Riverside 7-Eleven store plays classical music to deter homeless population


If you’ve been at the 7-Eleven at Oltorf and Parker lately, you may have noticed classical music and opera playing. 

The owner says the goal is to deter homeless individuals from being there and harassing customers. Some customers say they’re all for the music, while others are annoyed by it. 

The city says they’ve gotten eight noise complaints at that location Jan. 1. The Austin Police Department says they do respond to noise complaints if it’s ongoing. If there is a complainant, and they are able to verify the offense, they will issue a verbal warning. If they have to return within a certain number of hours, they may issue a citation. 

The store owner, Jagat Patel, says no one from the city has shown up. He doesn’t know whether the actual decibel level falls within city ordinance, but is planning on lowering the sound.  

Patel says the homeless population has been a big problem. 

“Especially a lot of my female customers and my young customers are scared to come here, because there are people constantly hanging out in the parking lot soliciting for money,” he said.

He says he’s had to pay a professional to clean up needles. Others who work nearby say they’ve been attacked.

“I have to carry this big old knife with me just to defend myself, it’s sad that you have to do that,” Joe Miranda, who works nearby, said.

Patel says he started playing the music about 10 days ago and got the idea because other store owners have it. 

“Studies have shown that the classical music is annoying. Opera is annoying, and I’m assuming they are correct because it’s working,” he said.

“Now since they’ve had this music going on, we have less traffic down with the homeless out here,” Miranda said.

Miranda says he thinks it’s the right solution.

“It’s helping out, it’s not annoying to us because it doesn’t bother us, but it bothers probably them because they’re doing drugs,” he said.

Others think the opposite.

“I believe, just talk to them, and ask them not to hang around, or not to live around, whatever, I think that’s the best solution,” Frederick Carter, who lives nearby, said.

He says he’s started going to a different 7-Eleven that doesn’t have music.

“This music is not very good, it’s loud, it’s obnoxious to me, I don’t like it, you can hear it a long ways off, it’s very disturbing,” he said.

For now, the music will continue.

“We are in the process of turning it down, because people who live across the parking lot are also my customers, and we don’t want to make their life difficult,” Patel said.

He says something needs to be done about an encampment at an abandoned building next door.

“It’s becoming a huge headache to conduct business, and a lot of my customers are scared,” Patel said.

APD said they weren’t able to answer our questions about the nearby homeless population today. In the past, they’ve mentioned taking part in city outreach programs to get people connected to housing and services.

BTS’ Jungkook becomes 1st K-Pop Soloist to be nominated for 2023 iHeart Radio Music Awards


K-Pop giants, BLACKPINK and BTS, have been nominated for the iHeartRadio Music Awards 2023. BTS member Jungkook has also bagged himself a solo nomination in the Best Music Video category for his collaboration with Charlie Puth for the song ‘Left and Right’. This makes him the first K-Pop soloist to be nominated for the awards.

BTS has been nominated for two categories – Best Music Video for their title track ‘Yet to Come’ and Best Fan Army for their ARMY. This is the sixth consecutive time BTS has been nominated for iHeartRadio Music awards.

Meanwhile, BLACKPINK has been nominated for four categories of the 2023 iHeartRadio Music awards including Best Fan Army, Best Music Video, Best Duo/Group of the Year and Favourite Use of a Sample. BTS’ official Twitter handle shared the announcement with ARMY on January 12. 

Check out BTS’ tweet below:

 

BLACKPINK also nominated for BRIT Awards

For the first time, BLACKPINK has been nominated for Best International Group for the 2023 BRIT awards. The nominations were announced on January 12 and the ceremony will be held on February 11.  BLACKPINK is the first female K-pop group ever to be nominated for BRITs.

Check out the official Tweet by BRIT Awards:

More on iHeartRadio Music

The 2023 iHeartRadio Music Awards will be held on March 27 at 8:00 pm in Los Angeles. The nominations were announced recently which include artists like BLACKPINK, Taylor Swift, Drake, BTS and Justin Bieber.



Jake Davey sneaks in last local gig before Tamworth Country Music Festival






The streets of Tamworth are filling up for the annual country music festival, but one artist is still at home warming up the vocal chords.

Taree’s Jake Davey, sneaking in one final gig at the Taree Summer rowing regatta today.

The 26-year-old will play six gigs in the country music capital tomorow.

“Country music fans are incredible you walk through the street in Tamworth and everyone has this energy, vibe buzz and I think music does this thing where it brings people together,” Jake said.

It’s also a big week for Wingham born James Johnston – with six nominations at this year’s Golden Guitar awards.






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Born and bred in the Manning Valley, Rob Douglas joined the Taree bureau in June 2021 after a short career in print media. He graduated from Charles Sturt University in Bathurst in 2016 with a sports journalism degree.


The Tradition Of Veedhi Bhajans


It is five in the morning in Chennai. Newspaper boys and milkmen are yet to reach homes. The first shimmer of the sun rays are not yet visible on the temple tank of Mylapore. But on a Friday morning in the month of Margazhi (December-January), the Mada Streets around the Kapaleeswarar temple slowly start buzzing with chants and the strains of harmoniums.

Groups of singers belonging to different bhajan mandalis are circumbulating the temple and are walking along the road adjoining the temple pond.  Lines from Andal’s can be heard from a distance and yet another group is immersed in a rendition of Manickavasagar’s .

And as the sun is visibly out on the eastern horizon, the entire neighbourhood is bathed in namasankeertans. In the months of Margazhi, several traditional neighbourhoods of Tamil Nadu in Chennai, Pudukkottai, Trichy and Kumbhakonam have the practice of organising namasankeerthanams, where bhajans, shlokas and simple Carnatic compositions are sung together by groups of singers. 

Today, there are several groups that organise these on a daily basis. 

Sreeranjane Kaushik sings bhajans along with the  in Chennai. Born and brought up in Chennai, she would wake up to the sound of cymbals played by singers who came for Unchavriti (an act of singing hymns and seeking alms door to door, often performed by mendicants) in the month of Margazhi. “Even before I performed for sabhas, this was my initiation into public singing as a child. Most of the singers in these bhajan groups have seen me grow over the years,” says Sreeranjane, who is fond of singing abhangs in the tradition of Pandit Bhimsen Joshi. 

But all this requires a balancing act, for she has a day job as a chartered accountant in a leading accounting firm. “Singing with the bhajan groups is a huge source of motivation for me. I don’t want to change this regardless of what other aspects change in my life.”

Voice of Shiva 

While the bhajana sampradaya is several centuries old, in the late 19th century, lawyer Seshacahri began the practice of veedhi bhajans (street bhajans) around the Kapaleeswarar temple in Mylapore, Chennai. The initiative grew in size as many great stalwarts of the time such as Sriperumbudur Mudumbai Krishnamachariar, C Ramanujachariar, Umayalapuram Brothers, Mannargudi Sambasiva Bhagavathar and KC Adi Varahachariyar  joined it .

It was during the Mylapore temple festival in 1922 that the legendary singer and composer Papanasam Sivan visited Madras (now Chennai). He not only won the love and appreciation of everyone with his singing but also formed a bond with the presiding deities of the temple – Karpagambal and Kapaleeswarar (he composed more than 100 kritis on the deities), which remained steadfast till his end in 1973. 

In 1935 he came to Madras for good and made it his home. His daughter Rukmini Ramani began joining him in his bhajans in Mylapore from the age of five, even though she hardly knew what it meant to be a part of something that was to have a long lasting effect on the musical tradition of the city. 

“As the clock struck five in the morning, we would begin our singing. My father would sing to the strains of the tanpura, which he got from Thiruvananthapuram and people would watch him lost in ecstatic devotion. Kids would join us, seated on the shoulders of their fathers. The streets would be lined with kolams. Several artistes and devotees going by that way would pay obeisance to him as he sang along. Once we went on a full round around the Mada Streets singing songs, we would come back home and my mother would have prepared coffee and pongal for at least 25-30 people everyday. 

“Father would organise these bhajans during Sivaratri, Margazhi and the annual festival of the Kapaleeswarar temple. 

“Till 1972, he never paused, even when deeply troubled by asthama in the later years. Instead, he began carrying a moda chair on which he would sit and sing at various intervals and people would gather around him. We would memorise the songs even as he composed them at home and I still have the tanpura he used during his bhajans,” says Rukmini, who remembers those days with a great deal of fondness and clarity.

“My father’s disciple Panangudi Mani Iyer would sing Hari Narayana and it would resonate across the Mada Veedhi. His nephew was the great Sethalapathi Balasubramaniam, who learnt viruthams (devotional verses set to a raga, usually improvised on the spot) listening to my father.

Many bhajan groups thrived in Madras and there were many other wonderful singers like Nott Annaji Rao and Tiruppugazh Mani. Legends like Ramnad Krishnan, DK Jayaraman and Dr S Ramananathan would join father’s bhajan procession. During one Sivaratri festival, he composed on the spot. Sometimes, people would get so engaged in singing that we would wind up only at 9am,” reminisces Rukmini.

Losing oneself to find yourself

The sessions usually start with Vedic chants, an obeisance to Ganesha, a Thodaya Mangalam and these are followed by numerous bhajans of various bhakti poets over the centuries and namavalis. 

In traditional neighbourhoods, it is done circumambulating a prominent temple in the area, with groups singing at various spots on the way. This practice is seen not only in Tamil Nadu but all cities with a sizable Tamil population, such as Mumbai.

Today, Ranjani and Gayatri are the top vocalists in the Carnatic circuit. Growing up in Bombay (now Mumbai), they got a chance to experience this tradition in Matunga, which has a huge Tamil community. “Matunga was full of Palakkad Tamils. My grandmother would wake us up at 4.30 in the morning and we would set out through the streets of Matunga singing bhajans. Those mornings are unforgettable for us,” says Ranjani.

Back in 1988, the RaGa sisters came to Madras from Bombay for the December music season and witnessed the veethi bhajans that happened in the streets of

Mylapore. Every waking hour of their stay in Madras was spent soaking in as much music as possible. 

“There were many groups that led these bhajans, such as the Haridas Giri group, Papanasam Sivan Group etc. When we visited Madras, Papanasam Sivan was no more but we got the fortune of listening to his disciple Sethalapathi Balasubramaniam, who would sing in those early morning hours during those sessions. When he sang viruthams in those hours of dawn, people would sit down on the footpath and tear up with devotion listening to  him,” recollects Ranjani, who along with her sister Gayatri played bhajans on the violin back then. 

In the late 1990s, when they became vocalists, they were inspired by those very moments spent in the Mada Streets of Mylapore. People lapped up the viruthams (devotional verses set to ragas) they sang. “The are so powerful and we thought we should make it an important part of our concerts. This kind of music resonated with us and got us .”

Songs travelled the country

In his song Bhajana Sevaye, in Kalyani Raga, Saint Thyagaraja implores upon the mind to sing the glory of Rama, for even Brahma and Shiva dedicate themselves to this noble work. He further wonders when we can acquire the knowledge of music, scriptures and various arts, why are we indulging in arguments and counter arguments that are meant to divert us from the path of salvation. 

The bhajana sampradaya in Margazhi is an occasion to relive the high ideals espoused by the saint, even if for a few hours around dawn.

Carnatic vocalist Aruna Sairam grew up with a vibrant atmosphere of music and devotion in her home in Mumbai and has been deeply influenced by the bhajana sampradaya, thanks to the upbringing of her pious mother. She even delivered a lecture demonstration on this topic in the Music Academy’s Annual Music Conference a few years back. 

“The bhajana sampradaya owes a lot to the three great seekers Bodhendra Saraswathi (17th century saint and guru of the Kanchi Mutt), Sridhara Venkatesa Ayyaval and Venkatrama Swamy (known as Sadguru Swamigal). This trinity put together a great body of songs that covered several regions of our country. Samartha Ramadasa, who was also the guru of Sivaji, walked to Thanjavur from Maharashtra and brought with him a lot of traditions, Harikathas and bhajans. 

“Even the art of playing the mridangam got some influences from the dholak thanks to this sampradaya. The bhakti music of all of India was popular in the south as well and this repertoire is not static; it is still growing. Everybody adds something as they sing,” says Aruna. 

“My great grandfather wrote the Rama Nama over a crore times and got the name Ramakoti Bhagavathar and took up sanyasa later in life. Having been born in this set up, I naturally had a devotional atmosphere at home. I feel that people in the Kaveri belt have a natural taste for the bhajana sampradayam as it was established in this area.”

Years later, this immersive experience emerged in her music when Aruna brought on a big scale to the rasikas of Carnatic concerts. “If people have experienced a connect in my music beyond its technicalities, it is the power of the bhajanai tradition.”

Securing the future

Legend has it that Ratnakar, a dacoit, spent years chanting the name of Rama and became the rishi Valmiki. In the Mahabharata, Bhishma spends his last moments chanting the 1,000 names of Vishnu. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu created a new wave of Vaishnavism with the simple chant of Hare Krishna. Often, the name of the divine has been of greater significance than the divine itself. Namavalis are hence extremely popular during these street bhajans.

Vocalist Saketharaman grew up in Chennai and has been an active participant in the veedhi bhajans since his school days. Saketharaman remembers learning the Papanasam Sivan composition Karthikeya Gangeya in Thodi ragam from the legend’s daughter Rukmini Ramani. “That is among my earliest memories of the veedhi bhajanai in Mylapore, Chennai, which was attended by many great musicians,” says Saketharaman, who is now passing on this tradition to his students.

“Some of my students dress up as Andal and some as Narada or Thyagaraja. It’s just adding something to get the kids excited about it. They need to know that before sabhas and halls came up, our greats like Thyagaraja and Purandaradasa sang this way. In the Mada Streets surrounding the Kapaleeswarar temple, you can feel that divinity effortlessly. 

“This devotion is intrinsic to Carnatic music. The element of devotion is what pulls me into this every year and what I draw from here reflects in my concerts as well. I don’t think devotional music is something separate. As an , it becomes your second nature. Even today, as much as possible, people participate in this without wearing footwear because this is bhajana seva.”

At 84, Rukmini still gathers her students and organises bhajan singing around the streets of Mylapore. “This walk in the month of Margazhi would give us energy to perform for a whole year. It is tougher to get people out of their homes today so early in the morning.”

But she knows this will continue even in the time to come. “The great vidwans and vidhushis of today are still singing his songs and his music has outlived him. If not me, someone else will come and they will take this tradition of veedhi bhajans forward. It will carry on tomorrow as well. That is for sure.”

Kent Jamz & Buddy Drop Title Track To ‘House Party’ Soundtrack


Today (Jan. 13) Warner Bros. Pictures has released their take on New Line Cinema’s 1990 Black cinema classic, House Party. Produced by LeBron James and Maverick Carter, and written by Jamal Olori and Stephen Glover, the film is directed by CALMATIC… formerly known as the rapper/producer Three-1-Zero and another DopeHouse alum.

The film’s accompanying soundtrack has also been released as well, featuring new tracks from 2 Chainz, P-Lo, and GoodJoon. Speaking of Overdoz, Kent Jamz and his Jank Tape partner Buddy are featured on the soundtrack with their offering, “House Party.”

Kent Jamz & Buddy Drop Title Track To ‘House Party’ Soundtrack was last modified: January 13th, 2023 by Meka



These Pearl Earrings Are Secretly Wireless Earbuds


Wireless earbuds are no longer just a convenient way to listen to music and podcasts. As work continues to shift away from offices and we’re more dependent on virtual meetings and phone calls, many of us leave earbuds in all day long, but for those wanting something more fashionable and invisible than a white stick, the Nova H1 buds look more like earrings than tech accessories.

Now the first question that probably popped into your head when seeing the Nova H1 Audio Earrings, which either clip onto the user’s earlobes or take advantage of an existing piercing for a more secure grip, is how they’re supposed to work without a speaker crammed up against your ear canal. They don’t use bone conduction like the Shokz OpenRun Pro but instead work more like Sony’s open-ring LinkBuds.

Speaker vents behind the Nova H1’s real pearl direct audio towards the ear, so while they won’t provide as much audio fidelity as wireless earbuds like Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 or the Master & Dynamic MW08, as with Sony’s LinkBuds, their creators say they provide more situational awareness by not physically blocking ambient sounds. If you’re wearing them at work or in a social setting, someone can still start a conversation by just talking to you, instead of having to tap you on the shoulder to get your attention.

Battery life is specified as being up to 14 hours when paired with a charging case that looks like a matching jewelry box, but users can expect to listen to music for up to 3.5 hours before needing a charge, or talk on the phone for about an hour less than that before they’re depleted.

The battery is easily replaceable, however, which makes sense given the Nova H1 Audio Earrings are made with real pearls and precious metals. Two different finishes are available: gold for €695 (about $750) or silver for €595 (about $640). For the time being the Nova H1 appear to be only available in and around Europe, the company was showing them off at CES 2023 last week, so we’re anticipating international availability soon.

Radio 3 hires Classic FM veteran Sam Jackson | News


They were once rivals battling to win back classical music lovers but now Sam Jackson, who as managing editor of Classic FM accused Radio 3’s Alan Davey of “aping” his network, has been hired to replace him.

The BBC has announced Jackson, 39, as the new controller of Radio 3, also putting him in charge of one of the world’s biggest classical music festivals, the Proms. He replaces Davey, who said in September he was stepping down as controller to support arts and music bodies and pursue academic interests.

As a hire from the commercial world rather than from within, Jackson’s appointment highlights the challenges Radio 3 faces. Listener numbers are down for almost all radio stations, classical included, as music fans increasingly rely on

Maren Morris Apologizes for Country’s Treatment of LGBTQ+ – Rolling Stone


Maren Morris has been a staunch supporter of LGBTQ+ issues, and she’s staying true to that commitment. On Friday, after she appeared on RuPaul’s Drag Race as a guest judge, the “Bones” singer shared a public apology for country music’s treatment of LGBTQ+ people.

“Coming from country music and its relationship with LGBTQ-plus members, I just want to say I’m sorry,” Morris said as she joined the queens backstage during the post-Drag Race episode of Untucked.

“I love you guys for making me feel like a brave voice in country music,” she added. “I just want to thank you guys for inspiring me. I’m gonna cry I need to go.”

After the sweet message, drag queen Mistress Isabelle Brooks thanked her for coming on the show. “Just you being here shows you’re an ally. Thank you,” Brooks said.

“I love hearing Maren share her story because a lot of times with country artists, they can’t really express their more progressive ideals,” Spice added. “Just her being here shows she’s down to roll with the LGBT.” (Was that a CupcakKe reference, Spice?)

Before the show, Morris said she would be fulfilling a “decade-long dream” of guest-judging on the show.

The country singer, who has partnered with GLAAD in the past, has long advocated for LGBTQ+ rights. Several months ago, she publicly called out Jason Aldean’s wife Brittany for making a post that reeked of transphobia, saying she was thankful for her parents “not changing my gender.”

At the time, Morris wrote back, “Sucks when Karens try to hide their homophobia/transphobia behind their ‘protectiveness of the children.’” At the time, Aldean hatefully equated transitioning with “genital mutilation.”

The timing of her Drag Show appearance was perfect. Drag queen Loosey LaDuca impersonated a God version of Dolly Parton (and did so flawlessly), and Sasha Colby, the only trans competitor this season, won the episode’s comedy-acting competition after making RuPaul cackle.

“I have loved this show for so many years and it’s crazy how far Drag Race has come because you all look like you’re walking on the finale right now,” Morris told the queen.

Trending

“Absorb as much as you can,” she added. “Learn from your sisters here in the Werk Room.”

After the second week of competition, the Drag Race cast is down to 14 members following the elimination of Princess Poppy, who lip-synced for her life against Amethyst.



Gen Z and young millennials’ surprising obsession


Gen Z and young millennials’ surprising obsession

(Image credit: Esther Abrami, Getty Images)

A radical new wave of artists are sweeping the previously elite world of classical music – with a little help from Squid Game, Dark Academia and fashion. Daisy Woodward explores how classical got cool.

I

If asked to guess what under 25-year-olds are listening to, it’s unlikely that many of us would land upon orchestral music. And yet a survey published in December 2022 by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) found that 74% of UK residents aged under 25 were likely to be tuning into just that at Christmas-time, compared with a mere 46% of people aged 55 or more. These figures reflect not only the RPO’s broader finding that under 35-year-olds are more likely to listen to orchestral music than their parents, but also the widespread surge in popularity of classical music in general, particularly among younger generations.

More like this:

–          The radical trend millennials love

–          The forgotten Soviet genius of music

–          Have film and TV got Gen Z all wrong?

There are plenty of reasons for this, from the playlist culture spawned by streaming platforms that make it easy for listeners to discover new artists and types of music to fit their mood, to the solace it provided during the pandemic, not to mention the profusion of classical music in pop culture hits like Squid Game. But perhaps highest on the list is the global wave of Gen Z and young millennial classical artists who are finding new ways to be seen and heard, and – just as vitally – new means of modernising what has long been branded music’s most elite and stuffy genre.

Fashion brand Acne Studios’ younger sub-label Face recently created composer-themed sweaters and bags (Credit: Acne Studios/ Face)

Unsurprisingly, social media has played a huge part in this, as a quick search of the popular TikTok hashtag “classictok” (currently at 53.8 million views) attests. There, as well as on Instagram, young classical artists have been making use of the digital realm’s democratic potential to lift the heavy velvet curtains on their art form, presenting classical music and its storied history in ways that are accessible, unintimidating and, most importantly, fun.

For French violinist Esther Abrami – who has more than 250,000 followers on Instagram, more than 380,000 on TikTok, and was the first classical musician to be nominated in the Social Media Superstar category at the Global Awards – the journey to social media fame stemmed from a desire to share her passion more widely. “I was studying at a top institution and most of the time I was practising for exams, so the whole joy of sharing was taken away. Then, at the very few concerts I did play, there was a very specific type of audience that wasn’t very diverse,” Abrami tells BBC Culture.

She noticed that a handful of classical musicians had taken to Instagram to broaden their own reach, and decided to do the same. “I started posting a few things, and was stunned by the reaction that I got. Suddenly you have people from around the world listening to you and telling you it brightens their day to watch you playing the violin,” she enthuses. “It opened this door to a completely new world.”

Nigerian-US baritone and lifelong hip-hop fan Babatunde Akinboboye enjoyed a similarly swift and surprising rise to social media fame when he posted a video of himself singing Rossini’s renowned aria Largo al factotum over the top of Kendrick Lamar’s track Humble. “I was in my car and I realised that the two pieces worked together musically, so I started singing on top of the beat,” he tells BBC Culture. He documented the moment on his phone and posted the video on his personal Facebook account, guessing that his friends would enjoy it more than his opera peers. “But I went to sleep, woke up the next morning, and it had expanded to my opera network, and far beyond that,” he laughs, explaining that within two days, his self-dubbed brand of “hip-hopera” had caught the attention of The Ellen Show, America’s Got Talent and Time magazine.

Nigerian-US baritone Babatunde Akinboboye sings “hip-hopera” – he initially became known for his rendition of Rossini blended with Kendrick Lamar (Credit: J Demetrie)

Both Abrami and Akinboboye came to classical music in their teens, late by conventional standards, and cultivated their passion for the genre independently. This remains a driving factor in their desire to reach new audiences, which they’ve achieved on an impressive scale, largely just by being themselves. “I ended up becoming an opera influencer by sharing the parts of me I felt comfortable sharing, which is a lot,” says Akinboboye, whose playful hip-hopera and opera videos and posts – taking viewers behind the scenes of a world still shrouded in mystery  – have garnered him some 688,000 TikTok followers. “It’s a lot about how I relate to opera; my musical background was from hip-hop, but I still found a relationship with opera and that resonated with people,” he explains. “Almost every day I get a different message saying, ‘I went to my first opera today’. I think it’s because they’re seeing someone they feel comfortable or familiar with.”

‘Complex and profound’

Abrami, a similarly enthusiastic content creator, agrees: “I think putting the face of somebody not so far away from them to the genre is a big thing. That’s what I’m trying to do, to reach different types of people and create bridges, to show them that this music can really move you. It’s complex and profound and yes, it might take a bit of time to understand but once you do, it’s amazing.”

British concert pianist Harriet Stubbs is another avid proponent of classical music for modern audiences who has been finding her own ways of drawing in new listeners. During lockdown, the musician, who usually splits her time between London and New York, performed multiple 20-minute concerts from her ground-floor flat in West Kensington, opening the windows and using an amplifier to reach listeners outside. “I gave 250 concerts,” Stubbs, who was awarded a British Empire Medal by the Queen for this mood-boosting act of service, tells BBC Culture. “I did a range of repertoire from my upcoming album, and also things like All By Myself, which I chose ironically for that audience. And the thing is, people who thought they didn’t care for classical music came back every day because of the power of that music.”

The fusion of classical music with other genres is a major facet of Stubbs’s practice and, indeed, that of many others among the new generation of classical artists (see also the React to the K YouTube channel, where classical artists frequently reimagine K-pop songs with ingenious results, or Kris Bowers’ brilliant orchestral arrangements of modern pop songs for the much-buzzed-about Bridgerton soundtrack). Stubbs’s innovative first album, Heaven & Hell: The Doors of Perception (2018), was inspired by William Blake and features musical icon Marianne Faithfull. “I always wanted to tie rock’n’roll and classical music together and put them in the same space, supported by literature and philosophy and other disciplines,” she explains, adding that her next album, which she’s making with pianist and former Bowie collaborator Mike Garson, will be a “Bowie meets Rachmaninoff” affair.

Concert pianist Harriet Stubbs has collaborated with Marianne Faithfull, and is currently working on a “Bowie meets Rachmaninoff” album (Credit: Russ Titelman)

Interestingly, the current swell of enthusiasm for classical music has branched out to become as much of an aesthetic movement as it is a musical one. Digital microtrends Dark Academia and Light Academia – dedicated as they are to the romanticisation of a passion for art and knowledge through imagery – both make rousing use of classical music in order to create the desired ambience. Ascendant Polish countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński, meanwhile, uses atmospheric visuals as a powerful means of contemporising the baroque experience. Depressed by the lack of funding for music video production in the classical realm, he drummed up private sponsorship to make a 21-minute movie to accompany his 2021 rendition of Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater. The resulting film conjures a compelling and suitably brutal scenario for the haunting 18th-century hymn, which The New York Times describes as “resembling a Polish remake of The Sopranos”.

“I’m really interested in storytelling. I always build an entire concept for my albums – the narrative, the photography, the videos,” Orliński tells BBC Culture. “I think now there is this whole new generation of people who really want to add to what classical music can be, to go beyond the singing and be challenged. You just have to know that the end product will be good, and that what you’re doing will serve the story,” he adds. This is certainly something Orliński has achieved in his own career: an accomplished sportsman and breakdancer, he wowed critics with his 2022 Royal Opera House debut, which found him pole-dancing in a spangled dress as Didymus in Katie Mitchell’s production of Handel’s Theodora. Other recent projects have included recording baroque tracks for forthcoming video games which, he says, was “an incredible experience” and is something he’s being asked to do more and more frequently, as the Metaverse beckons. “Sometimes you need classical music to touch the strings of somebody’s soul – a pop song won’t work.”

Classical music’s ongoing and often powerful intersection with pop culture is being foregrounded as part of the burgeoning interest in the genre, both inside and outside its famously guarded gates. The all-teen members of the UK’s National Youth Orchestra have just completed a mini tour that included a performance of Richard Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra, replete with its opening symphonic sunrise eternalised by Stanley Kubrick in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Last August saw the BBC Proms launch its first gaming-themed programme whereby the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra took on some of the best-loved songs in video game history. While the recent autumn/winter collection from Acne Studios’ younger sub-label Face offered up one of the most direct sartorial tributes to classical music to date, presenting crew-neck sweaters, T-shirts and tote bags embellished with the faces of Handel, Mozart and Bach in celebration of “the idea that a passion for classical music is the most left-field move imaginable for a modern-day teenager”.

Polish countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński wowed critics with his performance as Didymus in Handel’s Theodora, which included a pole-dance (Credit: Michael Sharkey)

Orliński agrees that classical music has achieved an “almost hipstery” status of late. “It’s cool to go to the opera, to know something, and that’s because there are a lot of young artists delivering music on the highest level, while making it very entertaining,” he enthuses. There is, he observes, a revived interest in classical music personalities such as Maria Callas and Pavarotti, as well as “people like Yuja Wang” who are selling out concert halls, all of which he feels bodes well for the art form. “We have a long way to go to grow as much as other genres of music, but we’re moving forward.” Akinboboye, too, is tentatively hopeful. “I think opera is definitely being a lot more bold, and I hope that it continues because I think we can catch up,” he concludes. “[Classical music needs to] be brave, to do the scary thing. And it’ll work out, because audiences are ready.”

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Warner Bros. Discovery


Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is exploring a possible sale of its music library as the media giants looks to deleverage its balance sheet and restructure its business.

The company is in the very early stages of weighing a potential sale, and any deal would come with certain caveats such as protecting usage for talent and retaining sell-ability in order to use the music in Warner Bros.-produced sequels or spinoffs.

The Financial Times first reported the news on Thursday, noting the company would seek buyers for the music copyrights it owns, which could be valued at more than $1 billion.

Warner Bros. Discovery — which recently announced a price increase for its popular ad-free HBO MAX streaming plan — was pressured in 2022 by macroeconomic challenges, further subscriber losses in linear television, a slowdown in advertising, and various restructuring charges following its highly-publicized merger last spring.

Despite a messy 2022, analysts at both Goldman Sachs and Bank of America recently signaled brighter days ahead for the embattled entertainment giant. Shares of the company are up about 40% since Dec. 30.

Sales of music catalogs soar

Warner Bros. exploration of the sale of its music catalog comes as the market for music rights remains robust.

Earlier this week, Billboard reported rapper Dr. Dre was nearing an agreement to sell a bundle of music income streams and some owned music assets in a deal worth up to $250 million.

Dr. Dre, who has an estimated net worth of $820 million, would sell the assets in two separate deals to Shamrock Holdings and Universal Music Group.

According to Billboard, the assets, which consists of mostly artists and producer royalties, in addition to the writer’s share of his song catalog where he doesn’t own publishing, generates about $10 million in annual income.

Music publishing encompasses the copyrights for songwriting and composition, such as lyrics and melodies. Although publishing rights are often not worth as much as actual recordings, they can still lead to a significant amount of revenue over time with radio play, advertising, movie licensing, and more.

INGLEWOOD, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 13: Dr. Dre performs in the Pepsi Halftime Show during the NFL Super Bowl LVI football game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium on February 13, 2022 in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images)

The news serves as the latest in what has been a series of similar deals done by artists over the years, as demand for streaming services like Spotify (SPOT), Apple (AAPL), and Amazon (AMZN) has increased the value of back catalogs.

Most recently, The Wall Street Journal reported Justin Bieber was close to finalizing a $200 million deal to sell his music rights to Hipgnosis Songs Capital, a Blackstone-backed investment and song management company.

The potential deal includes both Bieber’s publishing and recorded music catalog, the Journal noted, and represents the largest to-date acquisition for Hipgnosis, which purchased Justin Timberlake’s song catalog rights for a reported $100 million in May of last year.

In December 2021, Bruce Springsteen sold both his master recordings and publishing rights to Sony Music in a deal worth north of $500 million, according to multiple outlets. The Red Hot Chili Peppers sold the rights to its song catalog for a reported $150 million that same year.

In 2020, Bob Dylan sold over 600 copyrights to Universal Music Group in a deal reportedly valued at over $300 million. Prior to that, Stevie Nicks sold a majority stake in her songwriting for a reported $100 million.

“It gets to the point where there’s money coming from so many different places that you can’t go wrong on any type of deal like this,” Guillermo Page, a former record label executive who worked for Sony and Universal, previously told Yahoo Finance.

Page, who now teaches in the music program at the University of Miami, noted “streaming has provided stability.”

“The key is that the business has become predictable,” Page explained, adding: “[Investors] can trust in the future of the business because it’s growing. When you eliminate the uncertainty, it opens up a new door for investors to come in and snap [up] those assets.”

Alexandra is a Senior Entertainment and Media Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @alliecanal8193 and email her at alexandra.canal@yahoofinance.com

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