This is the newsletter edition Pulling Weeds with Chris Black, through which the columnist discusses hot topics in culture. Sign up here to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.
Last week, a number of of my trusted music sources on Twitter began whispering a few latest album that is a must-listen but can only be streamed on YouTube. You may also send a suggested donation (as a PayPal gift) to receive CD-quality .wav files on to your inbox. The Geocities website was ugly and bizarre, definitely lo-fi Web 1.0. In the same week in query, the album diamond jewelry, by Cindy Lee, a 32-song left-wing fever dream marathon that appears like the Velvet Underground, T. Rex and VU and good Phil Spector designs combined with excellent production, synths and feedback, received a 9.1 rating on Pitchfork, the first 9.0+ album of 2020. A rock and roll album that has received a lot attention with no record label and the support of digital streaming platforms is unheard of. A small sect of people, probably true music fans, were willing to pay real money to enjoy the music they loved.
I like Diamond jewelry and I’m blissful to pay for music, but downloading files and uploading them to my iPhone seems archaic and time-consuming. Last week, Drake also “leaked” a diss song, taking shots at everyone: Kendrick Lamar, Rick Ross, The Weeknd, and J. Cole. The song was circulating in my group chats. When I finished lunch and went to listen, I spotted that the link my friend had provided was from Krakenfiles.com and the URL was too good to make up. This response from Drake was highly anticipated and I’m sure he has his reasons, but avoiding DSPs once they are your bread and butter can also be an exciting selection. Visiting strange web sites to listen and download music seems crazy in 2024. It’s a throwback to sitting in my parents’ basement on my Dell and maniacally downloading songs from Kazaa and Napster. I even saw a friend burning Diamond jewelry on CDR.
While all this was happening, Coachella weekend was going down in Indio, California. Several stories have been written about slowdown in ticket sales AND brands should not heading to the desert This yr. We have long since reached the pinnacle of the music festival, and now there’s something for everybody, regardless of which area of interest suits them. But when things of this magnitude fail, it looks like change is coming.
Cindy Lee is the alter ego of former Women frontman Patrick Flegel, who expressed a dark view of the streaming era in a 2023 interview. “I think everyone should remove their music from streaming platforms. Don’t even hit it, just take it off,” Flegel said. “They are begging for a penny a piece and it is pathetic.” In the same interview, Flegel admitted that the hardest part of releasing a project without the support of streaming platforms or a standard record label is “getting anyone to give a shit.”
“But in my opinion, where I am now,” Flegel said, “all you would like are regulars. Some of the individuals who support you might be all for what you do.
Are there enough regulars for other artists to tug a Cindy Lee? Do people need to own their very own music, support artists they love, and go to shows that are not accompanied by hardseltzer-sponsored off-site events and influencer photo shoots? Are we going back to simpler times? Are we curious again? Are we finally able to discover music beyond TikTok?
I doubt it, but that is one of the first times I actually see cracks in the facade. The days once I could go to my local Virgin Megastore at midnight on a Thursday to choose up latest releases on CD will be gone, but perhaps things will calm down and proper the course not less than slightly. Streaming isn’t the best choice. It’s simply the most convenient. If someone is attempting to present their work in another way, I believe it must be talked about, whether it’s Cindy Lee or the biggest rapper in the world.
Credit : www.gq.com
