http://www.blogger.com/template-edit.g?blogID=5698442&saved=true <i>Other Music from a...</i> Different Kitchen <$BlogRSDUrl$>

Friday, October 10, 2003

The Mystery of Lauryn Hill, Bookcharts finally "Fair and Balanced" and is the RIAA this desperate? 

There's an enlightening but heartbreaking article in the current issue of Rolling Stone about why we haven't heard from Lauryn Hill since her landmark soul-hip hop masterpiece The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill in 1998 (I'm not really counting Unplugged 2.0 as a real album even though I must be one of the few people who actually enjoyed it). I hope that Lauryn is able to confront and deal with whatever demons she has in life not only because I'd like to hear more music but so she can live her life the way she wants free from the expectations and pressures from others. Back when she was flipping everyone's wigs on The Fugees' The Score and with her own album and redefining what it meant to be black woman in hip hop, I would never guessed her life would turn out this way.

Man, 12 million people bought her debut album. I doubt we'll ever see those kind of sales numbers again for a music album in the digital download world we live in now. No wonder the RIAA is advocating policies like this to save the music industry (probably).

The public believes most of media has a liberal bias (see yesterday's post about the recently-released Gallup study)? Maybe they're right as the besteller book lists are starting to get filled up with liberal-oriented and anti-Bush titles, something no-one would have imagined in the period right after 9/11. I think this is a healthy sign for the US. Hopefully now they'll be some more balanced debate and questioning by the media, the government and the public of some of the madness that has passed for foreign policy and civil liberties and individual rights protection in the last two years.



AddThis Social Bookmark Button