Our weekly recap highlighting the best feature stories from around the internet.
She's So Rad. Photo: Unknown
The true cost of streaming: Spotify paid Kiwi band with five-star reviews and 90,000 streams just $130 – by Lydia Jenkin, NZ Herald
“Jeremy Toy, who is one half of highly regarded alt-pop duo She's So Rad, revealed in a simple, matter of fact way, just how hard it is for a local independent artist to make any money from their music at the moment. He took the post down after someone began trolling it, but later posted again, further explaining his position, which is this: Despite very strong reviews for their album Tango and despite having two songs on A-rotate on Radio Hauraki, plus good support from student radio across the country, they've sold 20 CDs, 20 digital copies through Bandcamp, and 30 digital copies through iTunes since they released the album in May.”
‘I’m No Longer Afraid’: 35 Women Tell Their Stories About Being Assaulted by Bill Cosby, and the Culture That Wouldn’t Listen – by Noren Malone, New York Mag
“There are now 46 women who have come forward publicly to accuse Cosby of rape or sexual assault; the 35 women here are the accusers who were willing to be photographed and interviewed by New York. The group, at present, ranges in age from early 20s to 80 and includes supermodels Beverly Johnson and Janice Dickinson alongside waitresses and Playboy bunnies and journalists and a host of women who formerly worked in show business. Many of the women say they know of others still out there who’ve chosen to remain silent.”
Coco Solid: 'It's time for a switch-up' – by Michelle Duff, Sunday Magazine
“One of the most frustrating things about being a woman, Hansell says, is the pressure to fit in, to feel like you have to enable men to succeed. It's taken her a long time to realise that's unnecessary. “There's a big thing for young women to make other people comfortable, to accommodate other people's feelings, make sure that you're like the stage hand, the wing-man to other people's ideas and stories. Fuck that, man. No. You can make people nervous, you can make people uncomfortable. You can change and challenge things and you can represent ideas that people don't like.””
Racial stereotyping is alive and well in the language of NZ sport – by Scotty Stevenson, NZ Herald
“Better still, my family weren't on the sideline to listen to me being called a "black ****", like Peni Manumanuniliwa's family have had to. I've never been called a "monkey", or a "dumb fob", and I probably never will be. I've never known what it is like for a professional player to be described only for his physical attributes - "explosive", "flamboyant", and "powerful" with "devastating defence" - while his midfield partner has a "sound brain", and "good anticipation" and "ability to read the game" and "leads by example". The former is Ma'a Nonu, the latter, Conrad Smith. Those words are pulled from their official All Black biographies.”
The moment I knew I would be a novelist – by Haruki Murakami, The Telegraph,
“In retrospect, it was only natural that I was unable to produce a good novel. It was a big mistake to assume that a guy like me who had never written anything in his life could spin something brilliant right off the bat. I was trying to accomplish the impossible. Give up trying to write something sophisticated, I told myself. Forget all those prescriptive ideas about “the novel” and “literature” and set down your feelings and thoughts as they come to you, freely, in a way that you like.”
“I don’t strive to be offensive”: Trevor Noah tells Salon how his “Daily Show” will be different from — and similar to — Jon Stewart’s – by Sonia Saraiya, Salon
“Noah relies on a tool that Stewart also constantly relies on—self-deprecation. Every comedian has to use it at some point, to ingratiate themselves with the audience. With Noah, it’s even more important than just jokes, though. He’s lecturing on race to an audience that will span the nation and will, through the Internet, go global; in targeting himself, he’s both anticipating the first volley of attacks against him and creating his primary line of defense. Noah’s eager to communicate and reach out to viewers, yes—as he told me, “If you laugh with somebody, then you know you share something.” But my metaphors are martial for a reason; this is a comedic combat zone.”
Can the Weeknd Turn Himself Into the Biggest Pop Star in the World? – by Jon Caramanica, NY Times
“The closest recent analogue to ‘‘Beauty Behind the Madness’’ is probably ‘‘1989,’’ Taylor Swift’s pop coming-out party from last year, which also pulses with 1980s pomp, and which Martin had a heavy hand in, too. Like Tesfaye, Swift spent the early part of her career cultivating a finicky audience and then cut bait and re-established herself at the very center. But Swift had, in essence, been making pop music all along, in terms of subject matter and structural approach. Tesfaye’s transformation is a more precarious balancing act, reframing his past without abandoning it, teaching his hard-core fans not to mind when the new ones show up to cheerily sing along.”
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