“What does it mean to be a hip-hop parent?”
What does it mean to be a hip-hop parent? For me, it means moving...
Category Archives: Music
Yankee Doodle’s “lyrics were venomous”
The lyrics were venomous. “Yankee” was a withering word for a colonist. A “doodle”...
“I can’t believe ‘Across the Stars’ is in Star Wars – it’s so rich”
I still listen to this piece and I get chills. I can’t believe it’s...
“…the parade music at the end [of The Phantom Menace] is ‘The Emperor’s Theme’ in disguise”
“The Emperor’s Theme” shows up, you know, a couple times, so “The Emperor’s Theme”...
Star Wars “is a very, very rich soundtrack”
It is a very, very rich soundtrack; there’s so much going on and it’s...
“The charting system was predicated on a segregated market”
Rock and roll is usually explained as rhythm-and-blues music—that is, music performed by black...
“…rock and roll…is music that anyone can play (or can imagine playing) and everyone can dance to”
…rock and roll…is music that anyone can play (or can imagine playing) and everyone...
“As a rapper, Glover has made a point of blurring the line between himself and his alter egos…”
As a rapper, Glover has made a point of blurring the line between himself...
“In order for a music for young people to come into being, young people have to have a way to play it”
In order for a music for young people to come into being, young people...
“Kanye’s career-long fixation on his own contradictions eventually consolidated into an aesthetic…who wallow in soft self-loathing and explain away their loutish behavior as the result of melancholy and bruised ego”
His career-long fixation on his own contradictions eventually consolidated into an aesthetic, one that...