The annual festival celebrated 10 years of drag, queerness and artistry this month, but some local queens want more.
Tag Archives: Music
The Score of Final Fantasy Gets Its Due at the Concert Hall
The beloved music for this video game and others have been covered on YouTube for years. Now some are performed at classical music’s grandest venues.
My Mission to Ferret Out a Lost Broadway Score
The music is a missing piece of the Fats Waller story.
Moor Mother’s Musical Galaxy Grows Even Bigger
Camae Ayewa makes a blend of hip-hop, spoken-word poetry, punk and electro as Moor Mother. In Irreversible Entanglements, she records scalding free jazz. Both have new albums this fall.
Bicycle Diaries: Cruising With the ‘American Utopia’ Family
Our intrepid reporter and photographer biked through Queens with David Byrne and some of his castmates ahead of their return to Broadway. Then the skies opened up.
BTS Took Center Stage at the U.N. Over One Million Fans Watched Live.
The boy band’s seven members accompanied President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, who designated them as special presidential envoy for future generations and culture.
How the Cast Members of ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ Found Their Voices
Some stars of the movie musical, like Ben Platt and Amy Adams, were ready and eager to sing. Others, like Julianne Moore, got there eventually.
Max Harwood Steps Up in ‘Everybody’s Talking About Jamie’
Max Harwood, making his professional debut with the movie musical “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie,” has “this kind of magic about him.”
Andrew Garfield Can’t Remember Who He Was Before ‘Tick, Tick … Boom!’
In the movie musical, Garfield plays the creator of “Rent,” who died unexpectedly at 35. Making the film helped Garfield process a death in his own life.
A Cabaret Star and an Opera Star Walk Onto a Stage …
The punchline is “Only an Octave Apart,” featuring the unlikely collaborators Justin Vivian Bond and Anthony Roth Costanzo at St. Ann’s Warehouse.
Bennie Pete, Bandleader Who Kept the Beat After Katrina, Dies at 45
A tuba player and the leader of the Hot 8, one of New Orleans’s high-profile brass bands, he brought music to his fellow citizens in the difficult days after the storm.
The Sunday Read: ‘The Composer at the Frontier of Movie Music’
Nicholas Britell’s scores — for “Succession,” “Moonlight” and “The Underground Railroad,” among others — suggest whole new ways of writing for film and television.
In Nashville, Rolling Parties Rage at Every Stoplight
As Nashville’s popularity has grown, so has the “transportainment” business — a motley assortment including old buses, farm tractors and a truck with a hot tub. Many think it has gotten out of hand.
A Celebrated Virtuoso on an Instrument She Wasn’t Meant to Play
The hallowed tradition of kora playing in Sona Jobarteh’s family passed down the male line. One of her teachers dismissed it as “an ethnic thing.” But it has brought her international acclaim.
5 Pros in the Concert Trenches on Getting (Carefully) Back to Work
What’s it like mixing sound, building sets and taking care of artists’ health as the music industry hits pause and play?
Jane Powell, Hollywood’s Girl Next Door, Is Dead at 92
Typecast from the outset, she was a star of movie musicals before she was out of her teens. But her big-screen career peaked when she was in her 20s.
‘Buena Vista Social Club’ at 25: Memories of Memories
A group of older Cuban musicians recorded some of their favorite songs in 1996, and the album became an unlikely blockbuster. How do we hear it a quarter-century later?
Dancing Through New York in a Summer of Joy and Grief
During the brief moment when the pandemic was receding and we could be together again, all we wanted to do was move our bodies.
Broadway Tickets, Shows and Covid Protocols: What You Need to Know
“Hadestown” has begun performances. “Waitress” too. We break down everything you need to navigate Broadway as it reopens.
Curtains Up! How Broadway Is Coming Back From Its Longest Shutdown.
Determined to reopen, crews are dusting off spotlights, dancers are relearning steps, and everyone is testing, testing, testing as theater seeks to rebound from the devastating pandemic.
Sri Lanka Baila Star Sunil Perera is Dead at 68
The frontman of his family’s popular band combined the country’s unique, Latin-influenced sound with politically biting lyrics.
Riz Ahmed Is Breaking Hollywood’s ‘Ethnicity Handcuffs’
The actor and musician has broken out past Hollywood’s stereotypical portrayals of Muslims. But does it matter if he’s the exception to the rule?
Phil Schaap, Grammy-Winning Jazz D.J. and Historian, Dies at 70
His radio programs, most notably on Columbia University’s WKCR, were full of minutiae he had accumulated during a lifetime immersed in the genre.
Bomba Estéreo Strives to Save the Planet and Soothe the Heart
Mixing traditions and electronics, this duo from Colombia envisions a futurism with roots.
It’s Time to Give Enya Another Listen
Even at her peak, she was hugely famous but never especially cool. But maybe we’re finally ready to heed her whispered call to awaken.
TikTok and Snap alums launch mayk.it, a social music creation app, with $4M in seed funding
After living through the global upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, many workers are re-evaluating their career path. Stefan Heinrich Henriquez, a former Head of Global Marketing at TikTok and Chief Marketing Officer at Cameo, is one of them.
“I have been thinking about music since my time at TikTok, and I was really thinking about building something on my own, but then it took me another year to finally have the guts to do it,” said Henriquez. “Then when the pandemic started, I think so many people were thinking about like, ‘What am I doing with my life?”
Along with his co-founder Akiva Bamberger, who was a software engineer on Snap’s Spectacles, Henriquez began work on mayk.it last summer. Today, the social music app launches on iOS and announces its $4 million seed round from investors including Greycroft, Chicago Ventures, Slow Ventures, firstminute, Steven Galanis, Randi Zuckerberg, YouTuber Mr. Beasts’ Night media, Spotify’s first CMO Sophia Bendz, Cyan Banister, artist T-Pain and music industry veteran Zach Katz, among others.
Mayk.it wants to help people easily produce, own, and share music that they can create using just their phone. Users can upload their own beat or select an existing beat from another user, then add vocals (voice effects and somewhat corny lyric generators are available if you’re shy), and then add a visual from Giphy. Once you make (or, “mayk”) something, you can post it on the app, where other users can see it via a discovery page, which categorizes music by feeling or theme, rather than genre.
Mayk.it also poses “ideas,” or prompts to spur creativity, like “What is your pet thinking about right now?” or “Make a song about your first crush.” There’s also a Tinder-like tab that lets you swipe left or right on songs — if you really like it, you can leave a comment (called an “encouragement” in an attempt to keep things supportive) or remix it.
Of course, for creators who might want to get a bit more serious about their creations, remixing and collaborating poses a question of ownership — if someone writes a beat and another user sings over it, who owns it? While you can’t monetize music on mayk.it, you have the right to export it and sell it elsewhere. Henriquez said that anyone involved in the creation of an audio clip or song on the app gets an equal cut, so the beat-maker would get 50% of any profit, and the singer would get 50%. Mayk.it doesn’t take a cut.
Right now, the mayk.it doesn’t have in-app purchases, but Henriquez said that down the road, it could be possible to profit from working with brands or establishing an in-app marketplace. For now, mayk.it is focused on using its seed funding to add new features, improve the product and build a tool that inspires creativity — Henriquez added that, as an LGBTQ+ founder, it’s important to him that users can find community on the app through its social features.
“When I worked at YouTube, you really needed to know Adobe Premiere and After Effects,” said Henriquez. “And what I learned since Musical.ly and TikTok is that you could be a video creator or an actor without having to go through all these things. I think Roblox is doing that now with games, and Canva is doing that with design tools.”
Mayk.it wants to be like a Roblox or Canva for music composition and sharing. You can’t currently create something on mayk.it that sounds like it came from an artist who’s mastered Ableton, but something from mayk.it could easily make the rounds on TikTok.
Though mayk.it is now in the App Store, there’s a waitlist to gain access — but you can also test your skills with a “vibe check,” which invites you to make a song and see if existing users will right-swipe you in. Not to brag, but we passed.
Signature Moves With Sean Bankhead
The choreographer behind many of the biggest music videos of the year is a pop star’s secret weapon.
Coming to Terms With the Legacy of Rick James
For a new documentary, the director and the star’s daughter examine both his pioneering work and his misogyny, as well as a sexual assault conviction.
Mikis Theodorakis, Greek Composer and Marxist Rebel, Dies at 96
He waged a war of words and music against a military junta that banned his work and imprisoned him during its rule of Greece, from 1967 to 1974.
Little Simz’s Big Moment
The British rapper’s laser focus has been trained on fame since she was a child. Now, she’s ready to take it to the next level.
For Music, a Fall Deluge of Performances Is Beginning
Summer has been quiet, but the weekend brought some brilliant concerts. (Delta variant be damned.)
5 Minutes That Will Make You Love the Trumpet
Listen to Louis Armstrong’s sweetness, Miles Davis’s wild squall, Handel’s Baroque majesty and other favorites.
Leslie Winer’s Music Was a Mystery in 1990. She Still Likes It That Way.
Fans of her early trip-hop-like songs included John Peel and Boy George. A new compilation puts her innovations in a fresh context.
When Charlie Watts Finally Made It to New York City
While his bandmates hit the Apollo, the reserved, jazz-loving drummer for the Stones could be found at Birdland.
How Josh Ritter, Musician and Novelist, Spends His Sundays
In the morning he writes prose, and in the evening, songs. In between are treasure hunts and ‘power cleans’ with his family.
Michael Morgan, Adventurous Oakland Maestro, Dies at 63
As music director of the Oakland Symphony, he sought diversity in his audiences as well as in his programming.
Inge Ginsberg, Holocaust Survivor With a Heavy Metal Coda, Dies at 99
Her rich life, spanning three continents and 11 decades, entailed wartime espionage, volumes of poetry, songwriting and a late-career turn as a rock band’s frontwoman.
Micki Grant, Groundbreaking Broadway Composer, Dies at 92
With “Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope,” she became the first woman to write the book, music and lyrics of a Broadway musical.
Aretha Franklin and the Futility of Trying to Portray Her Onscreen
The new film “Respect” is one of three recent attempts to understand the artist. Only the one that focuses solely on her music comes close.
‘1, 2, 3 … Exhale Together’: Broadway Families, Reunited at Last
Before the reopenings were the in-person reunions. And hugs. So many hugs. Here’s a look at some of the first emotional moments on the road back.
Larry Harlow, a Salsa Revolutionary
The musician, who died on Friday, was a true originator of the genre. An outsider, he lived a Latin music life by immersing himself in Afro-Caribbean culture.
Charlie Watts, Bedrock Drummer for the Rolling Stones, Dies at 80
Mr. Watts, who had no taste for the life of a pop idol, was an unflashy presence with the band and brought to it a swinging style.
Even Billy Joel Mocked ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire.’ I Loved It.
As a 4-year-old, our critic couldn’t get enough of this manic 1989 hit, a crash course in U.S. history. Now the song lives on in parodies and memes.
Photographs of Afghanistan’s Post-9/11 Generation
This summer, the journalist Kiana Hayeri set out to photograph Afghans who grew up after the U.S. invasion in 2001. Instead, she wound up documenting the end of life as they knew it.
Central Park Concert Draws Thousands to Cheer New York’s Comeback
Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon and Jennifer Hudson were set to celebrate the city’s emergence after the hardships of the pandemic, even as the spread of the Delta variant has driven up cases again.
Tom T. Hall, Country Music’s ‘Storyteller,’ Is Dead at 85
Mr. Hall, who wrote hits like “Harper Valley P.T.A.,” helped to imbue country lyrics with newfound depth and insight in the 1960s and ’70s.
The Struggle to Save a House of Music, and Its Legacy
For decades, the Tangier home of Abdellah El Gourd has been a wellspring of the Gnawa musical tradition and a place of pilgrimage for jazz performers. But it has fallen into deep disrepair.
For Aretha Franklin, a Grudge Was a Way to Earn R-E-S-P-E-C-T
The Queen of Soul was constantly trying to bend the world to her will.
SiriusXM launches ‘TikTok Radio,’ a music channel featuring viral hits hosted by TikTok stars
If viral TikTok songs like Dr. Dog’s “Where’d All the Time Go?” or Bo Burnham’s “Bezos I” weren’t already stuck in your head on loop, now they could be. Today SiriusXM launched a TikTok Radio channel, which features TikTok creators as channel hosts. The station is designed to sound like a “radio version of the platform’s ‘For You’ feed,” Sirius XM said.
SiriusXM, parent company to Pandora, announced this music channel in May, teasing the launch with curated Pandora playlists from influencers like Bella Poarch, whose lipsync video of Millie B’s “Soph Aspin Send [M to the B]” is the most liked video on TikTok.
With its TikTok partnership, SiriusXM is looking to capture a younger audience — on the TikTok app itself, DJ Habibeats (@djhabibeats) and DJ CONST (@erinconstantineofficial) will each go live on TikTok each week while DJing on TikTok Radio. Other creator hosts on TikTok Radio — like Billy (@8illy), Cat Haley (@itscathaley), HINDZ (@hindzsight), Lamar Dawson (@dirrtykingofpop), and Taylor Cassidy (@taylorcassidyj) — will deliver “The TikTok Radio Trending Ten,” a weekly countdown of songs trending on TikTok. To promote the station during its first week, artists like Ed Sheeran, Lil Nas X, and Normani will appear on air.
Music has such a strong footing in TikTok culture that it regularly influences the Billboard charts — Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours,” originally released in 1978,” appeared in the top 10 Billboard albums again in 2020 after it was featured in a viral TikTok. Even a Fortnite-themed parody of Estelle’s “American Boy” — originally uploaded in 2018 to YouTube — had a beautiful moment on TikTok.
“We’re so excited to launch TikTok Radio on SiriusXM, which opens up artists and creators like this amazing group of hosts to new audiences,” said Ole Obermann, TikTok’s Global Head of Music, in a statement. “Now SiriusXM subscribers will have a new road to discover the latest trends in music and get a first listen to tomorrow’s musical superstars. The channel captures song-breaking music culture that creates so much joy and entertainment on TikTok through video in an all-audio format.”
Though SiriusXM’s subscriber base continues to expand — it saw a 34% year-over-year growth from last year to now — it still dwarfs in comparison to streaming giants like Spotify, which has 165 million paid users. SiriusXM reported a total of 34.5 million subscribers as of Q2 this year, the most it’s ever had, but even Apple Music and Amazon Music have reported nearly double the subscribers. Pandora has 6.5 million paid subscribers. Over the last few years, SiriusXM and Pandora have struck deals with companies like SoundCloud, Simplecast and Stitcher to become more competitive in both music and podcast streaming.
Still, other streaming companies have also shown interest in the market of Gen Z-ers on TikTok who want to listen to full versions of the catchy songs they hear in short videos. Apple Music and Spotify both host curated “viral hits” playlists. But a full-time satellite music channel is taking the trend a step further.
Can White Men Write a Black Opera?
On ‘Blues opera’ and Black English.