Li Hua

2 . Scholars have found music and language seem closely linked But how? Some similarities are obvious. Both can express emotion. And both are highly social. AI a structural level the parallel are striking too. With a limited set of notes or words, and a limited set of rules, a limitless variety of novel melodies or sentences can be created Animal communication, by contrast, is only able to convey a limited number of thoughts.

Aniruddh Patel of Tufts University has argued that music and language, rather than being essentially the same, rely on the same bit of the brain. In an experiment he presented his subjects with a sentence that contained a grammatical trick ("The scientist confirmed the hypothesis was being studied in his lab"), revealing one word at a time. The subjects were to press a button for each word at their own pace. Many pushed at the unexpected “was. "The scientist confirmed the hypothesis" seemed a complete sentence.

They also heard music as they performed this exercise. Some were treated to a new chord (和弦) in a pleasing progression with every word that was revealed. Others herd an annoying chord at the moment they reached the trick word "was". Both groups slowed down but those given the discordant(不和谐的) notes did so much more.

Another striking contrast lies in the range of human talent for each ability. Nearly all children produce complex sentences by the age of three and become fluent speakers just a few years after that. By contrast, only a minority of adults are talented musicians; even fewer are skilled composers of new works.

Victor Wooten, a music teacher, points out, children learn to talk by being constantly surrounded by fluent older speakers who are practicing with them almost from birth. Their awkward efforts are encouraged. On the other. hand, students of music often keep company with other beginners, and are stopped when having a mistake.

It is not that simple, thinks Jay Keyser, a professor of linguistics. For him, music is not like spoken prose, which almost everyone can learn without any difficulties, but instead resembles a specific form of language: poetry, whose rhythm is hard to find.

3 . Country music has been long led by an age of “bro-country” — country music made by straight white men, best characterized by songs about drinking, trucks and blue jeans. Yet, at its core, country music is a type that is truly all about subversion. Country, essentially, takes the legend of the cowboy and turns it into an act, one that breaks away from tradition. In this new “bro-country” movement, subversion is completely lost, which is why someone like Orville Peck, with the first two chapters of his latest album “Bronco”,is so important for this age of country music.

The Toronto-based singer-songwriter Orville Peck announced “Bronco” on Feb. 7. In the trailer (预告片), the album was revealed to be released in three separate chapters weeks apart from each other.

The two chapters that have been released stay true to the musical stylings of country but often draw subtle influences from the closely related types of folk and rock, which may not be surprising given Peck’s time as a drummer in a punk band. As to the content, the first chapter of “Bronco” presents a more upbeat, somewhat positive feeling with its selection of songs like “C’mon Baby Cry”, “Outta Time”,“Dayton Sand”, and “Any Turn”, which in particular truly feels like the perfect jig (吉格舞曲) to square dance to. The second chapter of “Bronco”, with a focus on the fragile emotions that often lies at the core of the country type, explores darker topics, being largely made up of emotional songs that dive into topics like abusive relationships, loneliness, deep longing, and depression. While sharply different from one another, the two chapters fit amazingly well together. The songs draw on multiple contemporary inspirations, and in doing so stand out against what has become expected of country.

With the third and final chapter of “Bronco” coming on the road, we have reasons to believe that Peck will manage to meet and exceed public expectations and successfully made an album that may shake any who feel no appetite for the type of country music.

4 . Live music is back! Do you want to start booking tickets to shows ahead of time? Here’s a guide to the hottest artists that will be hitting the stage this summer.

Doja Cat

Doja Cat will be celebrating the release (发行) of her album with a July 4th performance in Brooklyn. She’s also set to perform at Miami’s Rolling Loud Festival, Leeds and Reading Festival (UK) and Austin City Limits Festival throughout the summer and early fall.

Madison Beer

Madison Beer will be touring Canada and the US starting in October as a part of her “Life Support” tour.   which is also going international in the spring. Alongside Doja Cat, she’s also playing at Leeds and Reading Festival in the UK over the summer.

Bleachers

Bleachers, the official stage name of songwriter and record producer Jack Antonoff, is officially going on tour across America starting in September. “We don’t waste time live and there has not been a stage where we haven’t shown what we are…we are coming home,” Bleachers said in an Instagram post.

Haim

Our favorite sisters are set to play at various music festivals and shows. By far, we know they’re playing the Life Is Beautiful Festival in Las Vegas and the All Things Go Music Festival in Maryland. If you live in the UK, you’re in luck because Haim also announced that their UK tour is officially rescheduled for this September. They’ll be hitting up Glasgow, Nottingham, Cardiff, Manchester and London!

Billy Joel

Billy Joel will be touring across some cities in the US starting in August and performing at the United States Grand Prix in October. He will be primarily performing in New York City with six shows at Madison Square Garden in the fall.

5 . Singing the blues, or hitting all the right notes? Those are two potential interpretations one could make based on the latest quarterly results from Tencent Music Entertainment Group, China’s equivalent of Spotify, which is the country’s dominant provider of online music services.     1     But from our perspective, the report—while downbeat on the surface—is filled with positive signals showing a company working hard to build a sustainable foundation in China’s vibrant online music scene.

Industry watchers will recall that Tencent Music was among a group of Chinese tech giants that were fined last year and ordered to end their anti-competitive ways. The highest profile member of that group was e-commerce giant Alibaba, which was ordered to pay a record $2.75 billion and end its practice of threatening to kick merchants off its popular marketplaces unless they agreed not to open shops on rival platforms.

Tencent Music, the music arm of gaming giant Tencent, got off with a much lighter fine of just 500, 000 yuan ($74, 000).     2     But more significantly, the company was ordered to end its practice of using its market power to sign master licensing agreements for China with big music labels.

As a result of that action, Tencent Music is now facing more serious competition from its smaller rivals.     3     That big-figure decline was repeated throughout the report. One of the most representative was a 1.8% year-on-year decline in monthly active users (MAUs) for the company’s online music services, which dropped to 604 million. MAUs for the company’s smaller social entertainment services division fell by an even larger 28% to 162 million. The company blamed the music user decline on reduced marketing spending and cost controls, while it attributed the social entertainment decline to “industry and macro headwinds.”

    4     That shows the company is focusing on profitable users over simple big user numbers. Paying users for the company’s music services rose 32% year-on-year to 80.2 million during the quarter, helping to fuel an 18% rise in the company’s overall music subscription revenue that accounts for nearly a third of its total. The big theme is that the company is trying to build up its paying subscribers by offering a wider range of services for music lovers and aspiring musicians.