Music, DVD, Movies, Musical Instruments

From Booklist

This year’s package of bite-size think pieces about pop music continues the fine tradition of previous editions. Subjects and contributors include Robert Christgau on “postmodern minstrelsy” and why studying it matters, Robert Hilburn on Bob Dylan as “rock’s enigmatic poet,” and Chris Norris on the continuing cult-icon status of Saint [sic] Kurt Cobain. Greil Marcus kicks in on Buddy Holly, and two other contributors take on punk’s legacy: Is it dead, or does it just smell funny? Nicole White and Evelyn McDonnell bring news that cautious fans and musicians can use in their timely “Police Secretly Watching Hip-hop Artists,” and again this year, an Onion article, “Heartbreaking Country Ballad Paralyzes Trucking Industry” (a story that, factual or not, had to be told), peacefully coexists with the verifiable stuff. Ben Yagoda explores a subject that will grab catalogers and other metadata enthusiasts, “reflexivity” (fancy for self-referential lyrics and criti (more…)

Tagged: 2005, Best, Capo, Finest, HipHop, Music, Rock, Writing, Years

From Booklist

This year’s package of bite-size think pieces about pop music continues the fine tradition of previous editions. Subjects and contributors include Robert Christgau on “postmodern minstrelsy” and why studying it matters, Robert Hilburn on Bob Dylan as “rock’s enigmatic poet,” and Chris Norris on the continuing cult-icon status of Saint [sic] Kurt Cobain. Greil Marcus kicks in on Buddy Holly, and two other contributors take on punk’s legacy: Is it dead, or does it just smell funny? Nicole White and Evelyn McDonnell bring news that cautious fans and musicians can use in their timely “Police Secretly Watching Hip-hop Artists,” and again this year, an Onion article, “Heartbreaking Country Ballad Paralyzes Trucking Industry” (a story that, factual or not, had to be told), peacefully coexists with the verifiable stuff. Ben Yagoda explores a subject that will grab catalogers and other metadata enthusiasts, “reflexivity” (fancy for self-referential lyrics and criti (more…)

Tagged: 2005, Best, Capo, Finest, HipHop, Music, Rock, Writing, Years

From Booklist

Guest editor Mary Gaitskill says she put together this edition of Da Capo’s annual to be “like a mix tape of sounds a person might hear in life,” some of which “enter your imagination and take strange dream-shapes.” Manifesting strangeness are Kevin Whitehead’s disquisition on the “hidden affinity” between the music of Art Tatum and that of Thelonious Monk, Raquel Cepeda’s thoughts on the rise of “reggaeton,” and David Thorpe’s biting commentary on R. Kelly’s notorious sexcapades. Moustafa Bayoumi reports on American use of music in the war on terror: “usually heavy metal or hip-hop but sometimes . . . Barney the Dinosaur” is “pumped at detainees with such brutality [as] to unravel them” without leaving the telltale marks of bodily violence. Of particular interest to classic-rock fans and aging boomers is Tom Ewing’s remembrance of August 1966, when the Beatles’ two-hit single, Eleanor Rigby/Yellow Submarine, topped the charts. Terrorism, sexual misconduct (more…)

Tagged: 2006, Best, Capo, Finest, HipHop, Music, Rock, Writing, Years

From Booklist

Guest editor Mary Gaitskill says she put together this edition of Da Capo’s annual to be “like a mix tape of sounds a person might hear in life,” some of which “enter your imagination and take strange dream-shapes.” Manifesting strangeness are Kevin Whitehead’s disquisition on the “hidden affinity” between the music of Art Tatum and that of Thelonious Monk, Raquel Cepeda’s thoughts on the rise of “reggaeton,” and David Thorpe’s biting commentary on R. Kelly’s notorious sexcapades. Moustafa Bayoumi reports on American use of music in the war on terror: “usually heavy metal or hip-hop but sometimes . . . Barney the Dinosaur” is “pumped at detainees with such brutality [as] to unravel them” without leaving the telltale marks of bodily violence. Of particular interest to classic-rock fans and aging boomers is Tom Ewing’s remembrance of August 1966, when the Beatles’ two-hit single, Eleanor Rigby/Yellow Submarine, topped the charts. Terrorism, sexual misconduct (more…)

Tagged: 2006, Best, Capo, Finest, HipHop, Music, Rock, Writing, Years