The diminished power of late night TV, the stunted growth of country music and the many 'Faces' of Mac Miller
Does the 'late night effect' still exist? Will country music ever embrace experimentation? Does Mac Miller's "Faces" get the love it deserves?
Welcome back!
Pitchfork has become known for its scathing, decisive reviews, so when they felt the need to walk several of them back, we thought it warranted a larger discussion. So, this week on the podcast we asked a simple question “why do fans care about what a professional reviewer thinks about a particular album.” Our attempts to answer that leads to an interesting discussion about modern review culture and music discourse.
Find a clip below!
Moving on to this week’s 97 Demo Newsletter:
Now, Nnamdi’s not a big country guy, but a slight is a slight. So when the Recording Academy punted Kacey Musgraves latest release star-crossed’ out of the “Country Music Album” category, he made note of an apparent trend keeping the genre from tapping into its full potential. More, on that below.
Meanwhile, a few of Avery’s favorite artists have made rounds on the late-night TV circuit, but for some reason saying that now doesn’t feel as cool as it did back in 2012. He shares his thoughts.
And Noah, a self-described Mac Miller stan, welcomes the addition of the late rapper’s early mixtape “Faces” to streaming services. He writes about the important place it holds in Miller’s catalog below.
Happy reading.
Pitchfork and Critique Culture
Country music gives Kacey Musgraves the Lil Nas X treatment
Nnamdi, @NnamEgwuon
Kacey Musgraves has spent the last three years as country’s reigning ‘it girl,’ filling the sizeable hole left by Taylor Swift’s formal crossover to pop. Her 2018 album Golden Hour was hailed as an instant classic, pushing the boundaries of country music by infusing elements of disco and electropop, while reasserting the genre’s commitment to in-depth storytelling. But the experimentation that garnered Musgraves four Grammys in 2018, including “Album of the Year” and “Best Country Album,” has now resulted in a shunning of sorts.
Cindy Mabe, the president of Universal Music Group Nashville, revealed Musgraves latest effort, star-crossed, was deemed ineligible for a ‘country album’ Grammy. The Recording Academy’s screening committee, an anonymous group of purported music experts who dictate what genre categories albums fall into, decided Musgraves’ latest effort was not country enough.
Mabe laid out the implications of that decision in a letter to Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr: “Taking [Musgraves] out of the country category actually does harm to a format struggling with change and inclusivity overall.”
That’s true. Expanding the scope of country music will only help improve its status as America’s fourth most popular genre.
Mabe continued, adding “She has taken the lead role of lighting the way of success in a format that has been so restricted by rules of who’s allowed in and what they can sing about.” That’s arguably the most significant implication of the Recording Academy’s decision: It reaffirms the idea that country music has a specific, and restrictive, look and sound. And that shouldn’t be true.
Look, music is subjective. That’s what makes it the ultimate medium for creative expression. Artists can attach meaning to their work that differs from the interpretation listeners receive. Music can mean something different, and feel different, to every listener. And — in our current era of music — reformed thinking around genres has encouraged experimentation. A pop album can heavily sample R&B (as did Ariana Grande’s “Positions” and Justin Bieber’s “Changes”). A country song can heavily utilize elements of rap (remember “Cruise” from Nelly and Florida Georgia Line?). Some albums are so genre-inclusive, that categorizing them is a task that not even the most esteemed of screening committees can handle (a la the Weeknd’s After Hours). This new era should be celebrated, but instead, time after time, the music industry’s leading institutions reaffirm its commitment to clear, concise and pointed genre expression. A pop album needs to be pop. Rap needs to be rap. Country needs to be country. There’s no room for fine lines. And, star-crossed is a victim of that. Creatives should be able to dictate what genre they feel best encompasses their work, not a ‘screening committee.’ Especially not a committee with members, as Mabe highlights, that may have conflicting interests.
“The idea that a handful of people including competitors, who would benefit from Kacey not being in the country category, are deciding ‘what is country’ only exacerbates the problem,” Mabe said. “The system is broken and sadly not just for Kacey Musgraves but for our entire genre.”
It seems to me like Mabe is implying Musgraves' two prior “Country Album” wins may have played a part in the Academy’s decision.
The frustration with the Academy’s decision is understandable. But I can’t help but consider the seething silence from country’s leading stakeholders when this same thing happened to a young, gay Black kid who created an unexpected runaway hit — that to many is still considered one of country music’s biggest.
“Old Town Road '' wasn't just excluded from the country music categories at the Grammys, it was also snubbed at the CMA’s, ACM’s and barred from Billboard’s Country Music Charts. Someone somewhere decided that despite the song’s persistent use of the banjo and Billy Ray Cyrus’s deep, husky vocals, “Old Town Road” wasn’t country enough.
I think history will prove that decision was harmful to the genre. Because instead of embracing an artist that could have redefined the look and feel of country music for a younger, more progressive generation, they reaffirmed what country is and isn’t. And as Mabe pointed out, those decisions send a message that “country music can only be for the limited few that enjoy the same perspective.” And if country wants to change its status as, again, America’s fourth most-popular genre, it needs to change that message. Country music — open up your borders and welcome the innovation, perspective and diversity that can keep an aging, conservative genre alive.
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Thinking about Late Night TV musical performances
Avery, @AveryDalal
This week on Jimmy Kimmel, Phoebe Bridgers performed a beautiful rendition of “Moon Song” while wearing a spacesuit while Rob Moose went crazy on the violin right behind her. It was awesome.
It got me thinking about the prominence of the late-night TV performance and whether people care anymore. 10 or 20 years ago, a performance like Phoebe’s would have been a pretty big deal considering the fact that not many people have been able to see her tour her album that came out last year and this was a cool opportunity to see her “live.”
I love these performances, and pay attention to who is performing when, but do most other people?
Maybe the advent of the internet and YouTube and social media have made late-night TV performance less important than it used to be.
The popularization of the late-night TV performance came because of “The Ed Sullivan Show,” which ran from 1948 to 1971. That show became the place to be if you were a new artist, it was a launching pad for many careers. This includes Elvis Presley, The Jackson 5 (look at how cute little Michael is!!!) and, of course, The Beatles, who Ed Sullivan famously introduced to a wider audience with this performance. There are so many more great performances on “The Ed Sullivan Show” that everyone should watch.
Say what you will about Elvis and The Beatles and their contributions to music — or rather their stealing of music from Black artists — but those late-night performances were important for some of the biggest acts music has ever seen.
I remember seeing Stephen Colbert’s show live a few years back in the Ed Sullivan Theatre, and just being a little starstruck that I was in the same spot where that iconic Beatles performance took place.
Artists had to bring their “A” game to those performances and I think they still do. Seeing the effort that goes into these performances to this day is very admirable! It’s clear that artists still want to make a statement or do something creative with their songs during late-night performances. See: Chloe Bailey’s great performance on Jimmy Fallon this week.
I will push back on my own point gently here and say that people do care about who is performing on Saturday Night Live it seems, but even what once was a unique opportunity to showcase two of your best songs on a show that everyone watched weekly just does not feel prominent anymore. It feels like SNL is consumed on YouTube or on social media more than on a live broadcast.
I think the problem lies within viewership and the dwindling prominence of late-night TV in our current zeitgeist. It’s probably an outdated format that has a high potential for virality but more often than not is mostly only seen by those who tune in live.
What goes hand in hand with that is the access that we have to artists and the new avenues that have become popular like NPR’s Tiny Desk or BBC’s 1Xtra Live Lounge. And those are amazing! Who could forget Mac Miller’s Tiny Desk? Have you seen Giveon’s BBC performance this week?? Are you kidding me!
In my eyes, there are not many things more exciting than watching an artist at the top of their game performing to a smaller audience that is excited to see them. Just good vibes all around.
I’m not sure what the solution to this is. I think late-night hosts and producers should continue to encourage artists to express their creativity on their shows and try to figure out a way to uniquely use that late-night platform. If they don’t, then I’m afraid artists will stop putting their all into these performances and then we are all worse off.
Just for fun, here are some of my personal favorite late-night music performances from: Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean, Silversun Pickups, Beyoncé, Cordae and Billie Eilish.
Comment below or tweet us your favorite performances!
Now on the 97 Demo Mix:
Songs from: Cordae, PinkPantheress, Wiki
Mac Miller’s Faces represents his musical growth and transition into another sound
Noah, @noahamcgee_
Late last night, Mac Miller’s 2014 mixtape Faces was released on streaming for the masses to listen to. Now, I’ve been listening to this mixtape since it dropped 7 years ago and so have a lot of longtime Mac Miller fans.
But for those who haven’t, this will be an opportunity for them to go back and listen to an important moment in Miller’s musical development. Although going back and listening to this project can be difficult knowing what became of his future.
Early in Miller’s career, I was not the biggest supporter. Yes, I was a fan of some of his early songs like “Donald Trump,” ”Wear My Hat” and “Party On Fifth Ave.” But as an artist, I found him to be a goofy, funny and playful MC, but nothing deeper than that.
But, in 2013, Miller released his most focused, direct and realized project up to that point, Watching Movies With The Sound Off. He turned a corner personally and creatively. The production was psychedelic, his rhymes were dark and his verses witty.
While he still had goofy and fun songs like, “Gees,” “S.D.S,” and “Bird Call.” He had more darker-sounding songs than before like “Red Dot Music” and “I Am Who I Am (Killin’ Time)” come to mind.
But Faces brought together darker and psychedelic sounding production, with more personal and mature lyrics. The first words you hear on the project are “should’ve died already.” Although Mac Miller is as goofy as they come, when you start a project like that, you are in for more than music that you just dance to.
Miller is more vulnerable than he had ever been before and is open with his drug use, mental state and relationships with family and friends while still offering versions of his older music that fans fell in love with him for.
On songs like “Rain “ and “Funeral,” Miller is as real as he has ever been before. Rapping on mental hurdles in his life and being more reflective than ever.
This mixtape was the transition project for Mac where he grew up and started the blueprint for where he would end up creatively with his last two albums Swimming and Circles. While those albums sound different from Faces, Mac Miller’s lyrics are just as thoughtful.
So while you’re enjoying Faces, remember where Mac ultimately ended up musically, and appreciate the growth of one of music’s best artists of the 21st century.
Edited by Hope Davis :)
Ep. 64: Pitchfork and Critique Culture
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Coming up on the 97 Demo Podcast: Review of “Friends that Break Your Heart” by James Blake