Apologies in advance for getting sentimental on this Monday morning, but the OLYMPIC closing ceremony can do that to a boy. (Excuse me also for talking about sports, but hey, that ceremony played to a worldwide audience and featured more music, played by more current—and more popular—artists than, for example, your typical SUPER BOWL halftime show.) I got teary-eyed watching the ritual passing of the Olympic flag from SOUTH KOREA to CHINA, host of the next Winter Games—a reminder that the Olympics are a continuum that connects our past to our present to our future and operates at least somewhat free of the fleeting conflicts of international politics (the occasional doping scandal or vice presidential snub notwithstanding). Also: skating pandas. The Games connect and preserve cultures and traditions, moving forward while respecting what came before. Which, in a closing ceremony, can mean spotlighting K-pop stars CL and EXO, who I'd like to think have obvious appeal to anyone with an affinity for current pop, but also 13-year-old YANG TAE-HWAN finger-tapping an electric guitar like an old master. I imagine CEO HENRY JUSZKIEWICZ at GIBSON guitars breathing a hugh sigh of relief at that, even if Yang was playing a competitor's axe. And I jot down the perhaps obvious note that K-pop and hard-rock guitar pyrotechnics come from the exact same cultural tradition. As does the dance music that MARTIN GARRIX was spinning after the Olympic flame was extinguished. As does the classical music, if you're willing to expand your timeline, that accompanied the parade of skiers, sliders, skaters and curlers from around the world. Maybe the whole thing was nothing more than "a massive K-pop-infused jukebox musical about a surprisingly upbeat mass evacuation of Planet Earth by athletic humans who like to dance." But to me it was a reminder, always welcome, that culture matters, that tradition matters and that it sometimes doesn't matter if you're North Korean or South Korean or if you're playing a guitar or a keyboard or what language you're rapping in... Maybe that SOUNDCLOUD investment wasn't such a great idea... AIRBNB enters the live-music business... DOUG MORRIS is launching a new label that may or may not be connected to APPLE... April Fools is more than a month away, so maybe someone mistakenly published this item a tad early?... RIP BARBARA ANN ALSTON of the CRYSTALS.