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      SZA, ‘Barbie’ Songs and Young Women Lead 2024 Grammy Nominees

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      The indie-rock group boygenius, Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift and Victoria Monét are among the most nominated artists for the 66th annual awards in February.SZA, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, the indie supergroup boygenius and the eclectic bandleader Jon Batiste are among the top nominees for the 66th annual Grammy Awards, leading a class of contenders dominated by young women.SZA, the R&B singer and songwriter born Solána Rowe, has nine nods — more than any other artist this year — for her album “SOS,” which led the Billboard chart for 10 weeks and spawned an in-demand arena tour. “Kill Bill,” its standout hit, is up for both record and song of the year at the next ceremony, set for Feb. 4 in Los Angeles.Swift and Rodrigo will face off against SZA in all three top categories, with Swift’s “Midnights” — the studio LP she released last year, in between a slew of rerecordings — and Rodrigo’s “Guts” up for best album, and Swift’s “Anti-Hero” and Rodrigo’s “Vampire” each competing for both record and song.The awards were announced in an online stream Friday morning by the Recording Academy, the nonprofit organization behind the Grammys.Miley Cyrus and Batiste are also contenders in each of the most prestigious categories. Cyrus’s mellow, disco-inflected hit “Flowers” is up for record and song of the year, and “Endless Summer Vacation” for album. Batiste, the surprise album of the year victor in 2022 for “We Are” — a rootsy, uplifting collection that had barely made a dent on the charts — earned a string of nominations, including best album for “World Music Radio,” a high-concept amalgam of global pop that was also far from a hit. Its track “Worship” is up for record, and “Butterfly” for song. (Record of the year recognizes a single recording; song of the year is a songwriter’s award.)Boygenius, the project of three of indie-rock’s leading young women — Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus, all in their late 20s — will compete for record of the year with “Not Strong Enough,” and best album with “The Record.”Swift, Rodrigo, Cyrus, boygenius, Batiste and the Americana singer-songwriter Brandy Clark have six nods apiece, as does Billie Eilish, another Grammy favorite; Victoria Monét, an R&B singer and songwriter, has seven. Bridgers, of boygenius, also nabbed a seventh, through a collaboration with SZA.The “Barbie” soundtrack, curated by the producer Mark Ronson and filled with female artists — Eilish, Dua Lipa and Nicki Minaj among them — has a total of 11 nominations in seven categories. In best song written for visual media, for example, “Barbie” tracks occupy four of the five slots.The contenders for best new artist include Monét; the banjo-playing pop-folkie Noah Kahan; Jelly Roll, who started as a rapper before finding fame in Nashville; the British dance producer known as Fred again..; the R&B singer and actress Coco Jones; the husband-and-wife soul duo the War and Treaty; and two artists who have gotten a boost from their associations with Swift — the singer Gracie Abrams and the drill-meets-pop Bronx rapper Ice Spice.In past years, the Grammys have been criticized for failing to adequately reward female artists, and this year’s woman-heavy nominations will likely be welcomed in the industry as a sign of progress. Still, the key will be who ultimately wins.As always, the nominations included some surprises in the top tier, particularly when it came to country artists.Luke Combs, who had a cross-generational smash with a reverently faithful version of Tracy Chapman’s 1988 song “Fast Car,” got a nod for country solo performance, but not record of the year, which many in the industry had expected. (“Fast Car” was not, however, eligible for song of the year, since it had already been nominated for that award in the ’80s.)Zach Bryan, an admired songwriter who found chart success this year with a self-titled album, was recognized only in country categories, for that LP and for “I Remember Everything,” a duet with Kacey Musgraves. And Morgan Wallen, a streaming titan whose album “One Thing at a Time” was a blockbuster this year, is absent completely — a sign, perhaps, that the coastal industry mainstream has not forgiven Wallen for his use of a racial slur two years ago, as establishment Nashville seemingly has. (Wallen’s hit “Last Night” is up for best country song, though Wallen was not among its four writers.)Harvey Mason Jr., the chief executive of the Recording Academy, said in an interview that the nominations simply reflect the musical judgment of the academy’s 11,000 or so voting members.“There’s really no other explanation or calculus here,” Mason said. “The voters come in, they listen to the music, and the stuff they like the best, and feel is the most excellent, they vote for.”The nominations arrive two days after Neil Portnow, a former academy chief, was sued in a New York court by an anonymous female musician who accused him of drugging and raping her five years ago. The suit also accused the academy of negligence.Portnow has denied the accusation, and the academy on Wednesday called the woman’s claims “without merit.” Mason declined to comment about the case.The major Grammy nominations this year largely hew to popular hits, and they notably over-index with female artists, though country and hip-hop are scarce in the top categories.In addition to LPs by SZA, Swift, Rodrigo, Cyrus, boygenius and Batiste, the album of the year slate includes Lana Del Rey’s “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd” and Janelle Monáe’s “The Age of Pleasure.”Record of the year also includes Monét’s “On My Mama” and Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?,” from “Barbie.” Del Rey’s “A&W,” “What Was I Made For?” and another “Barbie” number, Lipa’s “Dance the Night,” round out song of the year.The number of slots on the ballot for the four top Grammy categories has been a moving target for years. This year, the academy set it to eight, after two years at 10. It was the third such change in five years.Among other rule changes this year, the academy moved the producer and songwriter of the year categories to the general field, which allows all voting members to vote on those awards.Nominees for producer of the year, nonclassical, include Jack Antonoff, known for his work with Swift and Del Rey; Daniel Nigro (Rodrigo); Hit-Boy (Nas, Don Toliver); Dernst Emile II, known as D’Mile (Monét); and Metro Boomin (Travis Scott; Drake & 21 Savage). Songwriter of the year, meant to recognize writers who largely work behind the scenes, has nods for Edgar Barrera, Jessie Jo Dillon, Shane McAnally, Theron Thomas and Justin Tranter.For best pop vocal album, Swift’s “Midnights,” Rodrigo’s “Guts” and Cyrus’s “Endless Summer Vacation” are up against Kelly Clarkson’s “Chemistry” and Ed Sheeran’s “-” (called “Subtract”).In the rap album category, Drake & 21 Savage’s collaboration “Her Loss” and Travis Scott’s “Utopia” will contend with Killer Mike’s “Michael,” Nas’s “King’s Disease III” and Metro Boomin’s “Heroes & Villains.”For country album, Bryan’s LP is up along with Kelsea Ballerini’s “Rolling Up the Welcome Mat,” Lainey Wilson’s “Bell Bottom Country,” Tyler Childers’s “Rustin’ in the Rain” and the self-titled album by Brothers Osborne.The contenders for best rock album are Foo Fighters’ “But Here We Are,” Greta Van Fleet’s “Starcatcher,” Metallica’s “72 Seasons,” Paramore’s “This Is Why” and “In Times New Roman …” by Queens of the Stone Age.For best African music performance, a new category, the nominees are Asake & Olamide’s “Amapiano,” Burna Boy’s “City Boys,” Ayra Starr’s “Rush,” Tyla’s “Water,” and Davido’s “Unavailable,” which features Musa Keys.In the audiobook category, Michelle Obama and Senator Bernie Sanders will compete with Meryl Streep, William Shatner and the music producer Rick Rubin.At the ceremony in February, the academy will give out prizes in 94 categories — the most in 13 years. The organization slashed many awards in 2011, but since then the number has gradually crept back upThe 66th Grammys will recognize recordings released from Oct. 1, 2022, to Sept. 15, 2023 — an unusual eligibility window of 11 and a half months. This year, nearly 16,000 entries were submitted for consideration, down slightly from last year. More

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      Missy Elliott and Willie Nelson Join the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

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      Innovators from genres that have long been underrepresented in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame were celebrated at the event’s 38th annual induction ceremony in Brooklyn.The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducted its 38th annual class of musical heroes on Friday at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, in a night dominated by strong women and giants from genres the institution had long treated as adjacent to rock.The latest inductees in the flagship performer category included Willie Nelson, the 90-year-old country icon; Missy Elliott, the hall’s first female rapper; the singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow; George Michael, the larger-than-life pop singer of Wham! who became one of pop’s first openly gay heroes; the soul vocal act the Spinners; Kate Bush, the eclectic British performer, who did not attend; and the political firebrands Rage Against the Machine, who were represented solely by their guitarist, Tom Morello.In other categories, the hall inducted DJ Kool Herc, who presided over hip-hop’s founding party 50 years ago; the rockabilly guitarist Link Wray; the spitfire R&B singer Chaka Khan; Al Kooper, one of rock’s most well-traveled musicians, who played with Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and many others; Bernie Taupin, Elton John’s longtime songwriting partner; and Don Cornelius, the creator and host of the TV show “Soul Train.”The induction came less than two months after the Rock Hall ejected Jann Wenner, one of its founders, who made disparaging remarks about female and Black performers as part of a New York Times interview. This year’s class demonstrated the organization’s recent commitment to inclusion, but the night didn’t end without a barbed reference to the controversy.“I’m honored to be in the class of 2023, alongside such a group of profoundly ‘articulate’ women and outstanding, ‘articulate’ Black artists,” said Taupin, echoing Wenner’s comments in the interview.Here are some highlights from the show.Stars from beyond rock’s bordersWillie Nelson, the 90-year-old country star, was honored at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.Andy Kropa/Invision, via Associated PressSome of the most commanding presences were artists outside the traditional boundaries of rock ’n’ roll who claimed their places in music history proudly.In an arena-worthy spectacle that began with her own countdown clock, Elliott arrived onstage just after midnight outfitted in gold and surrounded by a phalanx of backup dancers. After an energetic spin through abbreviated versions of songs including “Get Ur Freak On,” “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” and “Work It,” she got emotional at the podium, revealing that this was the first time her mother had seen her perform. (Elliott hadn’t wanted to rap risqué records in front of her mom because “she from the church” she said, to laugher.)She mentioned women innovators who “gave me their shoulders to stand on,” including Pepa, Queen Latifah (who inducted her) and Roxanne Shante, and noted that on hip-hop’s 50th anniversary, she felt the magnitude of the moment: “You just feel like it’s so far to reach when you in the hip-hop world, and to be standing here, it means so much to me.”Earlier, Nelson sat stone-faced, in his signature red bandanna and long braids, as Dave Matthews gave a rambling but affectionate induction speech, praising Nelson’s longevity and history of activism — and his well-known penchant for marijuana.Nelson, who has been a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame for 30 years, cut to the chase in a brief acceptance speech, saying, “I never paid much attention to categories, and I’m not sure fans did either.” At 90, Nelson’s love of performing was still palpable. Seated and playing a weathered acoustic guitar, he nimbly ran through riffs and solos, leading his band on classics like “Whiskey River,” “On the Road Again,” and, joined by Crow, “Crazy,” his song made famous by Patsy Cline.Women celebrated womenSheryl Crow, left, was joined by Olivia Rodrigo for a duet of “If It Makes You Happy.”Andy Kropa/Invision, via Associated PressAs recently as 2016, there were years when the hall welcomed no women. But on Friday, they were a strong presence, and honored one another onstage and in supportive statements.The night kicked off with Crow, who began her career as a backup singer for Michael Jackson before breaking out on her own in the 1990s with hits like “All I Wanna Do.” She was joined onstage by Olivia Rodrigo, the 20-year-old pop star, for a duet of “If It Makes You Happy,” a power ballad about vulnerability. And Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac — in black lace and fingerless gloves — sang with Crow on “Strong Enough.”In a video segment, Nicks called Crow “everything that every girl should want to be.” In her acceptance speech, Crow thanked her parents “for all the years of unconditional love,” adding, “and piano lessons.”Khan sang her hits “Ain’t Nobody” and “Sweet Thing” with H.E.R. and “I’m Every Woman” with the pop singer and songwriter Sia, who entered the stage in a gigantic, rainbow-colored wig that obscured her face. In accepting her honor, Khan spent much of her time praising Jazmine Sullivan, the R&B singer who inducted her.Queen Latifah introduced Elliott by noting all the boundaries she’d broken: “Missy has never been afraid to speak out about the preconceptions, the stereotypes, the string of misogyny and the obstacles that have been placed in the way of women.”A night of notable absencesAfter a speech from Ice-T, left, Tom Morello spoke about his group Rage Against the Machine’s mission as a political band.Andy Kropa/Invision, via Associated PressThe ceremony was defined as much by who wasn’t there as who was.Bush, who shot up the charts last year when a decades-old song, “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God),” was used in the TV show “Stranger Things,” did not attend. Neither did three of the four members of Rage Against the Machine. And some of the most uproarious applause in the arena was for Michael, who died in 2016.Bush, who has not performed in public in nine years, was celebrated for her singularly dark and theatrical vision. The singer St. Vincent, her wide eyes staring straight ahead, performed “Running Up That Hill” in a black puffy lace top. In a statement posted to her website on Friday, Bush thanked the Rock Hall for welcoming her to “the most extraordinary rostrum of overwhelming talent.”Michael was inducted by Andrew Ridgeley, his childhood friend and partner in Wham!, who appeared in a crisp purple three-piece suit. He spoke of Michael’s intense drive for fame as well as his talents in the studio as a writer and producer and added, “His beauty gave balm and succor to the listener.”Though Rage Against the Machine didn’t perform, Morello gave a fiery speech following Ice-T’s induction that endorsed music’s power to spark progress. “Can music change the world?” he said, peppering his remarks with profanities. “The entire [expletive] aim is to change the world,” he proclaimed.Smaller names who made a big impactElton John, left, embracing his longtime songwriting partner, Bernie Taupin, who was inducted into the Rock Hall on Friday.Eduardo Munoz/ReutersSome of the most poignant moments came in celebrations of people who were never household-name stars. These fulfilled one of the Rock Hall’s key missions of contextualizing pop music history and shining lights on figures whose influence was greater than their fame.The Spinners began as a doo-wop group in Michigan in the 1950s, then spent years without fame at Motown before signing to Atlantic Records and making a string of hits that defined Philadelphia soul. DJ Kool Herc, who took the stage with a cane, was honored as a father of hip-hop and gave a tearful speech thanking various people from throughout his life, including artists like James Brown and Harry Belafonte.In a video inducting Link Wray, the rockabilly guitarist whose snarling 1958 instrumental “Rumble” became a controversial hit — it was banned in some cities, out of fear it would incite violence — Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin called Wray “my hero,” saying the song taught him “the drama you could set up with six strings.” He then appeared on the Barclays stage, leading a performance of “Rumble” with a three-piece rockabilly combo.John told of how his 56-year songwriting partnership with Taupin started randomly, when a record company paired them together, and spoke passionately about the underappreciated role of lyricists. Then, at the piano, John gave a stirring performance of “Tiny Dancer,” one of their most enduring collaborations.Taupin summed up his speech with an appeal to accept the all-inclusive borders of pop music.“It means no walls, no inherent snobbery,” he said. “It means we’re all in this together.”Caryn Ganz and Emmanuel Morgan contributed reporting. More

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      ‘Milli Vanilli’ Review: Blame It on the Fame

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      Luke Korem’s documentary retraces the manufactured pop duo’s rise and fall, while asking pertinent questions about the price of stardom.The performers Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus earn your empathy in the documentary “Milli Vanilli,” a jolting, eye-opening investigation on how fame destroyed them. The war-of-words film, directed by Luke Korem, unfolds like a whodunit.The film retraces the bonkers events of Morvan and Pilatus’s naïve rise to the top in the late 1980s as Milli Vanilli, the image-forward pop duo who secretly lip-synced prerecorded songs to live audiences. Their hits included “Girl You Know It’s True” and “Baby Don’t Forget My Number.”At first, the duo needed money to escape poverty, but their celebrity status kept them hooked, and their German producer, Frank Farian, held the bait.And then, the documentary revisits their fall: During a live performance on MTV in 1989, the song started to skip, exposing them as frauds. In 1998, Pilatus died of an overdose. “I lost my sobriety and every sense of reality,” we hear him say in the film.Impressively, Korem gets those who ran the business side of Milli Vanilli, including officials at Arista Records, to spill the juicy details on what actually happened to the duo: Morvan and Pilatus became Farian and the label’s scapegoats. As presented here, it’s easy to see how this could be the basis for a horror film by Jordan Peele.Morvan is the heart of the documentary; he reflects on the group’s past treatment (he thinks they deserved that revoked Grammy) and raises still-relevant questions about the way the music industry exploits vulnerable performers. Charles Shaw, one of the real singers behind Milli Vanilli, says that Farian, who also worked with the group Boney M., “made most of his money on Black artists, and it worked.”Milli VanilliNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 46 minutes. Watch on Paramount+. More

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      Dressed for Success: 7 Bands in Uniform

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      Hear songs by the White Stripes, Destiny’s Child and more.The White Stripes’ Meg and Jack White.Oscar Hidalgo for The New York TimesDear listeners,Today’s Amplifier is based on an idea my colleague Jon Pareles mentioned when he was working on a profile of Devo: How about a playlist of bands that wear uniforms?That prompt got me thinking, of course, of Devo’s fire-engine red “energy dome” hats. But also of doo-wop groups and early rockers in matching duds, of country acts in custom Nudie suits, and of girl groups past and present in coordinated colors. Clearly a playlist was in order.There are plenty of different reasons musicians wear uniforms. Sometimes — especially in the case of Motown groups — matching outfits bring an air of polish and professionalism. They’re also a handy and enduring means of visual branding; if you see a scrawny dude with shaggy hair in ripped jeans and a black leather jacket, a song by the Ramones just might pop into your head. But even when a strict sartorial aesthetic risks becoming a gimmick, it can also keep the focus on the music. As Meg White told The Guardian in a 2005 interview, speaking of the White Stripes’ red-and-white dress code, “like a uniform at school, you can just focus on what you’re doing because everybody’s wearing the same thing.”Today’s playlist is a brief sonic tour through some of music’s most iconic uniforms. It contains quite a few omissions, though. I featured Kraftwerk on Tuesday’s playlist, so I didn’t want to repeat myself — even though their robotic coordinated costumes are totally worth mentioning. I also wish I could have included the proto-punk group the Monks, who often dressed like their namesakes, but the band’s great 1966 album “Black Monk Time” isn’t available on any streaming platforms. (If you haven’t heard it, try to find it in a more old-fashioned way. It rules.)That still left me with plenty of uniformed groups to choose from. Today’s playlist finds the common threads (get it?) shared by the Hives and the Temptations, Devo and Destiny’s Child. Put on your energy dome and press play.Listen on Spotify as you read.1. Devo: “Uncontrollable Urge”The members of Devo often use their extensive collection of matching uniforms — trust me, the “Outfits” section of the Devo Wiki is quite lengthy — as social commentary, poking fun at the mentality of conformism they perceive in modern life. That commentary, though, has always been cut with a absurdist twist, whether they’re clad in electric-yellow jumpsuits, matching silver blazers or, of course, those iconic flowerpot hats. (Listen on YouTube)2. The Ramones: “Cretin Hop”From their adopted last names to their standard-issue outfit of tight jeans, T-shirts, shaggy haircuts and — crucially — black leather jackets, the Ramones were all about simplicity, minimalism and uniformity. Those same virtues also applied to the band’s all-killer, no-filler sound. (Listen on YouTube)3. The Maddox Brothers & Rose: “Empty Mansions”The early country pioneers the Maddox Brothers & Rose were “the best-dressed people in country and western,” according to one of their contemporaries. The Maddox family’s flashy, elaborately embroidered matching suits (plus custom cowgirl skirts for Rose) were the work of Nathan Turk, whose designs echoed the group’s energetic sound. From the 1930s to the 1950s, the group blazed a spangled, sparkling path that plenty of country acts would later follow. (Listen on YouTube)4. The Temptations: “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg”Elegant matching outfits lent Motown artists — like the Supremes, the Four Tops and the Temptations — a sheen of professionalism. But they also reflected the strict aesthetic vision of the Motown founder Berry Gordy, who wanted his groups to project a specific type of aspirational glamour that would appeal to white listeners. Like many vocal groups in the doo-wop tradition, the Temptations were at first known for their slick, color-coordinated suits. But in the late 1960s, as their sound began to move in a more psychedelic direction, the Temptations, tellingly, began to embrace more outré sartorial styles. (Listen on YouTube)5. The White Stripes: “The Union Forever”Jack and Meg White’s peppermint-candy color palette gave the duo an us-against-the-world camaraderie — which got a little complicated when people realized that the Whites were not, as they’d initially said, brother and sister, but rather a formerly married couple. Whatever works! (Listen on YouTube)6. The Hives: “Main Offender”The White Stripes weren’t the only stars of the early 2000s garage-rock revival to embrace the uniform. The zany Swedish rockers the Hives — who returned earlier this year with their first album in a decade — made stage-wear fun again with their bold black-and-white suits. (It wasn’t until they made it big, though, that they could afford to launder them properly. Said the drummer Chris Dangerous in a Times profile earlier this year, their earliest suits “smelled so bad, when we walked onstage at the end of the tour, the audience stepped back.”) (Listen on YouTube)7. Destiny’s Child: “So Good”Destiny’s Child updated the sound — and, of course, the look — of the girl group during its reign in the late ’90s and early 2000s. In coordinated outfits designed by Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles, the girls glittered in green at the Grammys and, in the “Survivor” video, projected strength in matching camo prints. As the group’s lineup went through some notorious changes, the matching outfits perhaps served the more practical purpose of reminding people who, at any given time, was actually in Destiny’s Child. (Listen on YouTube)Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, y-y-y-y-y-y-y-yeah!,LindsayThe Amplifier PlaylistListen on Spotify. We update this playlist with each new newsletter.“Bands in Uniform” track listTrack 1: Devo, “Uncontrollable Urge”Track 2: The Ramones, “Cretin Hop”Track 3: The Maddox Brothers & Rose, “Empty Mansions”Track 4: The Temptations, “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg”Track 5: The White Stripes, “The Union Forever”Track 6: The Hives, “Main Offender”Track 7: Destiny’s Child, “So Good”Bonus TracksFirst, a quick correction from Tuesday’s newsletter, in which I mistakenly implied that Coldplay did not have permission to use the riff from Kraftwerk’s “Computer Love” for the 2005 hit “Talk.” They did, in fact, get the OK from Kraftwerk’s Ralf Hütter.Also, the aforementioned Jon Pareles took over our Friday Playlist this week, choosing new songs from the Rolling Stones, Kali Uchis, Caroline Polachek and more. Listen here. More

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      The Shindellas, an R&B Girl Group With an Unlikely Story

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      The trio, brought together by a writing and production team and based just outside Nashville, are hoping for a breakout moment with their second album, “Shindo.”The home base of the pop-R&B girl group the Shindellas is a yellow two-story house that’s been standing for more than a century in a pastoral Tennessee town. Inside, the group’s vision board fills an entire wall with its goals — for radio airplay, industry awards, television appearances, movie roles, high-profile collaborations and brand deals. On a slip of paper in the middle, the words “household name” are printed in marker.“That’s probably the biggest one,” said Tamara Chauniece, one of its three members. “Because with that comes all of this.”The Shindellas, which also include Stacy Johnson and Kasi Jones, stand out in the 2023 pop landscape: a vocal trio of women over 30, brought together by a writing-production team, trying to reach the masses with songs that recall the glory of powerhouse girl groups — 20 miles south of Nashville, in the shadow of the country music industry.The group came to town in January 2017 to become part of Weirdo Workshop, a small music company started by the writing and production team Claude Kelly and Chuck Harmony, whose credits include Mary J. Blige, Bruno Mars and Miley Cyrus. The Shindellas each hailed from very different performing backgrounds, but were drawn by Kelly and Harmony’s vision for the trio — a concept dating back to a session in the late 2000s, where they found themselves reminiscing about the Supremes and wondering, “‘Where are the girl groups right now?’” Kelly recalled.Their 2019 “Genesis” EP and 2021 debut, “Hits That Stick Like Grits,” remained below the radar, but the elaborately staged shows they did alongside Harmony and Kelly’s duo Louis York helped establish their poised, polished reputation in Tennessee. Their new album, “Shindo,” out Friday, has the potential to bring them to larger stages: It is their first release to receive an outside push from a label partner, the Nashville indie Thirty Tigers, and first to generate a radio hit: “Last Night Was Good for My Soul,” a day-after-the-party jam with a disco groove, reached the Top 10 on Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay chart.The Shindellas onstage in May. In their rehearsal room, they practice projecting stadium-scale energy and their original choreography.Paras Griffin/Getty ImagesThe group has been preparing for a breakout moment. Coordinated stage costumes pack a walk-in closet. (The aesthetic they request from stylists is “Afrofuturist and just classy, elegant,” Johnson said.) In their rehearsal room, the Shindellas often perform before a mirror, scrutinizing themselves while they practice projecting stadium-scale energy and their original, crisply synchronized choreography.Though Harmony and Kelly assembled the Shindellas, they and the group all agreed on a crucial point early: that the women should be in control of their destiny, well aware of the erasure that minimized contributions from generations of female pop and R&B acts, especially those featuring Black women. “To act as if a group of women who have a powerful sense of style and artistry and songwriting and ideas should just be puppets for you doesn’t work,” Kelly said in an interview. “It didn’t work then,” he added, “and it definitely doesn’t work now.”Before they came together, all of the trio’s members had developed skepticism of the Faustian bargains of the music industry. Johnson, 36, spent her youth in Chicago working with a family-run music company, singing jingles, then graduated to dance tracks. She briefly joined a girl group, but quit when she became uncomfortable with how she was asked to present herself. When Harmony, who previously had hired her to sing demos, pitched her on the concept of a trio built on demanding respect, she was intrigued.“My little sister could listen to this. My grandma could listen to this. I could sing this and turn it up,” she recalled thinking of the idea. She dove into helping find the group’s other voices.Jones, 40, stood out. She had done musical theater and theme park work and booked her own overseas tours as a neo-soul singer-songwriter. But she said she had experienced predatory behavior from some producers in Los Angeles: “People being sexually aggressive, going into a situation with someone you think you know well, and it turns into another thing,” she said. Warily, Jones flew out to visit Weirdo Workshop, where she found the safe space she’d been looking for.Chauniece, 33, spent her childhood on the Texas gospel circuit, managed by her mother. Appearing on Season 5 of “The Voice” boosted her profile, but afterward she felt lost, posting videos of herself singing online that sometimes went viral before resolving to work with a small label. “I don’t want to be on a major label roster, get lost in the sauce,” she said of her mind-set at the time.Initially, the Shindellas would tell Kelly and Harmony what they wanted to sing about and sound like, and gathered around the piano to weigh in on song ideas. Then, Chauniece said, the three women would contemplate how to interpret their parts: “Anytime you hear me, it’s me,” she said of that work. “People don’t consider that authorship, or they don’t consider that your creative property. But it is.”On “Genesis,” they tried out vintage sensibilities, recalling the swinging effervescence of the Motown era and the Pointer Sisters’ knowing invocations of World War II-era vocal jazz. “Hits That Stick Like Grits” covered more stylistic territory and featured an interlude with writing credits for all three Shindellas. But on “Shindo,” named for a made-up word they use in the studio describing “that overwhelming feeling of chills,” Jones said — the group puts its charisma, attitude and personality up front.The Shindellas sing about taking the lead in lust and lasting romance: announcing what they are looking for from a partner in the sleek, funky “Up 2 You,” demanding a lover’s discretion in regard to a hook up in the slow-burning “Kiss N Tell,” and playfully instructing a man how to give pleasure in the bass-driven “Juicy.” (They helped write the latter two.) The video for “Juicy” is all moisturized lips and ripe fruit — except for shots of Jones reading Angela Davis’s book “Women, Race & Class,” a reminder that the Shindellas are always paying attention to power dynamics.“Last Night Was Good for My Soul” showcases Jones’s near-rapping and theatrical warmth, and she and Johnson also take their turns in the spotlight; however, the Shindellas have no lead singer. They combine their voices with pinpoint precision, often singing in softened yet self-possessed unison, then spreading into radiant, jazzy intervals.Their recordings typically begin with piano, and Harmony later wraps exuberant dance floor rhythms or silken slow jam textures around their voices, using a combo of hand-played instruments, ’80s synthesizers and drum machines, and digital sharpening.“Musically, I think to create the future, you need a healthy balance of the past and the present,” he said. “And I feel like live instrumentation mixed with technology is the dance in my head that I’m always doing with the Shindellas. And it’s intricate, because I want them to be formidable. I want them to be a legacy act.”Right now, the Shindellas are focused on expanding their reach. “We know that we’re doing music that’s for everybody,” Chauniece said. “But when you actually see the faces of what that everybody is, it’s still like …”Johnson finished her thought: “Literally everybody.” More

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      My Haul From the WFMU Record Fair

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      Rounding out a record collection with finds from the Beach Boys, Kraftwerk and Roberta Flack.Scenes from a great day album shopping in Queens.Lindsay ZoladzDear listeners,Over the weekend, I spent some time at the WFMU Record and CD Fair — a New York institution returning in person for the first time since 2019. A fund-raiser for the great, listener-supported radio station, this year’s Record Fair featured over 100 dealers hawking vinyl and other musical sundries at the Knockdown Center in Queens. I browsed for hours, and by the time I was done my back was sore from hunching over crates and my arms ached from all the records I was toting around. Who says record collecting isn’t a sport?That lingering pang in my shoulder, though, meant I left with a pretty decent record haul — which I used to create today’s playlist.Some people go to record fairs ready to drop big bucks on rare finds and coveted collectibles. That wasn’t my aim, though: I was in it for the cheap thrills and spontaneous discoveries. I found, for example, a fantastic, good-as-new-condition Ike & Tina Turner live album I’d never heard, at a stand where most records were marked down to 50 percent off in the event’s final hours. (Given that deal, I threw in a copy of Dinosaur Jr.’s scuzzy classic “You’re Living All Over Me” at the last minute, too.) For $5 or less, I acquired records by Bob Dylan and Roberta Flack.But I also learned about the perils of the discount bin. When I added a $3 copy of Waylon Jennings’s “Greatest Hits” to my pile, I thought I’d checked the condition of the LP. But apparently I hadn’t looked at the label. For when I pulled it out of its sleeve yesterday and went to play it, I found that I was actually in possession of … Neil Diamond’s “12 Greatest Hits, Volume II.” Talk about a rude awakening.Overall, though, the fair was a blast, and an opportunity to connect with record sellers in a setting way more personable than ordering something off Discogs. Each stall had its own style and personality quirks — like the one graciously offering a questionably large bowl of free “I More

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      Rudolph Isley, an Original and Enduring Isley Brother, Dies at 84

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      He provided harmony vocals and the occasional lead. He also helped write some of the group’s biggest hits, including “Shout,” “Fight the Power” and “That Lady.”Rudolph Isley, who held dual roles in the influential vocal group the Isley Brothers as a mellifluous harmony singer and co-writer of many of their greatest hits, died on Wednesday at his home in Chicago. He was 84.He died in his sleep, his brother Ernie said, adding that he was unaware of any health issues his brother might have had.Mr. Isley spent much of his three decades with the Isley Brothers harmonizing with his brother O’Kelly in support of Ronald Isley’s lead vocals. But he also sang lead on some notable tracks. On “I’ve Got to Get Myself Together,” recorded in 1969, his gentlemanly tone gave the song a touch of grace. He also lent a suave lead to the group’s fleeting entry into the disco field, “It’s a Disco Night (Rock Don’t Stop),” which was a club hit in the United States in 1979 and reached the Top 20 in Britain.The Isley Brothers were always fashionable, and in the 1970s and ’80s Mr. Isley made a fashion statement of his own by wearing hats and furs and carrying a bejeweled cane, giving the Isleys added panache.He and his brothers wrote a number of pivotal hits, beginning with “Shout,” the group’s 1959 breakthrough, which applied the dynamic of gospel music’s call-and-response to a pop context. They also wrote the enduring political anthem “Fight the Power,” a Top Five Billboard hit, as well as the Top 10 pop hits “It’s Your Thing” and “That Lady.”The always fashionable Isleys (from left, Rudolph, Ronald and O’Kelly) in the 1970s.Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesSixteen of the Isley Brothers’ albums cracked the Billboard Top 40, 13 were certified gold and nine went platinum or multiplatinum.In 1989, Mr. Isley retired from the mainstream music industry to pursue his long-deferred dream of a career in the ministry, although he continued to sing in church. He also recorded some gospel songs, and in 1996 released a religious album titled “Shouting for Jesus: A Loud Joyful Noise.” He and his brothers were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.Rudolph Bernard Isley was born on April 1, 1939, in Cincinnati, the second of six sons of Sallye (Bell) and O’Kelly Isley. He began singing in church as a child, and during his teen years he and three of the other older Isleys performed together and toured locally.”I have some very special memories of listening to music with my brothers when we were young,” Mr. Isley told the music journalist Leo Sacks for the liner notes to a 1999 boxed set that Mr. Sacks produced, “It’s Your Thing: The Story of the Isley Brothers.” He added: “Billy Ward and the Dominoes, now that was a group. We idolized them. We got our own thing together because we never lost that harmony group dynamic.”In the group’s early days, the eldest brother, Vernon, sang lead. He was killed at age 13 when the bicycle he was riding was struck by a car, and Ronald became the lead singer.The Isleys were still quite young when Rudolph, O’Kelly and Ronald moved to New York to pursue a record deal. Contracts with small labels led to one with RCA, one of the biggest in the business, in 1959, and shortly after that the Isleys wrote and recorded “Shout.” It sold over a million copies and came to be acknowledged as a rock ’n’ roll classic, spawning covers by Dion, Bruce Springsteen, Garth Brooks and many others. (It was also heard in “National Lampoon’s Animal House” and other movies.)In 1962, the Isleys had a Top 40 hit with their cover of “Twist and Shout,” written by Bert Berns and Phil Medley and originally recorded a year earlier by the Top Notes. Their recording provided a template for the far more popular version recorded by the Beatles in 1963.For a brief time in 1964, the Isley Brothers’ band included a young guitarist named Jimmy James, who would later be known as Jimi Hendrix.The Isleys signed with Motown in 1965. But despite the label’s reputation for generating hits, they had just one in their brief tenure there, “This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You),” written by the label’s top songwriting team, Lamont Dozier and Brian and Eddie Holland (with Sylvia Moy). It reached No. 12 on the Billboard chart and No. 3 in Britain. Frustrated by Motown’s controlling approach, the brothers, in an unusual move for an African American act at the time, left the label to form their own, T-Neck Records, named after Teaneck, N.J., where they were based.Switching to a rawer and funkier style influenced by James Brown and Sly Stone, the trio found a new métier, and a new commercial connection. Their 1969 single “It’s Your Thing” rose to No. 2 on Billboard’s pop chart and No. 1 on the magazine’s R&B list.The Isley Brothers on the British television show “Ready Steady Go!” in 1964.Chris Ware/Keystone Features/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesAt the start of the 1970s, the group expanded to include the two youngest siblings, Ernie and Marvin, along with Rudolph’s brother-in-law, Chris Jasper; all three contributed instrumental work, and Mr. Jasper also sang. The result was a mostly self-contained band, another rarity for Black artists of the day. Together, they pioneered a unique rock ’n’ roll-tinged brand of funk and soul. Over the years, their music covered a wide range of genres, from doo-wop to gospel to quiet-storm ballads.From 1973 through 1981, all the group’s albums went gold, platinum or multiplatinum. Most of the tracks on those albums were co-written by Mr. Isley and the other members.The group also scored a platinum album in 1986 with “Between the Sheets,” whose title track offered their sensual answer to Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing.” Rudolph Isley shared lead vocals with his brother Ronald on two tracks of that album, the spacey funk number “Way Out Love” and the sensual grind “Slow Down Children.”With the rise of hip-hop, the Isleys’ classic material provided the source for more samples than any act other than James Brown and George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic.The death of O’Kelly Isley from a heart attack in 1986 hit Rudolph particularly hard. The group’s next album, “Smooth Sailin’” (1987), featured just him and Ronald on the cover and was dedicated to O’Kelly. Two years later, Rudolph quit the music business.Still, the ever-resourceful, forward-looking group endured and made a successful comeback in 1996 with the album “Mission to Please,” buoyed by production and writing from R. Kelly. Rudolph Isley reunited with his brothers for one night in 2004, when the group was given a lifetime achievement honor at the BET Awards.In March, Rudolph sued his brother Ronald, claiming that he had sought to secure a trademark for the group under his own name exclusively. The suit claimed that the founding members were “at all times” a “common-law partnership.”Marvin Isley died in 2010 from complications of diabetes.In addition to his brother Ernie, Rudolph Isley’s survivors include his wife, Elaine Jasper, whom he married in 1958; their children, Rudy Jr., Elizabeth, Valerie and Elaine; his brother Ronald; and several grandchildren.“Music and faith, they just run through our blood,” Mr. Isley was quoted as saying in the “It’s Your Thing” liner notes. “I may have stopped singing pop music, but I will always be an Isley Brother.”Bernard Mokam More

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      Russell Batiste Jr., the Drumming Heartbeat of New Orleans, Dies at 57

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      A pyrotechnic funk and R&B mainstay, he was a vital figure in his home city as a member of one of its celebrated musical dynasties.Russell Batiste Jr., a pyrotechnic drummer and scion of one of New Orleans’s most celebrated musical dynasties, whose furious style and genre-busting approach provided the rhythmic pulse for bands like the Meters and Vida Blue and musical artists like Harry Connick Jr., died on Sept. 30 at his home in LaPlace, La., outside New Orleans. He was 57.The cause was a heart attack, said his brother Damon Batiste, a former percussionist with the Batiste Brothers Band and a former producer for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.As a member of a family that has put its stamp on New Orleans music for generations, Russell Batiste was a mainstay of the city’s funk and R&B scene, performing with a long string of prominent local bands like George Porter Jr. & Runnin’ Pardners, the Wild Magnolias and Dumpstaphunk.A multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, he pushed boundaries with the trio Vida Blue, named after the Cy Young Award-winning pitcher of the 1970s and ’80s. He formed the group in the early 2000s with Page McConnell, the keyboardist for Phish, and Oteil Burbridge, a bassist with the Allman Brothers Band. With its atmospheric blend of jazz, funk and electronica, the trio recorded three albums, starting with its debut release in 2002, and toured extensively in that decade.Even so, New Orleans was where Mr. Batiste’s music seemed to belong. His bands Russell Batiste & Friends and Russell Batiste and the Orchestra (sometimes spelled Orkestra) From Da Hood packed local clubs like the Maple Leaf Bar and Le Bon Temps Roule for years, channeling the city’s rich, diverse musical heritage.“He captured the spirit of Congo Square,” Damon Batiste said in a phone interview, referring to the New Orleans site where enslaved people were allowed to gather for music and dance in the early 19th century. “Everything he played was funk, but he blended in marching band, second line, Haitian, Cuban and African rhythms. He was playing to the spirits of our ancestors.”Playing with a ferocity that would sometimes shatter his foot pedals, he added, Mr. Batiste “was like lightning and thunder, all at the same time.”Even as a sought-after sideman on albums like Mr. Connick’s “She” (1994), Mr. Batiste said he was more interested in finding musical transcendence through collaboration than in gaining individual glory.Mr. Batiste in July at the Essence Festival in New Orleans. He was a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter.Erika Goldring/Essence, via Getty Images“Anybody can solo,” he said in a 2005 interview with Modern Drummer magazine. “Anybody can sit behind the drums and go nuts. Anybody can play riffs on the bass, and anybody can play songs on the piano. But playing music is when two or more people get together from out of nowhere and turn it into something.”David Russell Batiste Jr. was born on Dec. 12, 1965, in New Orleans, the oldest of three children of David and Patricia (Cummings) Batiste. His parents divorced in the early 1970s.Born into a family of musicians, young Russell seemed to have his course mapped out for him from an early age. His father played with soul luminaries like Jackie Wilson and Isaac Hayes in the 1960s and ’70s and was a member of the Meters, the seminal New Orleans funk band, before starting his own influential funk band, David Batiste and the Gladiators. It later merged into the noted family ensemble the Batiste Brothers Band, led by his brother Paul.Russell’s younger cousin Jon Batiste is the Grammy Award-winning pianist, singer and songwriter and former bandleader for “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”“When I was growing up, I’d see Russell at the Maple Leaf and his band the Orchestra From Da Hood,” Jon Batiste said in a recent television news interview. “He was our kind of blueprint.”Mr. Batiste earlier this year performing with his cousin Jon Batiste at the Maple Leaf, one of several New Orleans clubs that his bands packed over the years.Josh Brasted/WireImage, via Getty ImagesRussell did not take long to establish his identity within the family. He started gigging with the Batiste Brothers Band at local clubs when he was 6. “When I was 8 years old, I opened up for the O’Jays and the Drells and the Chi-Lites at City Park Stadium,” he said in a recent interview on the podcast “The Jake Feinberg Show.”At St. Augustine High School, Mr. Batiste played drums in the school’s nationally famous Marching 100 band.After graduating in 1983, he enrolled at Southern University at New Orleans, where he studied under the jazz saxophonist Kidd Jordan (who died in April). But he left college after two years to become the drummer for the singer Charmaine Neville (who comes from another New Orleans music family). He joined the Meters, which evolved into the Funky Meters, in 1989.By that time, however, Mr. Batiste was battling substance abuse, which impeded his career for a time, Damon Batiste recalled. “Imagine being a rock ’n’ roll star, and people loved to be around you and you’re naïve,” his brother said. “He didn’t have his family around him.” Russell found sobriety in the 1990s.In addition to his brother Damon, Mr. Batiste’s immediate survivors include his father; his mother, Patricia Johnson; his stepfather, Newman Johnson; his sisters, Tasha Batiste, Lakisha Johnson, Monique Santiago, Merinda Bell, Tish Allen, Eboni Batiste and Chanell Batiste; four other brothers, David Guys, Aaron Duncan, Jamal Batiste and Ryan Batiste; his sons, Christopher and Darryl; and a daughter, Nareal.Considering the family he came from, Mr. Batiste could never have imagined another career, he said late in life. “I was born with a pair of sticks in my hand,” he told Mr. Feinberg.Recalling an old family 8-millimeter home movie, he added: “I’m not even 1 yet, and I’m sitting on a lady’s lap behind a set of drums with a pair of sticks hitting the drums. That’s the way I was born, man. It was just in me.” More