In anticipation of the upcoming release of How To Write About Music, Dreamland, a performing and visual arts space in Louisville, Kentucky, will be hosting an event with series editor Ally-Jane Grossan. The talk is free and open to the public, so if you’re in the area Wednesday February 18th at 7pm, be sure to stop by! More details here.
“All killer and no filler-How to Write About Music is crammed full of stylistically diverse excerpts and stellar advice from the world’s leading music writers. From Tavi Gevinson’s chit-chatty Taylor Swift defense to Susan Fast’s benchmark 33 1/3 proposal on Michael Jackson; students, bloggers and experienced critics alike are sure to find plenty of inspiration. Innovative, accessible and organized like a lovingly compiled mix tape, How to Write About Music will have you jiving around The Shard in no time.”
Samantha Bennett, Senior Lecturer, The Australian National University, Australia
“Collection of great long and short pieces on (pop) music, profiles, analyses and personal reactions; practical manual for breaking into a challenging and protean business; text for a cool college course; all-star lineup of contemporary music writers; models for venues from your own blog to the New Yorker; thing to dip into for bite-size bits of advice-How To Write About Music is, as the Dead Boys never quite put it, all this (and more). Highlights include Chuck Klosterman’s interview how-to, Susan Fast’s exegesis of Dangerous, Alex Ross’s Radiohead, and, and, and-the volume draws on the 33 1/3 books without being in thrall to them, and it introduces many styles and many tastes-it’s hard to imagine a better place to start.”
Stephen Burt, Professor of English, Harvard University, USA
“The best critics make it look easy, but figuring out how and why music works on us-why certain sounds and melodies can incite ecstasy or devastation-is extraordinarily tough work. This smartly compiled primer, the first of its kind, is jammed full of priceless advice on how to make it happen.”
Amanda Petrusich, author of Do Not Sell At Any Price: The Wild, Obsessive Hunt for the World’s Rarest 78rpm Records
