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LATEST ARTICLES - PAGE 53

Manchester Orchestra Talk With Spotlight Report

Jason Tate

Andy Hull of Manchester Orchestra sat down with Spotlight Report:

I think so much of that comes from like giving up control for the greater good and letting go of your ego and your pride. When I was younger, it wasn’t that I knew what I was doing [laughs] or knew that I was being a certain way – it was just all I knew. As the years go on, you start to realise how un-smart you are and how much you need to surround yourself with the best people. Once I started to realise Cope was a big part of that, being in a room, working on these songs and realising other ideas were super valuable.

111 NFL Players Examined, 110 Were Found to Have C.T.E.

Jason Tate

The New York Times:

Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist, has examined the brains of 202 deceased football players. A broad survey of her findings was published on Tuesday in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Of the 202 players, 111 of them played in the N.F.L. — and 110 of those were found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., the degenerative disease believed to be caused by repeated blows to the head.

Reports: Daniel Craig to Return as James Bond

James Bond
Jason Tate

The New York Times is reporting that Daniel Craig will be returning as James Bond in a new film in 2019:

The companies said in a statement that details about a distribution partner, international release dates and the film’s cast and director would be announced “at a later date.” But Mr. Craig’s return is a done deal, according to two people briefed on the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid conflicts with Eon and MGM.

Justin Bieber Banned From China

Justin Bieber
Jason Tate

Justin Bieber has been banned from China, according to the BBC:

Justin Bieber is indeed “talented at singing” came the reply, but nonetheless it would not be appropriate to allow him to perform, because of what it called a number of incidents of “bad behaviour.” It did not elaborate on exactly which of Mr Bieber’s run-ins with the law it was referring to.

The pop star, who was allowed to tour China in 2013, joins a long list of musicians who have found themselves similarly blacklisted. Most though, like the British band Oasis and the US group Maroon 5, because of perceived political statements, rather than on the grounds of bad behaviour.

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Analyzing the Gender Representation of 34,476 Comic Book Characters

Comic Books
Jason Tate

Amanda Shendruk:

Why all the fuss? Well, the truth is that the comics industry has had a complicated relationship with female characters. They are often hyper-sexualized, unnecessarily brutalized, stereotyped, and used as tokens. They’re also rare. Only 26.7 percent of all DC and Marvel characters are female, and only 12 percent of mainstream superhero comics have female protagonists.

And:

The data suggest that less-physical powers — such as empathy, intellect, and telepathy — tend to be more represented among female characters. Men however, often have highly physical powers, as well as those that involve gadgets. Female characters dominate in relatively few physical abilities; and those where they do are often tied to gender stereotypes. Pheromone control — the ability to generate and control pheromones that affect emotional and physical states, such as sleep, fear, and pleasure — occurs five times as often in a female character. Sonic scream appears in twice as many female characters as male; and prehensile hair — the ability to control one’s own hair — appears in female characters seven times more often.

Fascinating deep dive.

Nielsen Release Mid-Year Report

Headphones
Jason Tate

Nielsen have released their mid-year report:

For the rst time in Nielsen Music history, R&B/Hip-Hop has become the largest share of overall volume (Album + TEA + SEA), with 25.1% of the total volume coming from the R&B/Hip-Hop genre. Rock, which had always been the largest genre in the past, slips to second with 23% of the total volume.

R&B/Hip-Hop has become the largest genre by dominating share of streaming consumption. Over 30% of audio on-demand streaming comes from R&B/Hip-Hop, nearly as much as the next two genres combined (Rock 18% and Pop 13%).

If you don’t want to give Nielsen a bunch of personal information, you can read the report here.

Now, Now Talk About Their New Album

Now Now
Jason Tate

Now, Now recently sat down with Stereogum:

For us to be in a happy and healthy writing environment, we just need Brad and I. It’s hard for anyone else to be in that situation. It’s harder for us and harder for them because what we have is so developed already. With someone else involved, we can’t do the sort of thing where we say No, I don’t like this because it hurts their feelings. Which is totally understandable, but it feels like more work and more energy when you have to tip-toe around each other. It’s harder when there are other people in the mix because it’s more people to please and more people to emotionally take care of. Unless you’re going into a situation with the mindset of everyone’s being open here and no one’s feelings are getting hurt — and there are obviously situations where you can go into it like that — but for this project it’s hard for someone else to be involved and it’s harder for us because it’s tough… This is what we have.

Some Thoughts on Daring Fireball’s New Display Ads

Daring Fireball
Jason Tate

Last week I read John Gruber’s announcement of his new in-house advertising model on Daring Fireball. Unsurprisingly, I really like the way his mind works:

A maximum of 5 sponsors per month. Each sponsor will get 20 percent of all page views on DF (including the very popular Markdown Syntax Documentation and online Dingus pages). […] For sponsors, you get to be the only graphical ad on the page each time your ad is shown. […] Not only is there no tracking involved, there is not JavaScript involved. They’re just images, text, and HTML links.

In a lot of ways he’s going with a new system that’s not unlike what I first attempted when I launched Chorus. A smaller number of ads, sold at a higher price point. (And the ad unit is very similar to what we offer here: a graphic, link, text, and we don’t track users.) I had a few people ask me why I recently moved from this model to a slightly different self-serve advertising model that allows anyone to buy an ad on the site at a lower price. The answer’s pretty simple: the other model didn’t work for us, but yes, I think this will be very successful for Daring Fireball.

Based on the last stats I could find, this website does more pageviews a month than Daring Fireball; however, it’s two different audiences and two different sets of advertisers. A lot of the advertisements on this website are bands, record labels, producers, and clothing companies. While I’d love to have advertisers like Squarespace, Blue Apron, and other bigger companies see the value in reaching our audience, I don’t really see that happening unless I hire a dedicated person to run advertising and cultivate those relationships. Daring Fireball has a fantastic (and well-deserved) reputation, and a real cachet within the technology industry. It makes a lot of sense for some bigger tech companies to want to have their ads on 20% of Daring Fireball for the month. Whereas here, I think we’ve found the sweet spot in offering a quality ad unit that remains affordable to virtually any budget. And because of that, it’s way easier for me to run as a one person show.

Basically, I think what John Gruber is doing at Daring Fireball is fantastic and right in line with what more websites should be attempting. I think that an ad unit that respects the viewer is a better ad unit. I think our click-through rate and how many people I’ve seen talk about how they are more willing to check out a band, album, or service because of our specific kinds of ads, is proof of that.

I think that the first month or so of moving to a self-service ad model has convinced me that it’s correct move for Chorus right now as well. It’s working for us, it’s working for advertisers, and if you’d like to purchase an advertisement: you should check it out.

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Portugal. The Man Talk With Billboard

Portugal. The Man
Jason Tate

Portugal. The Man talked with Billboard about their hit “Feel It Still:”

It comes down to the way our political parties work where it’s basically football teams. If you’re not on Team Trump, you’re on Team Hillary and it’s such a ridiculous way to look at politics and to look at the way we’re voting. I’ll talk shit all day long but at the end of the day I don’t want to vote for anybody. I don’t feel strongly for either one of those people. So many of my friends were for Bernie all the way and said, ‘If he doesn’t get it, I’m not voting.’ It’s a ridiculous process. The fact at all that Bernie had to run as a Democrat is kind of what the song is about.

While Some Cry ‘Fake,’ Spotify Sees No Need to Apologize

Jason Tate

The New York Times:

For the last week, the music industry has been buzzing over the accusation that Spotify’s playlists are dotted with hundreds of supposedly “fake” artists, with names like Amity Cadet and Lo Mimieux, who are racking up tens of millions of streams yet have no public profile — no Facebook page, no Twitter feed, not even a face.

And:

Peter Sandberg, a 27-year-old composer in Sweden who has created a number of tracks on these playlists, called the term unfair.

“I’m a composer trying to find a way to grow and spread my work,” Mr. Sandberg wrote in an email relayed through an intermediary, “and to be called fake is not something I appreciate.” (Mr. Sandberg, who records music under his own name as well, does have a social media presence, making him a less anonymous figure than many of the other creators of this music.)

This entire story is strange, but when companies like Spotify can get computers to produce hits for their playlists with minimal human involvement, that’s when it gets really weird.

R. Kelly Is Holding Women Against Their Will In A “Cult,” Parents Told Police

BuzzFeed
Jason Tate

Jim DeRogatis, writing at Buzzfeed:

Three former members of Kelly’s inner circle — Cheryl Mack, Kitti Jones, and Asante McGee — provided details supporting the parents’ worst fears. They said six women live in properties rented by Kelly in Chicago and the Atlanta suburbs, and he controls every aspect of their lives: dictating what they eat, how they dress, when they bathe, when they sleep, and how they engage in sexual encounters that he records.

The last time J. saw her daughter was Dec. 1, 2016.

Hayley Williams Talks with I-D

Jason Tate

Hayley Williams of Paramore recently sat down with I-D:

I found myself in a really weird headspace in the last few years where I was going through these things in my personal life, but we had just come off of this successful album. People would come up to me in my hometown and have pictures of me in these very superhero type poses across their shirts, and [they’d say], “Oh you’re perfect, I’ve looked up to you for so long.” I never discounted anything that they said because that’s the truth for them and I appreciate that, but what I couldn’t shake was how much that contrasted with the way that I viewed myself. I was crumbling. I was losing friendships, I was going through things with my family, my relationship. I just felt like, “Wow, this person that I’m standing right in front of, has no idea that I’m probably doing worse than they’re doing. And they’re asking for advice, and they’re telling me that I’m perfect.” It made me very angry at myself that I wasn’t at that level, and I never could be.

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How to Safely Enjoy the 2017 Solar Eclipse

Globe
Jason Tate

Jason Kottke has put together a buyer’s guide for tools to safely enjoy the upcoming solar eclipse:

On August 21, 2017 across the entire United States, the Moon will move in front of the Sun, partially blocking it from our view. For those on the path of totality, the Moon will entirely block out the Sun for more than 2 minutes. I’ve been looking forward to seeing a total solar eclipse since I was a little kid, so I’ve been doing a lot of research on what to buy to enjoy the eclipse safely. Here’s what I’ve come up with.

I’ve oriented this guide toward the enthusiastic beginner, someone who’s excited about experiencing the wonder of the eclipse with their friends & family but isn’t interested in expensive specialty gear or photography (like me!). And, again, since you will be able to see this eclipse from everywhere in North America to some degree, this guide applies to anyone in the US/Canada/Mexico.

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