Is it a statistical fluke, a random cyclical thing or a strange homage to THE HANDMAID'S TALE that the pop charts sound so masculine these days? DJ KHALED's "WILD THOUGHTS," featuring RIHANNA, is the first song with a female voice to appear in the top five of BILLBOARD's HOT 100 in three months. Last time that happened? Forty-five years ago, when HELEN REDDY broke a string of similar male dominance with (you can't make this stuff up) "I AM WOMAN." On the albums chart, LORDE is the third straight female singer to debut at #1, but that was preceded by 31 weeks without a chart-topping woman. And Lorde and her immediate predecessor, KATY PERRY, aren't exactly tearing up the singles charts. So what gives? Do streaming metrics and the charts that depend on them discount women for some reason? Are radio programmers and playlist selectors giving them enough room? Do women need to be featured on men's records to be heard? Does TAYLOR SWIFT need to rush-release her next album? Are songs like this not good enough? What about songs like this? Does pop have a gender-gap problem like classical music does? Is it squeezing out women like jazz and country are? I don't have answers. I have questions... My friend PIOTR ORLOV has turned a recent trip to SOUTH AFRICA into MZANSI: NOW!, an eye-opening (and expansive, and wonderful) playlist of house/electronic/jazz/etc. fare, circa 2016-17, from artists including THANDISWA, SKYJACK and DZO(AUDIONICSOULS). Mix of the week... SIMON TAM on why it matters that his band, the SLANTS, won a SUPREME COURT case over the right to trademark the name. WEAR YOUR VOICE's LISA HOFMANN-KURODA on the dangers of that decision. (Not sure it's fair, though, to blame the Slants for setting a precedent that could work in favor of WASHINGTON's controversial football team. The court, not the band, set the precedent, and if the issues are the same, it seems safe to assume the outcome would be the same with or without that precedent.)... The story of tropicalia in 20 albums... The story of the summer of 1967 in 50 psychedelic-rock albums... The story of KRAFTWERK in seven pieces of gear.