This has been an incredibly trying month for screenwriters, actors, and all the important (and nearly invisible) people who keep costumes cleaned, lighting and sound just right, fresh flowers in vases, candy dishes refilled, schedule keepers, and deadline meeters.
It hasn’t been much easier for folks in the music industry.
Appearing on the broody “Blue-eyed soul” music scene in 2017
with his independently released single “Bruises,” Irish singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi became
the first artist to sell out an arena tour before the release of an album. In
2019, “Someone you loved” became the breakthrough single that
charted in 29 countries. The song reached #1 on Billboard Hot 100s, making him
the first Scottish solo artist to top the US charts since Sheena Easton in
1981. Capaldi achieved 4 more #1 hits before announcing he would be taking an
extended, indefinite break from touring due to a recent diagnosis of Tourette’s
syndrome, a debilitating bout of which led to adoring concertgoers finishing
his performance for him last month at the Glastonbury Festival.
Country music star Jason Aldean is no stranger to controversy. But he is a
survivor of the deadliest mass shooting in American history in 2017 at the Las
Vegas Route 91 Music Harvest Festival. Aldean was performing onstage when the
shooting began, and like most everyone else, he thought the sounds he heard were
fireworks signaling the end of the concert. The 3-time winner of the ACM
Entertainer of the Year award (2016-2018) is now being chastised for his latest
release, “Try That in a Small Town” (lead single from his upcoming 11th
album). In fact, CMT removed the music video from rotation; while the AMA
played pre-recorded footage of Aldean performing, ABC refused to show the video
for the CMA Fest. Meanwhile, Billboard reports record plays. Apparently, honest
response and references to actual news footage of crimes and violence on
American streets makes Aldean an inciter of vigilantism, a promoter of
violence. He should know better, they say. He’s probably racist, they quip. Eye-roll.
And just yesterday, the music world lost another icon. At 95
years old, Tony Bennett made the Guinness World Record for the oldest
person ever to release an album of new material. Among the American jazz and Pop singer’s many
accolades were 20 Grammy awards and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Do you have a favorite artist or thoughts you'd like to share?
