicks and driving traffic and being aggregated – and that part is very new. I don’t think it’s necessarily an evil thing it’s just, how do you navigate it?
TRP: What advice would you give to anybody interested in becoming a writer?
GB: You don't need to be based in New York to be a writer, and if money is a problem you probably shouldn't be based in New York, especially since now everything is done by email anyway.
Don’t write the same story as everyone else. Just because the NYStyles section is now writing about braids, doesn’t mean you should prioritize writing about braids. Write about what you want to write about, but also be aware of realistically paying for your life. I know a lot of people are saying right now ‘do what you love and follow your dream’ but I think it’s important to be realistic about your dream.
Correction, April 3, 2014: This post originally quoted photographer Tom Sanders as saying it takes him five years to get on the dance floor. It takes him five beers.
buried under lots of pictures of people pole dancing, a great correction (via katherinestasaph)
(via Great Thing of the Day - The Olsens Teach Us How to Wear Sandals - ELLE)
I love that this is a possibility. But a possibility the same way Adidas slipper slides were once a possibility. (Which means this is not a possibility for me at all.)
This is amazing work from Erika Ramirez at Billboard. Quotes from female rappers old and new. And the best part is, the quotes aren't a bunch of media-created BEEF talk. In fact, most of these women talk about other artists who inspired them, who they like now, etc.
Left: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, circa 1815. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Right: J. Cole, circa 2013. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images for Clear Channel)
Mental Floss pairs famous literary first lines with rap lyrics:
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE/J. COLE
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
Pay dues like a hair salon
(“Kubla Khan”and “The Last Stretch”)
ROBERT FROST/2PAC
Whose woods these are I think I know
Creep with me through that immortal flow
(“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” and “Thug Passion”)
VIRGINIA WOOLF/WALE
Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself
Fall in love with defeat, throw my endeavors on the shelf
(Mrs. Dalloway and “The Artistic Integrity”)
OK, just one more:
ALLEN GINSBERG/2PAC
I saw the best minds of my generation
Destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked
See me and hope I’m intoxicated or slightly faded
(“Howl” and “Ain’t Hard 2 Find”)
Haggerty talks at length about how he never felt the need to hide his sexuality because of his father’s unadulterated support from a very young age. He tells of being voted head cheerleader and winning a 4-H cooking competition at the age of 14 with pride, not guilt or shame. So listening to the kind of art that erupted from a spirit unbridled by filial disgust feels like a revelation. What else are we missing because of the ingrained anti-gay elements of our society, especially among straight men? What else have we already lost? We know the answer because our statistics are overwhelmingly horrific, but still we remain close-minded.
THINKING TO PIECES—Country Music’s First Gay Album and Why It Matters Now | Myspace
@harmonicait on 1973’s Lavender Country album, and the man behind it, Patrick Haggerty.
BC KINGDOM - “Lock Up” - Official Music Video (by Maker Music)
I needed some anxious and tension-filled playlists for Songza, for a specific situation, but it was hard to get past the usual suspects (doom metal, post-punk and new wave, "Heroin," etc). I didn't even think about R&B that could fit, until I found this song. I love that this introduces tension, anxiety, even fear.
A brief aside: Dev Hynes (Blood Orange) is sometimes criticized as not ‘R&B’ enough by some music writers—these writers often cite Dev’s previous work in rock band Test Icicles as indicative of some illegitimacy of intention. But Dev’s songwriting trademark—his supposed weakness—is rooted in this exact thing, the weighting of syllables. Unlike most R&B, Dev writes songs where the melody has no syncopation; they sound like hymns. Boring, perhaps, to you, but other people (myself included) hear a glorious religious calm, a stateliness.
Similarly, think about Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid,’ where almost every note is off the beat. ‘FI-nished with my woman cause sheeee WOULDn’t help meeeee WITH myyyy LIFE.’ It’s kind of a bad melody, no? Doesn’t suit the lyrics at all, has an vaguely ESL vibe, weighted all wrong. But the song is called ‘Paranoid’ and he is singing about how you should enjoy life and how he wishes he could do the same but it’s too late. It suits the material, works great.
Owen Pallett casually drops this gem in a great Slate article in which he uses music theory to explain the omnipresence of Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream.” (via marathonpacks)
This is a great piece, and not boring at all (like Owen fears it might be)!
Also interesting to me is how he explains how she stretches each line into the next bar. I've noticed this a lot more since I've been trying to mix songs again. It makes pop music pull at you, but it makes it way harder to mix. Seriously, try mixing a new song in on the one, or looping part of the outgoing or incoming song when the vocal lines stretch and pull across the bars. It sounds like garbage. But it makes the song itself better and has to be respected.
I’m a black man and I experience all the same racism you do, if not more, on top of homophobia, including from black men just like you. Are you proud of being a hateful member of a majority? Rap started out as a creative response to oppression, and no matter my outfit, I know oppressions you will never understand.
From Le1f’s open letter to rapper/homophobe Lord Jamar
“Save Yourself First (Social Experiment original vs.)" by chancetherapper
When Chance the Rapper is speak-singing, he sounds like he could be anywhere from 20-80. How does someone so young get a voice that's so expressive and weary and sweet? His little bit of falsetto at :48 is beautiful.
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