Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
But the tone inside the Crypto.com Arena blocks away never matched the traffic-stopping urgency.
(Steve Harvey wouldve yakked more billionaire wallets open.)
Particulars about theother pressing political threatsto artists livelihoods werent always spelled out so clearly.
But the stresses outside bled into the proper show at a trickle, largely via loving words.
Trans people are not invisible, she said.
Trans people deserve love.
The queer community deserves to be lifted up.
Yet the sources of the problems were never named.
You didnt hear the presidents name.
The sense that everyone gets whats making everyone upset itched.
Janelle Monae landedthe most direct snapwith an after-party freestyle calling Nelly a sellout for playing the inauguration.
Too much mainstream music now sees itself as a refuge from real-world toils.
The shift feels pronounced since the COVID vaccine defibrillated the music business.
But evaporating government protections and economic instability are soon to come careening into an already precarious season of industry.
Pop doesnt have to be cotton candy.
