Music as original as Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s sounds evergreen, but originality came with a high personal cost for its maker.
music writing
Posted inStory
Welcome to Hive
Hive is a new Longreads series about women and the music that has influenced them.
Posted inArts & Culture, Feature, Nonfiction, Story
Shelved: Jeff Buckley’s Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk
The posthumous Buckley industry began with this problematic album, proof that the people who control a musician’s estate don’t always have his music in mind.
Posted inArts & Culture, Nonfiction, Story
Carly Rae Jepsen’s Exhilarating, Emotionally Intelligent Pop Music
Although music often involves emotional expression, pop star Carly Rae Jepsen has built a career and a persona out of big, unguarded emotions, a range that could be called “too muchness,” which is just right for some of us.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books, Nonfiction, Story, Uncategorized
Violence Girl
How a young bilingual Latina became one of punk’s enduring icons and helped create a new musical universe.
Posted inArts & Culture
Longreads Best of 2019: Music Writing
We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in music writing.
Posted inArts & Culture, Nonfiction, Story
Wonderful Things: The Kid Creole and the Coconuts Story
Combining island sounds with stylish clothes and an unforgettable stage presence, one of New York City’s most original bands helped influence 1980s pop culture, and they never sacrificed their unclassifiable artistic vision.
Posted inNonfiction
The Story of Salvador’s Banda Didá
In a country with violent history and violent politics, Brazil’s first all-female, Afro-Brazilian percussion group drums and dances and changes lives.
Posted inNonfiction
In Praise of Del Amitri’s Album Waking Hours
Some albums make it hard to separate the music from the experience of listening to it.
Posted inArts & Culture, Nonfiction, Story
Stumbling Into Joy
The electric bass chose her, but it took 44 years to heed the call.