Marcus @ Mishka: Reviewing Music: A Vile Curse on Humanity

http://www.youtube.com/v/aTXklDY7IVE?fs=1&hl=en_US

I’ve discovered that I hate writing about music. It’s not that I hate music, quite the contrary. I hate how music journalism at its most basic level divorces the human qualities of artists as evolving creative forces from the sounds they are creating. By reviewing music and ascribing star ratings and point values to the supposed quality of it, you move it from the realm of the personal into that of the automaton.

Such debasement of human life is absurd and uncalled for, and upon deeper thought truly calls into question the necessity or purpose of music review. The music industry is at a crossroads caused by the ubiquitousness of the digital age. It has affected developing and mainstream artists, and has led to the denigration of highly skilled but confused artists caught in the changing tides. In advocating for an increase in humanism in the art of music review, I present an aid to consuming music at this difficult point.

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Marcus @ Mishka: MY BEST 50 ALBUMS OF 2010

I once swore that I would NEVER do a “Top Albums of the Year” list like bloggers tend to do. However, curiosity got the best of me as Mishka Bloglin editor Mikhail Bortnick asked me to list my “Best 50 Albums of 2010” for their year end compilation. I figured that since I took the time to compile said list, I would share it with the TGRI reading audience. Enjoy!

TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2010

1. Cee Lo Green – The Lady Killer
2. Gil Scott Heron – I’m New Here

3. Lil Wayne – I Am Not a Human Being
4. The Roots – On How I Got Over
5. Rusko – OMG
6. Janelle Monae – The ArchAndroid
7. NERD – Nothing
8. Aloe Blacc – Good Things
9. Vampire Weekend – Contra
10. Kanye West – Cold Dark Twisted Fantasy

The rest (in order):

Magnetic Man – Magnetic Man
Armin van Buuren – Mirage
Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings – I Learned the Hard Way
Black Milk – Album of the Year
BOB – The Adventures of Bobby Ray
Sleigh Bells – Treats
Ludacris – Battle of the Sexes
Matt and Kim – Sidewalks
Joanna Newsom – Have One on Me
Kid Cudi – The Legend of Mr. Rager
Taylor Swift – Speak Now
Drake – Thank Me Later
Erykah Badu – New Amerykuh: The Ankh
Mike Posner – 31 Minutes to Takeoff
Salem – King Night
Eminem – Recovery
Zo! – Sunstorm
Mark Ronson – Record Collection
Ski Beats – 24 Hour Karate School
Yelawolf – Trunk Musik 0-60
Tinie Tempah – The Disc-Overy
Bruno Mars – Doo Wops and Hooligans
Sade – Soldier of Love
Nicki Minaj – Pink Friday
MIA – MAYA
Chromeo – Business Casual
Dizzee Rascal – Tongue n Cheek
Markus Schulz – Do You Dream?
Jamiroquai – Rock Dust Light Star
Crookers – Tons of Friends
Phil Ade – The Letterman
J. Cole – Friday Night Lights
Sia Furler – We Are Born
Aeroplane – We Can’t Fly
Professor Green – Alive Til I’m Dead
Waka Flocka Flame – Flockavelli
Gareth Emery – Northern Lights
Tinchy Stryder – Third Strike
Rihanna – Loud
Rick Ross – Teflon Don

Marcus @ Mishka: Music Is Ultimately Worthless. Now How Can We Disprove That?

I make my sojourn back to Mishka’s Bloglin to discuss the nature of the worth of music in the redeveloping music industry after considering the merits of legendary record producer T-Bone Burnett’s incendiary yet possibly based in truth comments about the “worthlessness of MP3s” at the 2010 Future of Music Coalition Conference.

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T Bone Burnett and Greg Kot @ Summit10 from Future of Music Coalition on Vimeo.

Three years ago I decided to devote a significant chunk of my life to writing about music. Since then I have often felt like a moron for doing so, but have also found something each year to sturdy my resolve. In 2008 it was being in Baltimore, listening to more club music than should be allowed by law. 2009 brought Quincy Jones’SXSW keynote illustrating his influence on seemingly every significant musical moment of the last 50 years, teaching me what it means to be a trendsetter. Finally, 2010′s came courtesy of T- Bone Burnett. In one 45 minute interview (entire talk above) at theFuture of Music Coalition Conference, the legendary producer redefined modern musical principle. By being in touch with the 21st century and also stuck somewhere in 1969, he somehow found clarity in the murk that is the future of the music industry.

The rise of the internet has perpetually confounded record companies. The prevalence of the MP3 has evaporated record sales, forcing labels and artists to seek out new sources of revenue. Instead of buying entire albums, the consumer can now pick and choose the tracks they feel are worthwhile to buy or illegally download. It has truly become a buyer’s market, with record companies and independent artists scrambling to keep up with the feverish pace. So why then does T-Bone Burnett claim that “MP3s are completely worthless” and “should be available for free”?

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Marcus @ Mishka: Thoughts on Ballin’ Ass Hipsters and the Commodity of Cool

I make my weekly sojourn over to Mishka to drop a piece about the nature of “new money” hipster musicians.

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Every decade has it’s own counter cultural movement that breeds in the underground and bleeds onto the masses. Us growing into adulthood in the first decade of the 21st century have ours too, and like it or not it’s that hard to define exactly, but you know it when you see it “movement” of being a Hipster.

And this week another million arrows were slung into it’s dying edifice. Not to say that this wasn’t coming, since every movement either runs out steam or gobbles up and commodified for the masses eventually. We’ve seen a slow embrace by popular culture of DIY superheroes, from M.I.A. winning Grammies to electro becoming the reigning sound of ClearChannel radio and so on, and so forth, but last week was the week where the happy, smiling and fabulously wealthy hipster became the rule and no longer the exception to mainstream culture. This, more than any moment in recent memory is the best acknowledgment of a new era, and the signal for yet another rediscovery for new underground methods to inform the mainstream of the next cultural shift.

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Marcus @ Mishka: "On the Dark Twisted Fantasies of Kanye West, Jack Johnson and the Dissolution of Racism"

I make my weekly sojourn over to Mishka to drop a piece about the racial implications of Kanye West’s newest “G.O.O.D. Friday” leak, “So Appalled.”

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“Champagne wishes, thirty white bitches, I mean this shit is..fuckin’ ridiculous…fuckin’ ridiculous…”
– Kanye West, “So Appalled”

Like any hip hop head and astute internet journalist worth my weight in Twitter followers, upon the release of this week’s G.O.O.D. Friday track in preparation for Kanye’s forthcoming album, Dark Twisted Fantasy, I quickly downloaded it and listened with rapt attention. A history buff as well, I have in the last month watched the PBS’ excellent documentary on Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight boxing champion of the world.

The link between these two stellar and groundbreaking black men? Caucasian women, their hyper-sexualization by culture and the media, and that they stand 100 years apart on a spectrum where at one end America would vilify black a man for that choice, to now bopping their heads as he sings a rhyme about that very same thing.


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Marcus @ Mishka: "Goodbye Rock Stars…Thoughts on a New Era"

I make my weekly sojourn over to Mishka to drop a piece about the curious case of “rock stars” vs. “blue collar rockers” in this new generation of music…

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The margin of error for mainstream success in popular music has always been tremendously small. The highest attainable level has always been seen as attaining mega superstar status, turning one’s life into an episode of MTV Cribs, and generally ballin’ out of control. However, it would appear that in the midst of the greatest American economic downtown in nearly 80+ years and the record industry’s long collapse that the nature of “success” in music has been amended. Lets call them the “Blue Collar Rockers.” These guys have no major record deal (or any deal in some cases), are highly accessible, constantly performing and pushing some new project (usually for free) in getting their name out there and growing a sustainable fanbase along the way. Is thriving in this environment and managing to survive comfortably rather than living extravagantly now a measure of success? Is the destruction of the traditional “rock star” concept good for music, or do we need to revitalize it in an attempt to rescue sagging record sales? Please keep reading…

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Marcus @ Mishka: "MTV’s 2010 VMAs: The Nadir of 21st Century"

Pop music is not based in reality. For the vast majority of the world, giving a 16 year old tens of millions of dollars would be considered a fantastically stupid idea; A woman wearing circus clown costumes is not taken seriously, yet paid well to be some uplifting icon; An overemotional zealot who is compulsively obsessed with himself is not lauded as heroic, he’s regarded as a fucking asshole; We call cute girls who reveal their bodies in a salacious manner and invite us to ogle them “whores”, not rappers and singers; And most importantly, we call a TV network that shows reality TV shows built on flimsy premises and poorly written dramas with physically attractive yet two dimensional characters the Fox Network, and not MTV.

The 2010 MTV VMAs celebrated nothing more than the emperor has no clothes farce that popular music has now become. Many hold music to a high minded standard and would regard the Moon Man as a vaunted prize of success. MTV, as the leading arbiter of pop culture in society for the last few generations has realized that society more than ever needs an escape, and has opted to celebrate nothing surrounding honest, true or high minded artistry. In viewing pop music’s basis in fantasy, MTV has crafted a fantasy dripping in low culture sleaze, and this was its showcase.

 
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Marcus @ Mishka: "Pop Has Become Pro Wrestling and I’m Excited!"

I make my weekly sojourn over to Mishka to drop a piece about the curious case of pop music in 2010…

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ECW legend, Axl Rotten once said “All wrestlers wanna be rock stars, and all rock stars wanna be wrestlers.” I think that’s a fair assessment which brings us to the topic of my post on drawing some similarities between professional wrestling and Pop music…

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