“Prince’s sound is a musical hybrid, in which the history of Minneapolis, its people, and the social forces organizing life there are brought together.”
music
Posted inEditor's Pick
Say It Loud
“My two-steps-from-sexagenarian ass is old enough to know all the avant funk-jazz sources of [Kamasi] Washington and company’s aesthetic (Horace Tapscott, Sanders, Tyner, The Crusaders, Stanley Cowell, Strata East, Black Jazz) so The Epic couldn’t reach my ears as a spiritual, political and musical revelation. But it has been fascinating nonetheless to witness young friends […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
A Bittersweet Escape for Afghans From a Music School Gone Silent
“What will happen to Afghan programs like the Zohra Orchestra as the Taliban regains control of the country?”
Posted inEditor's Pick
An Interview With Black Thought
“I think attention, or the lack thereof, during one’s career has the potential to make or break one’s journey. And during the times when there was less attention on me, it was just what I wanted and needed. But what happens when you have something that propels you from one level of celebrity to another […]
Posted inStory
‘We Are Alive’: Six Longreads About Music
The soundtrack of my life goes back a long way. Here are six longreads about music, for the love of it.
Posted inEditor's Pick
My Time with Kurt Cobain
“Despite Kurt’s torment—or in a determined attempt to overcome it—Nirvana made life-affirming music. It made me feel better.”
Posted inStory
But Who Tells Them What To Sing?
“And thus another Hollywood tradition was born: film choruses belting out perfectly nonsensical prose with utter conviction.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Last Resort, Part 1: Let’s Go to Angola
“His father, a broke music promoter, had convinced him they could turn their lives around by arranging a complicated but lucrative hip-hop concert on New Year’s Eve in Angola. It was more complicated than they’d imagined.” The first installment of a three-part story, in partnership with Epic Magazine.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Dolly Moment
“Only a society that willfully believes itself ‘post-racist’ could produce such a queen.”
Posted inArts & Culture, Highlight, Quote Posts, Quotes
Why Mother Maybelle Carter’s Work Was Never Done
“In a few years’ time, however, she became a different kind of working woman: a musician by trade and one of the hardest working women in country music.”