2008 MacArthur Foundation "Genius" grants announced. Probably the biggest name is the New Yorker's music critic Alex Ross. [more inside]
posted by mattbucher on Sep 23, 2008 - 76 comments

Tourists black out reflective retinas in snapshots before printing them, and millions of people refer to strangers they’ve never spoken to as friends, because they’ve connected through a social-networking platform. [...] It should come as no surprise, then, that singers sometimes choose to correct recorded flaws in pitch with modern software, like Antares’s Auto-Tune.

Sasha Frere-Jones on auto-tuning, in The New Yorker. [more inside]
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Jun 10, 2008 - 98 comments

"'It's metallic and bright gold, with whatever that conjures up.'" Louis Menand on the mercurial nature of Bob Dylan's interviews.
"Dylan's sound [is] 'very much like a dog with his leg caught in barbed wire.'" Nat Hentoff's profile of Dylan for the New Yorker from 1964.
posted by OmieWise on Aug 30, 2006 - 32 comments

Then, as he escorted me to the elevator, he said, “New Yorker? How many people see that shits?” He reflected a moment. “Damn. Who needs Hot 97? I got New Yorker and MySpace.”
posted by jne1813 on Jul 10, 2006 - 32 comments

The Rest is Noise : New Yorker music critic Alex Ross' blog.
Also: A C Douglas. Jessica Duchen. Greg Sandow. Michael Brooke. The Rambler.
posted by cbrody on Jul 5, 2004 - 8 comments

Is Alex Ross Trying Too Hard To Be Eclectic? It's a great article but, imho, a few false notes are struck here and there. Can you love classical and popular music at the same time? Classical types always like the same popular stuff (Dylan and Pink Floyd, of course) and popular types always like the same classical stuff (Wagner, Puccini, Mahler) but somehow the suspicion remains that one's heart can't be in two places at once. There's something ingratiating and icky about attempts to pretend "it's all music". It isn't, is it? Also, God forgive me, 20 is way too late to start listening to Pop.
posted by MiguelCardoso on Feb 20, 2004 - 50 comments

Will the Swedes save Rock 'n' Roll? This New Yorker article takes a look at the recent popularity of rock acts like the Strokes (boo!) and the White Stripes (yay!), and ponders whether the return of true rock is at hand. The author seems ultimately to decide that rock's redeemers will be the Hives, a fun bunch from Sweden. (Link remorselessly lifted from Overstated.net)
posted by MonkeyMeat on Apr 17, 2002 - 37 comments

Nick Hornby reviews the Billboard Top Ten. Quote: We have been told often enough that to disapprove of gangsta rap is pointless, middle class, and smug, like disapproving of modern urban life itself. Nevertheless, one is entitled to feel queasy about the enthusiasm for and endorsement of the gangsta life audible on "The Saga Continues . . ."
posted by acridrabbit on Aug 21, 2001 - 19 comments