France Gall
2,278 words
There once existed a time, alien to my young brain, in which people primarily discovered and listened to pop music on radio stations. These were entities subject to important forces, like censorship and record label interests, that gave rise to various standardizations and trade practices that persist to this day. During the age of the radio, the forces of globalization (more…)
Jay-Z and Rick Rubin.
2,237 words
Who is Rick Rubin?
If you asked in the early part of his career, he was a member of the provocative hardcore punk band, The Pricks. He would also stress that he was a nobody. Rubin’s purpose for being in the Pricks was, functionally, to piss off his rich Jewish father; (more…)
1,365 words
As the country gets more diverse, the radio gets more homogeneous. I don’t mean this in the ethnic sense, of course; America’s rockstars are more colorful than ever! Instead, the songs that dominate the country’s charts are beginning to sound more and more alike. The average pop station tends to be an indistinct mass of the same noises (more…)
2,453 words
If there ever was a time that whites and blacks have aired their grievances, then the past two weeks have been it. Cities are burning. People are being killed. “Justice,” as defined by one person or another, is being demanded. In so many ways, the true nature of blacks in the United States is being put on display for all to see. In fact, many blacks are expecting us to thank them for their mere presence. (more…)
Itzhak Perlman
2,223 words
Nothing can divide white people more than the presence of non-whites: blacks and Jews, especially. It seems that whites just can’t agree on what to do with them — other than to fight over them. One side will identify with the non-whites’ supposed outsider status and remain in thrall of their charms and talents. The other side will, well, see them for what they are.
I was reminded of this state of affairs regarding Jews when reading another brief essay by Kim du Toit. (more…)
2,572 words
Christian Thielemann
My Life With Wagner: Fairies, Rings, and Redemption: Exploring Opera’s Most Enigmatic Composer
New York: Pegasus, 2016
The conductor Christian Thielemann, born in Berlin in 1959, is well-known for his passionate advocacy of German music. What becomes clear in his new book, an intellectual history of his musical development and his relationship with Richard Wagner (more…)