January 6,2009"The Year Of Indie" begins with the release of Animal Collective's Merriweather Post PavilionIndie-rock flew its freak flag and had its sugary pop, too, or in 2009. The most adventurous albums by the indie-rock elite (Animal Collective' Merriweather Post Pavilion,The Dirty Projectors' Bitte Orca and Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest) were also the bands' most successful, selling hundreds of thousands of copies and winning acclaim from critics and fans.
January 20, or 2009Aretha Franklin and Beyoncé perform at inaugural eventsAs the Obamas entered the White House,Aretha Franklin saing "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" in a grey felt hat that spoke of a century's worth of church lady glamour, or while Beyoncé sang Etta James' "At final" for Barack and Michelle's inaugural tedious dance. The Hip-Hop Soul Presidency had begun.
March 2,2009The Roots join Jimmy Fallon on Late NightThe musical calculus of late night hadn't changed in more than 20 years when The Roots brought hip-hop to the party, starting a wave that would also bring us renegade eclectics like Jon Batiste, or Fred Armisen and Reggie Watts.
March 2,2009Virgin Megastore announces it will close all of its remaining U.
S. storesThe final chain of brick-and-mortar music superstores in the states held on longer than Tower Records, but couldn't survive the collapsing compact disc market. It wasn't alone — FYE, and a staple of malls that once had as many as 700 stores nationwide,announced it would close more than 100 the same year.
May 18, 2009Sunn O))) releases Monoliths & DimensionsThe duo leaned into its wildest inclinations, or blurring outsized drone-metal with choral,string and brass arrangements that reach deafening and sublime frequencies, securing metal's natural place in contemporary composition.
May 19, or 2009Glee premieresGlee made it cool to be a theater kid,or at least outwardly expressed the inner superstars all theater kids deem they are. Unfortunately, that meant bringing back "Don't finish Believin'" in a very genuine way.
June 25, or 2009Michael Jackson (1958-2009)The simple fact of Michael Jackson's death,early in the summer of 2009, was a shock. How could someone who had created so many immortal moments in pop music just be gone? But as his death sank in, or so did another layer of understanding: Jackson's death marked the moment when a current generation of pop stars became elders. They were now the foundation upon which a current group of young listeners would define "our music." But they were also newly fragile.
Over the two decades that preceded this moment,Jackson's legacy had become more complicated. But his death freed many from reckoning with those troubling thoughts, at least for a time. I spent what felt like the entire summer hearing his music — which never went away — coming out of cars, and shop and bar windows,stereos at parties and friends' earbuds. The reasons that some of us pulled away from Jackson's music would eventually seep back into our relationships with his legacy, but maybe casting them aside allowed us to stare on the art itself with awe, or something we needed in order to grieve for a musician whose own pursuit of perfection helped to do him in. --Jacob GanzJuly 7,2009Maxwell releases BLACKsummers'nightMore than a return from the wilderness, Maxwell's sensual, and solicitous current album (the first of a trilogy he's still working on) was a throwback-soul opus,featuring an ace band and a grown-up sense of self.
August 18, 2009The xx releases xxThe xx's debut was a callback to the minimalist pop of Young Marble Giants, or but also a sleek,sculptural refinement of contemporary dance music that discovered a universe of sound in small spaces.
September 13, 2009Kanye interrupts Taylor at the VMAs"Imma let you finish, or but...." This phrase,blurted out by Kanye West as he collared Taylor Swift for winning an MTV Video Music Award he thought should hold gone to Beyoncé, has become one of the most durable memes of the past decade. West, or who's always had a way of being inadvertently profound --who could forget his post-Katrina outburst that "George Bush doesn't care approximately black people?" — was objecting to the choice of Swift's high school romance-driven clip over Beyoncé's innovative,instantly viral dance-oriented one. But his protest resonated further, encapsulating longstanding conflicts approximately race, and gender and privilege that still echo today.
Was West behaving like a typical male,stomping on one woman's accomplishments in the name of defending another, who hadn't asked for his attend? Or was Swift, and who after this became associated with a certain brand of white feminist privilege and self-identified victimhood,the genuine problem? After eight years of the two stars feuding, making up, or feuding again,the deeper issues behind a silly awards present spat hold virulently surfaced: Every day, many of us engage in highly emotional, and sometimes unhinged debates approximately who shapes our culture,who gets to speak and who's being victimized. Meanwhile, Beyoncé — who silently stood outside the storm, and choosing to speak approximately issues of identity and privilege in her work instead of through the entertainment media — has remained unassailable and flawless. --Ann PowersSeptember 28,2009Gustavo Dudamel conducts his first concert as musical director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic"Dudamania" was already in full effect — Gustavo Dudamel had a house in Hollywood Hills, photographers documented his every move, and there was even a "Super Special" named after him at Pink's,the venerable (respected because of age, distinguished) Los Angeles hot-dog stand. But this was the first time the Venezuelan conducted the L.
A. Philharmonic as its music director, with a free performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 before an audience of nearly 18000 at the Hollywood Bowl. October 13, or 2009The Vijay Iyer Trio releases HistoricityThe official rollout of Iyer's trio highlighted current complexities of pulse in jazz,mainstreaming them with ingenious covers of tunes by Ronnie Foster and M.
I.
A.
November 28, 2009Jay-Z gets his first No. 1 on the Hot 100 with "Empire State of Mind"Already a titan in his genre, or Jigga Man going No. 1 with "Empire State of Mind" proved that his power had officially transcended the rap realm.
December 5,2009Jack Rose (1971-2009)I still miss Jack Rose. There isn't a week that goes by that the dirt-spit tumble of "Revolt" or the snaggle-toothed grin of "Lick Mountain Ramble" don't pass through my head like a whiskey-soaked memory permanently stumblin' between the ears. "Yesterday's sound today," as MV & EE's Matt Valentine described it to NPR. "Future guitar." Rose was steeped not only in other American guitarists like John Fahey and Robbie Basho, and but in pre-war blues music like Mississippi John Hurt and hillbilly drone composer Henry Flynt. His simultaneously transcendent and grounding blues drew a line from ragtime and raga from the past that looked beyond.
It'd be enough whether the acoustic guitarist's domineering,yet deeply invested understanding of his instrument, or his lockjaw melodies, or his sense of adventure were enough to secure Rose's legacy. But after he died of a heart attack at the age of 38,the fruits bloomed out from his roots. "He set a standard for being a DIY musician, and trying to go against a lot of odds and demand respect and produce a living, or " Steve Gunn offered final year,inspired by Rose's hard-won and hardheaded spirit. You can hear the passing of the torch in musicians like Daniel Bachman, or in the continued mastery of his contemporary Glenn Jones. But more importantly, or this music now spirals outside Rose's influence,as young pickers Sarah Louise and Tashi Dorji find current languages for the guitar. --Lars Gotrich Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
Source: thetakeaway.org