Notes
Find out about the latest music news
The greatest songwriters?
Whenever any publication, or website, or blog decides to rank the greatest of anything, expect a debate. Still, the recent New York Times “30 Greatest Living American Songwriters” piece raised more than a few eyebrows…
Taylor Swift’s AI voice
Back in 2023, I wrote a post on my personal blog about how AI was a tremendous opportunity for artists willing to cash in on their very voice. Artists would generate AI audio content replicating their voice — with their authorization. It could also work for deceased artists…
Angine de Poitrine
A friend of mine, who happens to be a Berlin-based funk musician, told me about this new hot band called Angine de Poitrine. For non-French speakers, that literally means angina pectoris, a fairly serious heart condition. Obvious name for a band…
Diplosophy
If you don’t know Diplo, you know of him. He is the man behind M.I.A.’s classic “Paper Planes”, he co-founded Major Lazer, which released the massively successful “Lean On”, he produced half of BTS’s long-awaited comeback album, Arirang… Yet, he comes from virtually nowhere.
Sign o’ the times
I may be biased, but it seems the most exciting new releases as of late have been pretty nostalgic. Here is my personal best of…
Free Lorde
Lorde made the news when she announced that she was now a free agent. Which, in musical terms, translates to being independent from any record label. As it happens, the singer had been signed since the age of 12 (!) with Universal Music, the biggest label on the planet…
The business of music
For decades, the general wisdom has been that the new business model of (recorded) music, i.e. streaming, has been far less profitable than the previous, physical-led model. Could it be changing?
The biggest song of 2025
Rosé & Bruno Mars’ “APT.” was recently crowned the #1 selling song of 2025 by the IFPI, music’s global representative body. The one after that is KPop Demon Hunters’s “Golden”. Mars comes back at #4 with “Die With A Smile”, his (other) duet with Lady Gaga…
Brit touch
A lot happened at this year’s Brit Awards. Perhaps even more than at this year’s Grammy Awards. But that is not for me to say — or is it? Either way, the 2026 Brits were something to experience. Even if only on Youtube and days later. So here we go…
Dear Olivia
Over the past few years, we have seen a refreshingly rich crop of young artists burst onto the music scene, many of them women and, interestingly, having studied at the same BRIT School: Lola Young, Raye — and Olivia Dean, whose only competition on the Billboard 100 has been Super Bowl king Bad Bunny himself.
Harry Styles’ Radiohead moment
The first single to Harry Styles’ fourth album, “Aperture”, presents a clear departure (no pun intended) from the perfect pop recipe that was Harry’s House and its infectious “As It Was”…
Super Super Bowl
I don’t speak Spanish, let alone understand Puerto Rican slang. I’m also not a huge fan of reggaeton or latin pop. In other words, Bad Bunny is not quite aiming for my demographic. Yet, his performance at this year’s Super Bowl was quite frankly groundbreaking.