Word: labelers
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...21st century, the Internet has opened up the world to itself. In the distant past--say, three years ago--global-music fans had to wait for a record label to decide whether to distribute a foreign artist in their country. South African diva Brenda Fassie's last three CDs weren't picked up by American distributors, despite the fact that they were best sellers in Africa. Today, Internet file-sharing services allow users to listen to whatever they want, anywhere they choose, anytime they please. (And Fassie's Stateside appeal is recognized by some: Banana Republic plays her song Vuli...
...singer's pop album is being co-produced by the ubiquitous Corey Rooney (of Mariah Carey and J. Lo fame), who appears to be playing it safe. For example, on I've Got You--which Columbia, Anthony's pop label, considered using as the single--the rhythms and melody sound like an overprocessed hit from the '80s. And on another track, Anthony duets with teen pop star Jessica Simpson. "We wanted to keep him young and cutting edge," explains Tommy Mottola, chairman of Sony Music (which owns Columbia). Memo to Sony: Simpson is young, but she ain't cutting edge...
...this tradition, De Castro brings a sound that fluidly, intelligently and winningly blends disparate genres--samba, bossa nova, drum 'n' bass, hip-hop and soul--into futuristic music that echoes the past. On his debut album, Samba Raro (released last year on the Trama label), De Castro's lyrics, all in Portuguese, have an engaging, understated simplicity. The title song compares the movement of a beautiful woman to a samba (Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes made a similar comparison on their bossa-nova standard The Girl from Ipanema). Another song, Pra Voce Lembrar, tells the story...
...Castro was born in Rio and grew up in a luxurious apartment on Avenida Atlantica. As a teen, he listened to American soul music. "At that time Max liked to copy Prince," says Joao Marcello Boscoli, a friend of De Castro's and head of Trama, his record label. "He used to slide across the floor to open the door, playing an imaginary guitar." Soon De Castro discovered the great Brazilian music that had been playing around him all along--Powell, Ben and Moacir Santos. His embrace of the music of his homeland was only logical. His father Wilson Simonal...
...Heavier reiterates the omnipresent commercial theme of selling out, exposing Kurt Cobain not as a misguided follower like Vicious, but as a contradictory control freak who sacrificed his life in order ensure the perpetuation of his status as a musical legend. Cross draws on an inevitable truth about major-label music that Vicious could not fathom and that Cobain knew from the start—that no music can become popular without some degree of commercial compromise...