From Matt Graves: Here are six of his story picks on the topic of music producers, the often-overlooked architects of the music we hear and love. * * * 1. “The Song Machine: the Hitmakers Behind Rihanna,” by John Seabrook (The New Yorker, March 2012) In her ascent to the pop throne, Rihanna had some unlikely help: a […]
music
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The Producers: A Reading List on Musical Masterminds
From Matt Graves: Here are six of his story picks on the topic of music producers, the often-overlooked architects of the music we hear and love. * * * 1. “The Song Machine: the Hitmakers Behind Rihanna,” by John Seabrook (The New Yorker, March 2012) In her ascent to the pop throne, Rihanna had some unlikely help: a […]
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Patti Smith's Advice to the Young
“Build a good name. Keep your name clean. … And if you build a good name, that name will be its own currency.” Our video pick of the day: Words of wisdom from Patti Smith, from the Louisiana Literature festival, August 2012 (6 minutes) (via @PocketHits)
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Free BBC Documentary on the Early Days of Queen and Freddie Mercury
Our video pick of the day, from 2011: “Queen: Days of Our Lives” (2 hours)
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Longreads Guest Pick: Todd Olmstead on 'Random Access Denied'
Todd Olmstead is Mashable’s Associate Community Manager and an occasional music writer. He lives in Brooklyn. My favorite longread this week is ‘Random Access Denied,’ by Sasha-Frere Jones in the New Yorker. It takes you through the mind of the reviewer, writing about a big-deal album, and peels back the curtain a bit. Who wouldn’t […]
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My Top 5 #Longreads on the Business of Film, Music and Books
Mark Armstrong (that’s not him above) is the founder of Longreads, and editorial director for Pocket. This past week’s Steven Soderbergh speech on “The State of the Cinema” isn’t as big a downer for film lovers as these choice quotes might have you believe: “Shouldn’t we be spending the time and resources alleviating suffering and helping […]
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A professional musician calls for a rethinking of how we value (and pay) artists in the digital era: Rather, fairness for musicians is a problem that requires each of us to individually look at our own actions, values and choices and try to anticipate the consequences of our choices. I would suggest to you that, […]
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Inside the making of a hit pop song—or hundreds of them. Stargate and Ester Dean are a producer-“top-liner” team that helps write hits for stars like Rihanna: “The first sounds Dean uttered were subverbal—na-na-na and ba-ba-ba—and recalled her hooks for Rihanna. Then came disjointed words, culled from her phone—’taking control … never die tonight … […]