Author: manvmusic

In one of the most controversial, ever-changing and unpredictable industries, join my rants and ravings as I dissect the music industry word by word through technology, current events, industry stories and problems.

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Download Pilot: The Return of Live Music!

To help open up live music from the uncertain future, the three-day camping festival of the Download Pilot begins tomorrow, and ends on the Sunday.

Befitted to a 10k capacity, featuring alcohol limits, with all festival go-ers having to take lateral tests before attending, the Download Pilot is the first of many of the Government’s Event Research Programme for the arts and entertainment sectors to reactivate once again. With no social distancing or masks required once on site too, you can be sure that hugging, moshing and galavanting with fellow Downloaders will be prevalent. I’m sure it’ll be a fantastic sight to see. I wasn’t lucky enough to grab tickets for this delightful event of live music returning …

but I’m sure I’ll see avid glimpses across social media and via the official festival website, too.

You can view the expansive line-up below, and view the stage times via the official Download website.

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https://downloadfestival.co.uk/download-pilot/

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HAVE FUN, DONINGTON!

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Artist Spotlight: Black Peaks

There’s rarely a band that makes me stop in my tracks and listen intently. Then again, there’s rarely a band like Black Peaks that exist. Swollen in the deep, dark trenches of exploring the extent of mankind, Black Peaks is simply heavy music that understands.

Similar to that of Sleep Token – a familiar face to the Artist Spotlight series, their heavy undertones of chaos and angst is blended with this perfect mix of beautiful musicality that just works.

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We simply weren’t ready for their debut drop in 2016 with Statues.

Sheer velocity and power trawls through the album catalogue, as we’re torn from clinical favourite of Glass Built Castles, swayed to the screeching Say You Will and pushed to time oddity out-and-out of Saviour. The album saw them grace uncharted territory into the realms of heavy rock, as our favourite residents were forced to turn their heads and be made aware of the newcomers.

From their seemingly endless tour with impressive time on the road, the arctic giants returned with Can’t Sleep in 2018, and eventually – All That Divides. With music that was predominantly more higher in pitch and melodic in places, it still featured the sprouting roots of Black Peaks’ iconic sound that cemented their place firmly in the heavy and raucous.

With little to show since 2019 – with King displaying their efforts – I’m looking forward to seeing some new music hopefully within the autumn of 2021, where hopefully they’ll chart the globe with an emphatic tour – which I’m looking forward to even more.

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Let’s Talk: Are Music Videos Dead?

Despite the infamous MTV rising gloriously in the ’80s, with the ethos of how “video killed the radio star” from that Buggles hit, music videos were the all the rage.

But, they’ve dwindled ever since, and it seems that music videos are not as prolific as they once were. It’s worth mentioning that they still are still played each week on MTV however, but rather than each waking hour as they once were, they are now merely hidden away during the unsociable hours between 3AM and 9AM.

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Why is that? Is it the lack of funding assortments from the artists? Is it the uncomfortable popularity music videos receive? Or is it merely just our attention spans shortening so much that we can’t bear watch a music video for more than four minutes?

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But, it seems to me that the only reason why music videos are dead, is because the creativity for such a video has gone. The ones we remember have such a powerful story to them, such a creative style, design and approach to them, that it ultimately uplifts the songs’ notoriety to something more than just a melody. And that’s why they were so popular ten to fifteen years ago. We need this resurgence in this type of video again, otherwise they’ll become redundant like everything else that has left the industry in the past quarter.

But hey, this is just my thoughts. For all I know, you could love music videos and I’m merely speaking for the minority who enjoy those GIF-like music video attempts we see on streaming services. Let me know your thoughts behind this one, folks.

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Let’s Talk: Can music cure our planet?

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It might sound CRAZY but – – can music help our planet? Let me explain … there are studies out there that show music promotes plant growth!

Some plants have been known to grow an extra 20% when played music compared to plants that didn’t have the joyous tones of music.

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But what music I hear you ask…? Well, funnily enough plants that were played rock music didn’t thrive in that environment, they actually died within a few weeks – so sorry Korn, looks like you won’t be saving the planet anytime soon!

But instead, plants that had the relaxing tones of classical music thrived in that environment – promoting the aforementioned 20% extra growth in plants.

So I go back to my original question, imagine if music could cure our planet… Unfortunately it’s not likely that it will, but it would be amazing if it was that simple. It really does show the impact music has upon living things, and the greater positive impact it has upon them. (Even if they don’t appreciate a heavy drum beat and ground breaking guitar solo).

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Blog written by Alyxandra Howarth. Thanks Alyx!

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Could the delay in lockdown “irreversibly damage” the music industry?

With a possible delay in the lifting of lockdown from the 21st June due to a spike in cases from a certain variant from the landscapes of India – it could well and truly see the music industry in UK “being left behind.”

With transparency needed more than ever from the Government, we are looking to Boris Johnson and what he has to say about it at a news briefing scheduled for tomorrow (14 June.)

If the lockdown is confirmed to be delayed for another two months or so, this can see over 5,000 events being cancelled, which again, would cost millions to the music industry.

Wishing for a summer of music we all want, the Government must cooperate and deliver an understandable plan of return as, anything past the expected date of 21st June, is ultimately new ground for us all.