Prophets of a Noisy Heaven
A review of Michael Denning's "Noise Uprising: The Audiopolitics of a World Musical Revolution."
Music
"I don't care much about music. What I like is sounds." — Dizzy Gillespie
The South Stole Americana
On America's untended musical roots
David Bowie and the 1970s: Testing the Limits of the Gendered Body
David Bowie and the 1970s: Testing the Limits of the Gendered Body
Ancient Iraqi Stories, Retold
On musician Amir ElSaffar and the lost art of the maqam
Amarillo Ramp: Minimalism and Country Music on the American Highway
On the history and imagined comminglings of minimalism and country music.
Facing the Music
Hynde and Brownstein tell us, with no other agenda than full disclosure, that they were lame — or in other words, lost and undone by their own desire.
Bliss Points: On John Seabrook’s “The Song Machine”
The one big difference between previous hit factories and today's luxury Swedish model? The earlier ones came to an end.
“It’s time for something else to happen”: The Perpetual Motion Machine That Is Grace Jones
A woman abstracted. Grace Jones has a written her memoir on "the me" that she has "made up" rather than the one others made up.
Ordinary Life: Greil Marcus, Commonplace Songs, and Commonplace Listening
Greil Marcus offers a perspective that's eclectic and that carves out an everyday space where the art of pop music is still possible.
John Cage’s Endless Project
John Cage's "Diary: How to Improve the World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse)" remains full of "good" advice.
Lou Reed and the End Times
What can Lou Reed’s life tell us about how to cope with our particular end times?
“The Price of Listening”: James Baldwin, Black Music, and Black Lives
On Ed Pavlić's "Who Can Afford To Improvise: James Baldwin and Black Music, the Lyric and the Listeners"
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