Dementia is a kind of erasure, a death before death, where the living discount the infirmed long before they’re gone.
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How a Stroke Turned a 63-Year-Old Into a Rap Legend
For stroke survivor Sherman Hershfield, rapping and rhyming kept his seizures under control.
Longreads Best of 2020: Arts and Culture
Our top editors’ picks in arts and culture writing this year.
J.R.’s Jook and the Authenticity Mirage
When a young white musician gets invited to a house-party, the musicians he plays with show him a slice of blues culture many people assumed had died.
The Cowboy Image and the Growth of Western Music
How did cowboy hats and boots become the visual iconography of American rural music?
How Auto-Tune Revolutionized the Sound of Popular Music
Twenty years after this famous pitch-correction technology beautifully modulated Cher’s voice in her hit song “Believe,” Auto-Tune has proven itself not a fad but a fixture. Where did it come from, and what does it do exactly?
Shelved: The Sound of Big Star’s Self-Destruction
As the band dissolved, they managed to capture their destruction in some dark, powerful music.
No Time Like the Present
You don’t know what day it is, do you? Robert Burke Warren digs into ‘the Oddball Effect’ and fascinating brain data that may help explain why.
Shelved: The Velvet Underground’s Fourth Album
The story of the Velvet Underground’s fourth album that almost never was.
“We’re All Still Cooking…Still Raw at the Core”: An Interview with Jacqueline Woodson
“When I look at that dress and how much intention went into the making of it…it’s like we want to have something that can’t be destroyed, because so much of the past has been destroyed…”
