Best Music Journalism: January 2014

Is Beats Music All It’s Cracked Up To Be? (Garrett Kamps, SPIN)

So much writing about music tech is either dry and tin-eared musicindustrytips.com op-eds or fiery but lacking-in-numbers bluster. That’s why Garrett Kamps’ review of the new Beats Music service was a wonderful breath of fresh air. Kamps previously worked for subscription service Rhapsody, which makes his insights into Beats’ offering so valuable. That insider knowledge make this much more than a simple review. It’s an engaging look into where the business of selling music is headed – and how Beats has gotten plenty right... but not everything.

When I talked to Kamps and asked him what this industry will look like in three years, he said that he couldn’t really say. Things simply move too fast. What is clear, however, is that Beats is aiming for an audience that many services have been uninterested – or unable – to cater to in the past: the casual user. “That’s why Beats having this endorsement deal with Ellen is so huge,” says Kamps. “No one has aggressively gone after that demographic.”

Dear Charlie Rich (Joe Hagan, Oxford American)

For music journalism fans, the Oxford American’s annual Music Issue is a treasure trove. This year’s finest piece was from Joe Hagan, who followed the ups and downs of country music star Charlie Rich. Hagan used letters to Rich from young fans back in the ’70s as a frame for the feature, and it’s a wonderful addition. Rich is a bit of a cipher, but the letters illustrate how this actually worked in Rich’s favor career-wise. Fans constructed their own personal vision of him. Few really knew Rich – even his wife, who wrote the lyrics to many of his songs. Hagan told me over the phone that the piece took a few years to put together, and the depth of reporting proves that it was well worth the effort.

The Greatest Music Producer You’ve Never Heard Of Is… (Michael Hall, Texas Monthly)

Bob Dylan, the Velvet Underground, Frank Zappa, Simon and Garfunkel, Sun Ra and Cecil Taylor. A strange grouping of artists, but they’re all connected by a little remembered record producer named Tom Wilson. Texas Monthly’s Michael Hall admitted to me that this piece is merely a start in uncovering Wilson’s story. For every tidbit that he offers – Wilson apparently demanded a large advance to record Zappa’s debut album, John Cale called Wilson the best producer the Velvets ever had – more questions emerge. Near the end of the piece, Hall writes that he found it difficult to find much information. (Wilson’s Waco gravestone sadly (yet somehow appropriately) lists the year of his death incorrectly.) It’s clear that there is more story left to be told here. Hopefully somebody – or Hall himself – will eventually fill in some more of the blanks.

Is This Thing On? Why Audio Never Goes Viral (Stan Alcorn, Digg)

Not strictly a piece about music, but one that is certainly instructive to those making it. Stan Alcorn goes long in explaining how and why things go viral on the internet, and then explores why pieces of audio are so rarely among them. In it, he shows how lucky it was that “Two Little Girls,” a short piece of audio from an NPR producer took off. (The key was former Gawker staffer Neetzan Zimmerman, whose preternatural ability to sniff out a viral story is fascinating itself.) For those thinking about how to make their own content viral, there’s plenty to chew on. And for those who think they have it figured out? People like Buzzfeed would love to have a chat.

The Last Myth Left Standing (David Keenan, The Wire)

There’s no direct link for this one for non-subscribers, but who can blame The Wire for wanting to keep the first-ever interview with outsider legend Jandek a print-only affair? For more than three decades, Jandek has put together one of the most unique and idiosyncratic discographies in all of music. Until now, we’ve never heard from the man himself. Longtime Wire contributor David Keenan met up with Jandek in Minneapolis late last year, and the mammoth article uses the backdrop of preparing for a gig as a means to explore many questions. There are gems throughout, most notably Jandek’s claim to have been in the audience when Dylan went electric at Newport in 1965. “I led the boos… I shouted for ‘Tambourine Man.’”

When I asked Keenan what was most surprising about the interview, he said, it was Jandek’s “candour, his openness, his seriousness, his sense of fun but particularly the way that his entire life is his art, he just chose to live and experience the bulk of it outside of the spotlight.” It’s a great piece, but a sad one as well. Jandek might just be – as the title puts it – the last myth standing. Says Keenan, “In the age of the internet, where everything is public and accessible and pored over, it could never happen again.”

Honorable Mention
Beyoncé's Muse (Jayson Greene, Pitchfork)
A profile of the previously unknown producer that did a huge amount of work on Bey’s new album.

Hate Me Now: What It’s Like To Be A Grammy Voter (Rob Kenner, Complex)
A look into why the voting process makes artists like Ziggy Marley and Macklemore more likely to win statues.

Radio Live Transmission: 22 Years Of Pirate Broadcasts With Rude FM (John Doran, The Quietus)
A visit to a drum & bass stronghold that captures the (still potent) excitement of pirate radio.

Images: Jandek -  Alec Soth; Charlie Rich - Jim Herrington; Tom Wilson and Nico - Getty Images; Viral Audio - Skip Dolphin Hursh.