Happy Monday. Hope you had a nice holiday, your house is still standing, your drummer search is going well and your masters are in the hands of someone who cares about you... Short takes on a week's worth of earthquakes big and small: TAYLOR SWIFT is sometimes heavy-handed or inelegant in the manner in which she speaks out on industry matters. She's also frequently right/righteous. I'll leave the matters of who promised what to whom and who has whom's best interests at heart to people who are smarter/better informed than I am, and I'll assume there's much that most of us don't know, but if the singer, songwriter and part-time activist has done nothing more than illustrate the powerlessness many artists have over their work while challenging the conventional wisdom of how much power they should have, then A+ for that. Sweat the details if you must but keep your eye on the big picture. Look for opportunities to change the conversation, and change it. MusicSET: "Taylor Swift vs. Scooter Braun and the Big Machine"... (A+ grade in previous item partly in honor of ROBERT CHRISTGAU, who may or may not be finished handing out his infamous letter grades to pop albums)... TED GIOIA's remembrance of seeing JOÃO GILBERTO in San Francisco in 1998 is probably the most beautiful piece you'll read this week on the pioneering bossa nova singer/guitarist, whose death was reported over the weekend. To call Gilberto's style laid-back, as many have, has a surface truth to it but does an injustice to the incredible precision of both his guitar playing and singing, which influenced multiple generations of artists in Brazil and around the world. Here's Gioia, who's writing about much more than a single concert, on Gilberto's ability to sing way ahead of the beat without sounding anxious: "One is reminded of the jets flying high in the sky, which we are told travel at fantastic speeds, yet from our vantage point appear to be moving at a slow, leisurely pace." He was shy, suffered stage fright, was extremely particular about the rooms in which he recorded and performed, and sued EMI for issuing inferior remasters of his classic first three albums. And won. Take note, Taylor Swift and Scooter Braun. RIP... TIDAL's greatly expanded song and album credits are, like Taylor Swift's activism, a little inelegant and a lot righteous. You can now click on the names of mixers, session musicians and lots of other people, and you might want to set aside several hours/days to start doing so. Grade: A. You still can't click on labels. Grade: D. Anyone credited as "lyricist" and "composer" shows up near the top of the credits list; anyone credited as "writer" is near the bottom. Grade: Incomplete... According to ROLLING STONE's bonkers rules for its new albums/singles/artists charts, which are just a little less complicated than BASEBALL REFERENCE's rules for calculating WAR, no one has ever streamed the biggest selling album in US history, EAGLES' THEIR GREATEST HITS, and no one ever will. (See "Song Assignment Rules" at bottom of this page.) Also, deluxe albums are worth more than regular albums and vinyl records are worth more than CDs. Grade: [searching for my calculator]... SPOTIFY is easing out of the direct-distribution business while APPLE MUSIC appears to be doubling down on the direct-deal business. Who do record companies like more right now? Who should they like more? Who should they fear? Is this an inadvertent game of good cop bad cop?... Best wishes, STEVIE WONDER... My favorite earthquake song. Love to all my friends back home in California... While you were at the beach, barbecuing or watching the walls shake, the holiday weekend brought us J COLE/DREAMVILLE's REVENGE OF THE DREAMERS III, the HAXAN CLOAK's MIDSOMMAR score and new music from MARSHMELLO, JADEN SMITH, JESCA HOOP, WESTSIDE GUNN, WILLIAM PARKER, WHIT DICKEY, TRAVIS BARKER & 03 GREEDO, 3TEETH, IMMORTAL BIRD, ABBATH, MACHINE GUN KELLY, the SOFT CAVALRY and MARK MULCAHY... RIP GARY DUNCAN, HELLA SKETCHY, JUDY RUSSELL, MARTIN CHARNIN, SID RAMIN, DJ PERPLEX and MICKEY KAPP.