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- Readers recommend: B-sides
Nominate your favourites from the wrong side of the tracks
Part of the joy of vinyl singles is flipping the disc, on the off-chance that a gem is tucked away on the B-side. There's always the possibility that if you liked the A-side enough to buy the record, you may enjoy the flip side too. Mostly they're disappointing. But sometimes you end up liking the B-side better than the track you shelled out for in the first place.
I know, B-sides don't really exist in the age of downloads. But vinyl singles are still being manufactured, albeit to a niche market. And CD singles have extra tracks that are equivalent to B-sides. So I think we should accept those as legitimate nominations.
The best B-sides are often atypical of the artist, who may feel the medium offers a space to experiment, to stretch boundaries and confound expectations. Because they know many record-buyers won't bother listening. But you RR readers are made of sterner stuff, and you'll all have your favourite B-sides. Now's your chance to share them.
The toolbox: Archive, the Marconium, the Spill and the collaborative Spotify playlist.
DO:
* Post your nominations before midday on Tuesday if you wish them to be considered.
* Write a few lines attempting to justify your choices.
DO NOT:
* Post more than one third of the lyrics of any song.
* Dump lists of nominations. If you must post more than two or three at once, please attempt to justify your choices.
Here are the results of last week's Readers recommend: songs about mistaken identity.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - Behind the music: Is the A&R era over?
The days of A&R are numbered, according to one industry bigwig. Tell that to artists launched on labels such as XL
Is A&R dead? Consider what happened at a recent meeting between an artist manager and a major label A&R. The A&R commented that he liked the artist's demo; she looked great, had a great voice and he definitely saw potential for success. When he was told that the artist would need some flexibility as she was dealing with a serious illness in the family, the A&R exclaimed: "Put her up for The X Factor – she's guaranteed to be in the final 12!" He implied that he would sign her, eventually, if she did just that (contestants are not allowed to have a record deal before entering the competition). The artist declined.
Though it's never been easy to get a record deal, this particular meeting depressed the manager more than usual. Digital Music News recently reported that there's been a big cull in A&Rs at record labels in recent years, and if the aforementioned meeting is a sign of the lack of imagination among them, it's understandable. It used to be that the A&R's role was to spend their evenings in smoke-filled clubs discovering bands, and helping them to develop before releasing their first record (the Wikipedia entry says: "Artists and repertoire (A&R) is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists"). These days, however, major labels increasingly demand that artists already have a "momentum" going before they get involved.
According to Hartwig Masuch, the CEO of music publisher BMG Rights, the days of A&R are numbered as artists are now able to make and market their own music via the internet. I think his view is simplistic. It's true that the internet has taken away the middleman, allowing artists to get their music out there without record company promotional power. Yet artists often encounter difficulties getting heard above millions of others fighting for the listener's attention. A&R acts as a filter. To most artists, their songs are their babies, which makes it pretty difficult to discard them or look at them objectively. Good A&Rs can, so they push artists further.
Major labels may be reinventing the role, but A&R is still alive and kicking at – and even essential to – independent labels. I wasn't in the room when Adele first met Richard Russell, CEO of XL Recordings, but I have a feeling The X Factor wasn't included in the conversation. Russell later said: "To me, signing is instinctive. The more I think, the worse it gets. I'm not signing people for who they are, but for their potential. I have to believe in the person." It appears to be a recipe that works – Adele's first album had great success all over the world and her second is currently outselling the rest of the top 10 combined in the UK (it's currently No 1 on the iTunes charts in 16 countries). Compare that to the vast majority of X Factor contenders.
Independent labels aren't the only ones investing in the development of new artists. Music publishers have provided vital support for numerous unsigned artists for a long time. A&R Caroline Elleray signed both Coldplay and Keane to BMG Music Publishing years before they got record deals, paying for recordings and shopping them relentlessly to labels. This kind of loyalty and belief is also characteristic of Chrysalis Music. When Nerina Pallot was dropped by Polydor after her first album, Chrysalis supported her for years, invested in her follow-up and released it through their "incubator" record label, Echo.
The future role of major labels may be more of a multiple service provider, offering investment and marketing for artists that have gained modest to medium success on their own but want to make a greater impact. Meanwhile, for budding artists who don't want to take part in televised talent shows, there are still some labels, publishers and managers out there who believe that talent will out and are willing to invest time and money – even if their funds are, unfortunately, more limited.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - Pyongyang goes pop: Inside North Korea's music scene
For the first blog of our short series, our intrepid music reporter is put under house arrest with nothing but the EastEnders theme tune to listen to. That'll teach him not to pay bribes ...
If someone had fulfilled Pyongyang's request to pack Eric Clapton off to North Korea, perhaps all that bother on the divided peninsula would never have started. That is what the hermit government of the north reckons, at least, as one of the less pressing Wikileak cables recently revealed that Kim Jong-il's second son, Kim Jong-chol, was "a great fan" of the rock legend and that a Clapton performance in the capital "could be an opportunity to build goodwill".
Using pop to build bridges is perhaps naive, especially in the context of a potential nuclear face-off, but maybe we shouldn't rule out the idea. If you ask a North Korean their true feelings about pretty much anything they'll stick to whatever the party line tells them they should think (which is why so many tourists get frustrated after probing about General Kim's next move). But ask the right questions and the facade that greets most outsiders will occasionally be broached with genuine warmth. During trips I've made in and around the hermit kingdom over the past year, I've used one uncontroversial topic of conversation to do just that. It seems talking about music is one way for North Koreans to relate their perspectives on the world without being politically controversial. Pop diplomacy will not solve territorial disputes or prevent governments going head-to-head, but it does offer another perspective on North Koreans.
Pop weaves its way into North Korea in unexpected ways. Last September, I was held under 24-hour house arrest in the outpost of Raijin after refusing to pay a bribe. The most perturbing part of the experience was not the fact there was no guarantee of release, but that the hotel foyer we were held in had the EastEnders theme tune playing on loop for the duration of the internment through a croaky speaker. Perhaps the aim was mental attrition; to irritate us into paying bribes by reminding us of the east London we'd left behind and may never see again. It didn't work – I'm from Putney.
Eccentric glimpses of the world North Korea left behind are not so few and far between – in this series I'll be revealing more from inside the secret state: the truth about Michael Jackson's North Korean debut; introducing the best of North Korean pop and revealing the Communist cadre's opinion of Jarvis Cocker. Come join me for the ride.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - New music: Metronomy – She Wants
Metronomy are back with a new lineup, a great video and a brilliantly gloomy slice of twisted electro-pop
In the three years since Metronomy released their delirious second album, Lights Out, there have been several lineup changes. Originally a solo project for producer Joseph Mount, the band then grew to a three piece before losing a member in 2009 (Gabriel Stebbing, now of Your Twenties) and then hiring two new ones (drummer Anna Prior and bassist Gbenga Adelekan). They're basically the Destiny's Child of sophisticated dance music, but without the obvious superstar. She Wants – the first single from their forthcoming third album, The English Riviera – is a brilliantly gloomy slice of twisted electro-pop, all creepy Cure-like basslines and weird synth grumbles. On first listen it seems to pass you by, but on repeated plays it slowly seeps under your skin. Things are helped immensely by this Michel Gondry-style video, which conveys lots of ideas with an endearingly DIY aesthetic. Look out for the woman with two sets of eyes, the human clock and cameos from all four band members.
She Wants is released on 31 January
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать
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