Music
Blood and the Ballad: Bob Dylan’s Macabre New Album
Music of the RNC, Then and Now
Standing in the Rubble of New York's Cocktail Life
Classification is practically a divine endowment. As Genesis says, the Lord breathed existence into being, divided the day into two categories, and called them night and day. Why complicate things with intermediacies such as dawn and twilight? READ MORE >>
What Nicki Minaj Learned From Marilyn Monroe
Nicki Minaj wants to be the Marilyn Monroe of hip-hop. So let’s just say she is. After all, being a member of Minaj’s audience is all about submitting to her will, just as inducing submission was one of the main objectives of Marilyn’s art. This Sunday was the fiftieth anniversary of Monroe’s death, and the occasion brings to mind how much Monroe and Minaj have in common as musical performers, and how different they are in important ways. READ MORE >>
The Surprising Queer Roots of the Blues
A Creepy Father's Day Song from the 'Mad Men' Era
No excuse is too flimsy to justify talking about seriously terrible music. The excuse I’m using is Father’s Day—Hallmark’s bequest to the neckwear industry—and the relevant but God-awful piece of music is a lounge standard of the Mad Men era called “Daddy.” In the sizable canon of popular songs involving father figures in troubling, offensive ways, “Daddy” is surely the most icky. READ MORE >>
