Blackberry Smoke – Holding All The Roses
Southern Rock | Country
86%
Johnny Depp joins supergroup
image source: the Guardian
The larger-than-life character actor has joined forces with Alice Cooper and Joe Perry of Aerosmith to form a new band called “Hollywood Vampires”, named after Cooper’s former drinking club whose members included Keith Moon and John Lennon. The band are due to make their debut at the Rock in Rio festival in Brazil. Thus far no other dates have been announced. The new group comes as a surprise after Depp’s recent comments on actors turned musicians being “sickening”. It’s too soon to tell how successful this new venture will be but I’m fairly sure it will be a sight to behold.
Is there such thing as good music?
If you’re the kind of person to get into lengthy and heated debates about music, then you’ll be used to someone interjecting with a comment along the lines of “Music is an art form, it’s all just opinion and personal taste”. It’s the kind of remark that requires some thinking time and possibly some more lengthy discussion. Saying that it’s all based on opinion does then pose us with the question as to whether there’s even such thing as good or bad music. Short answer? Yes… but It’s not quite so simple as that. Continue reading
Album Review: Peace – Happy People
Album Review: Foy Vance – Live at Bangor Abbey
The Grammy Awards 2015
The 57th Grammy awards have now drawn to a close, after a few surprises and some astonishing performances. ACDC opened proceedings with their first public appearance in 4 years. The evening’s performances included various duets including Sam Smith & Mary J Blige, Lady Gaga & Tony Bennett, Hozier & Annie Lennox and Ed Sheeran & Jeff Lynne. Rihanna, Kanye West and Paul McCartney premiered their collaborative song ‘FourFiveSeconds’. Sam Smith was the standout winner of the evening taking away 4 awards including Song of the Year and Best New Artist. Beck was the surprise of the evening after winning the awards for both Album of the Year and Best Rock Album for ‘Morning Phase’, beating Beyoncé, Sheeran and Smith himself. St. Vincent won the award for Best Alternative Album for her eponymous release and Jack White won Best Rock Performance. Tenacious D shockingly won the award for Best Metal Performance; the biggest upset in the category since Jethro Tull beat Metallica in 1989. Speaking of ‘1989’, Taylor Swift was notably quiet as she neither won or performed at the ceremony. A full list of categories and their various winners can be found on the Grammys website.
Album Review: Two Gallants – We Are Undone
Two Gallants – We Are Undone‘Old’ music outsells ‘New’ music
Source: musicbusinessworldwide.com
In 2014 catalogue album downloads outsold downloads of new albums in the US. This is the first time in history that, over the course of year, old music has outsold new music. Now this is just the case for the American figures for downloads, but the above graph shows sales on all formats and it shows a worrying trend. At this rate new music will soon be outsold on all formats. Many would be quick to cite this as evidence that old music is simply better than modern music (a topic that I myself am bound to have a more in-depth discussion of at some point) but there are other contributing factors. It could be that people are more likely to use streaming services for chart music than older catalogue albums, or it could be that (since ‘old’ music in this study is defined as being released over 18 months ago) people need time to decide whether an album is worth buying or they are waiting until the price drops. Whether the cause is music quality, music cost, changes on how people listen to it or a combination of the three, it should be an alarming wake up call for the industry.
Bob Dylan honoured at tribute concert
The legendary songwriter and musician Bob Dylan was awarded the MusiCare Person of the Year award in association with the Grammys. The event featured performances from an all-star line-up featuring Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Crosby Stills & Nash, Tom Jones, Alanis Morissette, Bonnie Raitt and Jack White. Dylan himself didn’t perform, however he gave a speech thanking, among others, Jimi Hendrix, Nina Simone and Johnny Cash.
Buffalo Soldier
Today would’ve been the 70th birthday of Bob Marley. The Jamaican singer, with his band The Wailers, would become the figurehead of reggae music and the Rastafarian movement. His music spread a message of peace and unity around the world, which resulted in him being one of the best selling artists of all time. He also wrong many songs of protest and was as much a fighter as a lover. It’s no wonder become such a lasting and influential cultural figure. Today is a day to remember his legacy and “…get together and feel alright”.
Belwood Music 