Toronto-based R&B artist The Weeknd - Abel Tesfaye - will play the House of Blues Tuesday, June 12. You can download his last three albums at his website. Like Frank Ocean and Nostalgia/Ultra, he's on the cutting edge of music-making, using mixtapes and free releases as a way of sampling tracks that otherwise couldn't be cleared. Echoes of Silence starts with the excellent "D.D.," which samples Michael Jackson's "Dirty Diana" in an obvious tribute that traffics on the buzz of the Jackson sample but stands on its own as a distinctive composition.
Like fellow Canadian Drake, his subject matter is how hard it is being a playa, and like Drake, he makes it work. Tickets go on sale Wednesday at 10 a.m.
Showing posts with label Michael Jackson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Jackson. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Reach of the Day
I received this press release this morning:
You may recall the late Michael Jackson sang, “If they say why, why, tell ‘em that it’s human nature.” With the same sense of wonder, author Kentetsu Takamori tells 65 stories about human nature that help us deal with loss and change and teach us to live more fully. He’s great for Japanese interviews, and for English, we have Takamori’s reps from the publisher, available to speak at length about his book and philosophy. Please see the press release below, and let me know if you would be interested in receiving an advanced copy of the book and to provide us with a written review that we can have printed in the book or on the back cover.
You may recall the late Michael Jackson sang, “If they say why, why, tell ‘em that it’s human nature.” With the same sense of wonder, author Kentetsu Takamori tells 65 stories about human nature that help us deal with loss and change and teach us to live more fully. He’s great for Japanese interviews, and for English, we have Takamori’s reps from the publisher, available to speak at length about his book and philosophy. Please see the press release below, and let me know if you would be interested in receiving an advanced copy of the book and to provide us with a written review that we can have printed in the book or on the back cover.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Really?
Today I saw this Top 25 Downloads list at Amazon.com:
1. Man In The Mirror by Michael Jackson
2. Boom Boom Pow by Black Eyed Peas
3. Thriller by Michael Jackson
4. The Way You Make Me Feel by Michael Jackson
5. Billie Jean (Single Version) by Michael Jackson
6. Beat It (Single Version) by Michael Jackson
7. P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) by Michael Jackson
8. Poker Face by Lady GaGa
9. Smooth Criminal (Radio Edit) by Michael Jackson
10. Black Or White by Michael Jackson
11. Rock With You (Single Version) by Michael Jackson
12. I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas
13. Don't Stop 'Til You Get Eno… by Michael Jackson
14. New Divide by Linkin Park
15. Bad by Michael Jackson
16. We Are The World by U.S.A. For Africa
17. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' by Michael Jackson
18. Remember The Time by Michael Jackson
19. Dirty Diana by Michael Jackson
20. Human Nature by Michael Jackson
21. Second Chance by Shinedown
22. The Climb by Miley Cyrus
23. Just Dance by Lady GaGa
24. LoveGame by Lady GaGa
25. Off The Wall by Michael Jackson
That 17 of that 25 songs are Michael Jackson songs is no surprise. That "Man in the Mirror" is the most downloaded is. Is it the Jackson song that people liked but never bought? Or is that the song with the most conventionally growthful message, so that buying it was a way of imposing a simple meaning on Jackson's life and art? Or do people simply like that song better I ever imagined?
1. Man In The Mirror by Michael Jackson
2. Boom Boom Pow by Black Eyed Peas
3. Thriller by Michael Jackson
4. The Way You Make Me Feel by Michael Jackson
5. Billie Jean (Single Version) by Michael Jackson
6. Beat It (Single Version) by Michael Jackson
7. P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) by Michael Jackson
8. Poker Face by Lady GaGa
9. Smooth Criminal (Radio Edit) by Michael Jackson
10. Black Or White by Michael Jackson
11. Rock With You (Single Version) by Michael Jackson
12. I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas
13. Don't Stop 'Til You Get Eno… by Michael Jackson
14. New Divide by Linkin Park
15. Bad by Michael Jackson
16. We Are The World by U.S.A. For Africa
17. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' by Michael Jackson
18. Remember The Time by Michael Jackson
19. Dirty Diana by Michael Jackson
20. Human Nature by Michael Jackson
21. Second Chance by Shinedown
22. The Climb by Miley Cyrus
23. Just Dance by Lady GaGa
24. LoveGame by Lady GaGa
25. Off The Wall by Michael Jackson
That 17 of that 25 songs are Michael Jackson songs is no surprise. That "Man in the Mirror" is the most downloaded is. Is it the Jackson song that people liked but never bought? Or is that the song with the most conventionally growthful message, so that buying it was a way of imposing a simple meaning on Jackson's life and art? Or do people simply like that song better I ever imagined?
Friday, June 26, 2009
The Right End
This is the end of my Michael Jackson writing for a while, but I enjoyed the essays on Jackson at Salon.com, particularly this one:
Alex Koppelman, Salon staff writer
"Thriller" was the first album I ever owned. It came out a week before I was born; a friend of my mother's gave it to me when I was still an infant -- she was worried all the classical music my parents were playing would turn me into a nerd. I doubt she ever had any idea what she was really doing for me: For the first 10 years of my life, that album meant the world to me. It still does.
It's awful to say so soon after, but what happened Thursday might have been the best thing for his legacy. Yes, he was about to go back on stage, and his shows had sold out. But so much of the excitement, now, was the perverse pleasure we all take in watching a tightrope walker work without a net. Had he lived, continuing down his downward spiral, the turmoil and scandal might have obscured his music for good. Now that he's gone, we can allow ourselves to think of him the way we've always wanted to. After he was pronounced dead, the obsessive fandom that had become taboo, left to the kooks who were still true-believers, was suddenly alive again. Everyone was listening to Thriller, crowds flocked back to Indiana to say goodbye and people were dancing and singing in front of the Apollo for him.
This morning an intern and I talked about the shows he was scheduled to do, and how unlikely it was that he would have been up for a run of 50 shows, and how neither of us ever imagined that Jackson would live long enough to grow old and withered.
Alex Koppelman, Salon staff writer
"Thriller" was the first album I ever owned. It came out a week before I was born; a friend of my mother's gave it to me when I was still an infant -- she was worried all the classical music my parents were playing would turn me into a nerd. I doubt she ever had any idea what she was really doing for me: For the first 10 years of my life, that album meant the world to me. It still does.
It's awful to say so soon after, but what happened Thursday might have been the best thing for his legacy. Yes, he was about to go back on stage, and his shows had sold out. But so much of the excitement, now, was the perverse pleasure we all take in watching a tightrope walker work without a net. Had he lived, continuing down his downward spiral, the turmoil and scandal might have obscured his music for good. Now that he's gone, we can allow ourselves to think of him the way we've always wanted to. After he was pronounced dead, the obsessive fandom that had become taboo, left to the kooks who were still true-believers, was suddenly alive again. Everyone was listening to Thriller, crowds flocked back to Indiana to say goodbye and people were dancing and singing in front of the Apollo for him.
This morning an intern and I talked about the shows he was scheduled to do, and how unlikely it was that he would have been up for a run of 50 shows, and how neither of us ever imagined that Jackson would live long enough to grow old and withered.
First, We Kill Cable News
Anyone from New Orleans has the sins of CNN's coverage of Hurricane Katrina indelibly seared in their brains, but last night's coverage of Michael Jackson's death on cable news once again underscored what a mediocre idea a 24-hour news channel is (or perhaps what a mediocre thing the 24-hour news channel has become). For over an hour, I watched Keith Olbermann try to fill as a helicopter airlifted Jackson's body to a coroner's van, and as hour rolled into the next hour, he had to stretch a decent observation - the irony of someone who once needed bodyguards now accompanied by three paramedics - until it was as stale as Michael Jackson jokes. He reached for resonances and echoes, but they didn't illuminate Jackson or the process we were watching. The reporter covering the moving of Jackson's body (Really? We needed a reporter on the body transportation beat?) tried to delicately refer to the last decade of Jackson's life, but the awkward combination of his efforts at solemnity and his discomfort with the accusations made toward Jackson made all the guarded language sound even more judgmental and sordid than if he'd have come out and talked about the charges, the documentary, the dangling of the baby, and so on.
I'm surprised that they didn't go for critics to help fill time; after all, they were easily found on facebook shedding more light on Jackson's significance than shots of a helicopter (shot from a helicopter!) buzzing over Los Angeles. But really, the story quickly hit a point where no more live coverage was needed, and critics wouldn't have helped. Sometimes, it's actually valuable to let the story be and return to it when events dictate.
... but my post's title is technically wrong. First we kill E! News. I didn't have the stomach last night to watch it to hear Juliana Rancic talk about "The King of Pop" in faux-somber tones, or Debbie Matenopoulos talk only semi-breezily about "MJ". If anyone saw E!'s coverage and it was less than loathesome, let me know, but the generally chummy, faux-hip, nickname-oriented, tabloid tone of the channel's - ahem - news department has rarely let me down.
I'm surprised that they didn't go for critics to help fill time; after all, they were easily found on facebook shedding more light on Jackson's significance than shots of a helicopter (shot from a helicopter!) buzzing over Los Angeles. But really, the story quickly hit a point where no more live coverage was needed, and critics wouldn't have helped. Sometimes, it's actually valuable to let the story be and return to it when events dictate.
... but my post's title is technically wrong. First we kill E! News. I didn't have the stomach last night to watch it to hear Juliana Rancic talk about "The King of Pop" in faux-somber tones, or Debbie Matenopoulos talk only semi-breezily about "MJ". If anyone saw E!'s coverage and it was less than loathesome, let me know, but the generally chummy, faux-hip, nickname-oriented, tabloid tone of the channel's - ahem - news department has rarely let me down.
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