We knew it would happen someday. Back in 1989, Andres Serrano busted open a simmering debate over whether it’s right (or even effective) for tax dollars to support arts. As a high school student at the time, I got worried…
Category
Editorial
Surviving the squeaky-clean NACA convention
I caught a little bit of the dust-up on Twitter today about this article in the Atlantic that targets the—shall we say—sanitized nature of the National Association of Campus Activities conventions. Today’s college students can’t seem to take a joke…
Solving donor fatigue with doner kebab
Here in Philadelphia, a core collection of 160 “arts and cultural groups” has issued an urgent plea for $1.4 billion in philanthropic funding. This, only five years after a report noted the challenges of making significant social impact when creative…
Bieber’s Grammy Snub, Explained
Steve Stoute’s a little angry at NARAS. Every year, folks complain about a Grammy snub. But Steve’s wondering aloud, in an open letter to the New York Times, whether the Grammy voters have consistently snubbed “pop culture” with its selections…
Top Ten MTV Specialty Shows
By the late 1980s, MTV’s programmers weren’t content with scattershot ratings, so they experimented with original series and specialty programming blocks. Today, MTV’s harshest critics blast Jersey Shore and The Hills as having nothing to do with rock and roll,…
Don’t Underestimate the Power of an Audience
It seems like the music journalism community has decided that this is the week they can finally pile on Taylor Swift. In the past 36 hours, I’ve read headlines about her “career-ending” Grammy performance, bloggers and columnists have called for…
2010 Grammy Awards Recap
Everyone I know has a newfound respect for P!nk. Apparently, she’s been doing the wire act from last night’s Grammy Awards as an encore in her live set for some time now. That it was the standout moment in the…
Talent2K Complaints Return to My Inbox
Some things show up in four year cycles, like the Winter Olympics, leap years, and complaints about Talent2K. In the past few weeks, I’ve found myself again facing a stack of mail asking whether Talent2K is “legit,” whether they’re “reformed,”…
Can Spotify Satisfy American Copyright Laws?
Lots of friends and colleagues from abroad have hyped up Spotify to me, and I don’t doubt that it’s an awesome service. As we hear more about Spotify, especially involving mobile apps and in-car services, I fear we might be…
Fabulous but Unsigned
Nekesa Mumbi Moody chronicles a common complaint, especially among high-ranking women in the music business: If you don’t look better than you sound, the recording industry doesn’t want you. And it’s true. Armchair quarterbacks are already noting that Melinda Doolittle…
Music Business Networking on the Decline
Brian Austin Whitney writes about the challenges he’s facing putting together the next Just Plain Folks Roadtrip. A lot of our long-time readers are also JPF members (as am I), and the Roadtrip has always offered a great opportunity to…
The Nog in Boston — No TV During Bands
In general, this story about a favorite Irish pub in Boston is inspiring. For every club owner that moans about how hard it is to grow a following and stay in business, this should be mandatory reading. These guys lost…