Tár, penned and directed by Todd Industry, is a drama about a earth-famous classical tunes conductor and how she is brought low by a sordid sex scandal. It is a critical and worthwhile movie, whatsoever the balance of its several deserves and problems. Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett)—born Linda Tarr in […]
Music
How the Streaming Era Turned Music Into Sludge
I woke up one day last year and realized I no longer listened to music. Instead I just listened to sludge—a blur of indistinguishable songs that imitated my music taste. My sludge addiction sprang from Spotify’s algorithmically curated playlists, which promised to help me focus or find music tailored to […]
An AI Hit of Fake ‘Drake’ and ‘The Weeknd’ Rattles the Music World
For Drake and the Weeknd, two of the most popular musicians on the planet, the existence of “Heart on My Sleeve,” a track that claimed to use A.I. versions of their voices to create a passable mimicry, may have qualified as a minor nuisance — a short-lived novelty that was […]
Universal Music Group calls AI music a ‘fraud,’ wants it banned from streaming platforms. Experts say it’s not that easy
New York CNN — Universal Music Group — the music company representing superstars including Sting, The Weeknd, Nicki Minaj and Ariana Grande — has a new Goliath to contend with: artificial intelligence. The music group sent urgent letters in April to streaming platforms, including Spotify (SPOT) and Apple Music, asking […]
‘It made me wish I had made more records’: Natalie Merchant on returning to music after losing her voice | Music
It was late 2018 and Natalie Merchant was in London visiting the V&A museum when she felt her arm start to tingle and then go numb. Next came intense pain. She flew home immediately and within days was in hospital having an MRI. The results were not good: she had […]
Face the Music: Vinyl collectors are a growing group, and Record Store Day is their Christmas
Taylor Swift’s 2023 Record Store Day release, “Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions.” Photo by Mick Werkhoven Record Store Day, which happens Saturday in Maine and all around the world, is the equivalent of Christmas and your birthday to those who love, collect and listen to vinyl and like to […]