This Week in Music 📅
Kanye West's Product launch, Nirvana's album cover gets into legal hotwater, Charlie Watt's demise, and China banning insulting karaoke lyrics. It's been a busy week in Music 😅
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Happy Friday everyone!
Apologies for the radio silence lately, but after last week’s debacle of losing almost 95% of our codebase to a random MacBook hard drive failure, our team at Incentify has been in overdrive mode to get our application up and running ⏰
This means lesser time for social media stuff, and more time re-building the product & fixing problems ⚒️
Meanwhile, there has been A LOT that has happened in music, and so a weekly recap would only make sense for today’s Newsletter.
Let’s get into it 👇🏻
Donda Stem Player 🔘
Right off the bat, it’s that man Kanye in the news again 🤷♂️
The never-ending saga of his soon to be released album ‘Donda’, took another creative turn when Ye announced the launch of pre-orders for a new $200 device called the ‘Donda Stem Player’
Developed in partnership with electronics company Kano, the puck-shaped device is apparently made of soft silicone blended skin and is equipped with a headphone jack and Bluetooth support, a USB-C port, volume buttons, speakers, and 8GB of storage.
But what does it really do?
Well, I tried digging deeper and the official website wasn’t of much help either. It simply laid out the features in this manner:
Who wants to bet Kanye designed the website himself? 😂
Anyway, if you’re really interested to know more, check out this video I found on Twitter which shows a real demo of how the Stem Player can be used 👇🏻
At this point, Ye’s pretty much doing everything but releasing the album 🤬
He’s sold-out stadiums for listening parties thrice already, picked up beef with Drake over his new album, and now suddenly channeled his inner Steve Jobs with this Stem Player.
Would I buy it? No Way Jose.
Is it generating a buzz around his album & helping build the hype further? 100% ✅
The Legacy of Charlie Watts 🙌🏻
Moving on, it has been a sad week in the classic rock and in-general music community as 80-year-old Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts passed away earlier this week at a hospital in London.
Regarded as one of the finest rock drummers of all time, Watts was one of the only 3 members of the Rolling Stones who appeared on all of its 30 studio albums to date, alongside Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
Although considered a quieter and more subdued member of the Stones, Watts was known for putting people in their place and wasn’t afraid to go after the legend Mick Jagger himself, after a night out in Amsterdam back in 1984.
Check out this hilarious story of Watts punching Jagger in the face after he called him to check ‘Where’s my drummer’ at 5 AM in the morning, as narrated by Richards.
Proper Rock N Roll 🎸 🤘🏻
Nirvana’s Nevermind Album Cover Lawsuit 📝
In what is one of the most controversial, yet lame stories out of this week, 30-year-old Spencer Elden, better known as the baby from Nirvana’s monster hit 1992 album cover of ‘Nevermind’ has decided to sue the band.
Why?
The lawsuit says and I quote 🗣
“Defendants knowingly produced, possessed, and advertised commercial child pornography depicting Spencer, and they knowingly received value in exchange for doing so,”
Mr. Elden suffered “permanent harm” because of his association with the album, including emotional distress and a “lifelong loss of income-earning capacity.”
The lawsuit also said that Elden is seeking $150,000 from each of the 15 people and companies named in the complaint, including Kirk Weddle, the photographer who took the picture.
The very photographer who paid $200 to Elden’s parents back in ‘92 for the photo shoot, and something that a grown-up Elden seemed to embrace, just like his 2016 re-creation of the album cover 👇🏻
Nevermind the fact that he’s on the cover of arguably one of the most iconic rock albums of all time, why is Elden bringing this up after embracing his role all these years?
Wish I could tell 🤷♂️
If you made it this far, it seems like you’re digging our flow! Why not share it with someone?
China Bans Insulting Music on Karaoke 🎤🇨🇳
To wrap it up, China is back to doing what it does best- Banning Stuff ❌
Its Ministry of Culture and Tourism has just announced that, from October 1, any music that breaches a fresh set of government rules will be banned from being played within the country’s near-50,000 karaoke venues.
What are the rules?
According to a direct translation of the new government rules (via Reddit), music that is in contravention of any of the following will be outlawed and deemed “illegal content”:
👉🏻 Violates the basic principles determined by China’s Constitution;
👉🏻 Harms national unity, sovereignty, or territorial integrity;
👉🏻 Endangers national security or harms national honor or interests;
👉🏻 Incites ethnic hatred or ethnic discrimination hurts ethnic feelings, encroaches on ethnic customs and habits, or undermines ethnic unity;
👉🏻 Violates the state’s religious policies or promotes cults and superstitions;
👉🏻 Advocates illegal or criminal activity such as obscenity, gambling, and drugs, or that instigates crimes;
👉🏻 Insults or defames others, infringing on the lawful rights and interests of others;
Chinese government agents will be holding “inspections and spot checks” to ensure compliance, with violations “handled in accordance with the law”.
Can you imagine that?
You’re belting out your favorite tracks on the mic after a couple of drinks at the happy hours and in sweeps a CCP agent from nowhere arresting you for indecency? 👮🏻♂️
God Bless Democracy, or at least what’s left of it 🙏🏻
On that note, it’s a wrap for today and I’ll talk to you guys next week!
Ciao 👋🏻
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