Robert Christgau
Guest Editor
Introduction
(June 2008)
Only while I was teaching cultural journalism at Princeton last
fall did it finally occur to me. For three years I'd received
papers from my Artists and Audiences class at NYU's Clive Davis
School of Recorded Music (REMU for short), a music history survey with a strong
writing component, that were superior stylistically and
intellectually to almost all of the online music journalism I run
through every month. These are pieces I would have considered for
The Village Voice's Rock & Roll Quarterly back in the good old
days. In fact, when my REMU colleague Jason King asked me for
Timbaland research, the first thing I thought of was the Cody
Pruitt paper published here. Other memorable offerings were Drew
Hinshaw on early OutKast, Jay Aquino (now Spikey Jay) on Killswitch
Engage, Andrew Zakim on Khaled's place in rai, and Jimmy Chalk's
appreciation of Christian rock legend Keith Green.Having once placed Ray Aldaco's 2005 overview of Selena in Chicano culture in Perfect Sound Forever, I had a proposition for Jason Gross: my own guest-edited issue. Jason went for it. By then there were several Princeton papers to add to the mix, and we timed it so this year's REMU class could contribute. Some good pieces were rejected because they'd become dated even for this liberally conceived project, and one essay that I liked a lot Jason vetoed, as was his privilege. Nevertheless, there was an overrun--if you read something you like on Regina Spektor or J Dilla in future issues, thank REMU.
My main purpose here is getting all this criticism, reporting, and scholarship into the public record where it belongs. With two or three exceptions, it's been only lightly edited--I've gotten rougher copy from respected professionals many times. Some of the selections read a little like, why not, college papers, while others are fairly eccentric, because good writing happens at both those poles and at all locations in between. The most papery is probably Calpin Hoffman-Williamson's brief history of sacred steel, the most eccentric Michael Downes's associative take on Sublime. Although Joe Budden is sufficiently new and obscure that Jared Feldman's essay approximates journalistic currency, only the event- focused burlesque and Cajun reports by Cathy Yan abd Gabriella Fuller aim for the "peg" ubereditors demand. Matt Palmer on Janet Jackson and Kristin Bocchichio on Beat Happening are unapologetic career retrospectives. Logan Scherer on the new pop princesses and Josh Hirshfeld on outgrowing emo would qualify as what is called a "trend piece" if the bosses with a weakness for that regrettable term were smart enough to see it that way.
Don't hold your breath. Jason Gross has told the contributors
that this issue makes him feel optimistic about the future of music
writing. I'd concur completely if all these excellent writers were
sufficiently careless of their economic well-being to crave careers
in arts journalism, although some of them certainly do and none are
likely to scoff at any assignment editors reading them might dream
up. But I'd concur even more if could think of paying venues liable
to publish most of these wonderful pieces. The writers are out
there. The subjects are out there. The publications, not so much.
THE SAVOY MUSIC CENTER
Saturday in Eunice LA
SACRED STEEL
Hawaiian Guitar Gets Saved
KEITH GREEN
Christian Rock’s Great Refuser
THE BURLESQUE REVIVAL
Crotch Level, Ten to a Table
JANET JACKSON
Not Just a Soft-Spoken Sexpot
THE HILLS
Britney’s New Baby: Teen TV
EMO REVISTED
Thursday Fan Grows Up and Out
BEAT HAPPENING
Calvin Johnson Admits His Fears
TIMBALAND
How Master Beats Happen
KILLSWITCH ENGAGE
Metalheads in Synch
OUTKAST
Andre and Big Boi in the ATL
JOE BUDDEN
Depressed Genius, Unabridged
SUBLIME
Just a Dad, Playing His Songs
KHALED
Arab Pop in a Post-9/11 World