6 thoughts on “Question of the Week: If You Started Your Own Magazine…”
Writers off the top of my head: Simon Reynolds, Rollie Pemberton, Paul Morley and some Australians you’ve never heard of, with Kim Newman on movies and Kieron Gillen on games.
I dunno, a good cross-section of a bunch of old white guys and a bunch of young whippersnappers, plus, people with writing and thinking skills who aren’t, strictly speaking, “music critics,” who may, in fact, have no connection to rock criticism whatsoever but might have something interesting to say regardless. (The truth is, though, my first question would not be “who?”, but rather, “what?” I’d like to think that if the latter was handled well, the former would follow easily enough. And one thing it would absolutely NOT be is another stupid music mag full of record reviews and artist profiles.)
Failing all that, I’d try and get a direct line somehow to Bangs, Kael, Nelson, Willis, et al.
David Henderson, Barry Michael Cooper, Sacha Jenkins, Frank Owen, Amiri Baraka, Tony Parsons, Pedro Bell, Barney Hoskyns, Vivian Goldman, Greg Tate, David Toop, Geoff Dyer, Rob Kenner, Ahmir Thompson, Miles Marshall Lewis and Mark Skillz.
It’s a little strange to get a question about an ideal magazine when so many magazines are closing.
I grew up reading really great writers on cultural topics, such as Joan Didion and Gore Vidal, and Paul Nelson in Rolling Stone, and slightly later James Baldwin, Stanley Crouch and others, and enjoying magazines such as Musician and Option. Consequently, I like work that shows culture as more than entertainment, as a revelation of human relationship, fallibility, and possibility.
If I were doing a music magazine, there’s a very good chance I’d want certain people to be involved in one way or another: Christian John Wikane, Claudrena Harold, Delphine Blue, Stanley Crouch, Gene Seymour, Playthell Benjamin, Will Layman, Sarah Rodman, Michelangelo Matos, Greg Kot, Jim DeRogatis, Nelson George, Farah Jasmine Griffin, Nate Chinen, Kandia Crazy Horse, Kelefa Sanneh, Armond White, Carl Wilson, and Jay Smooth (I’m probably forgetting someone interesting). I do not know any of these people so, it is, entirely, a momentary wish list.
I agree with Scott’s opinion of ‘what’ as opposed to ‘who’. And similarly, I would want a cross-section of writers, photographers & artists. Today, more than years before, it seems to me, populist thought gives way to ageism, stereotyping and fascism.
Therfore I would want a staff who not only provide an alternative to this, but actually represent different demographics themselves.
As for writers & photogs, my list would include: John Mendelsohn, Fred Mills, John Sigler, Byron Coley, Chuck Eddy, Jim Fouratt Jackson Griffith, David Lindsay; Deb Frost, Kandia Crazy Horse, Daisann McLane, Sylvie Simmons, Denise Sullivan, – Paul Natkin, Ebet Roberts, Laura Levine & Theresa Kereakes.
RockCritics.com 
Writers off the top of my head: Simon Reynolds, Rollie Pemberton, Paul Morley and some Australians you’ve never heard of, with Kim Newman on movies and Kieron Gillen on games.
I dunno, a good cross-section of a bunch of old white guys and a bunch of young whippersnappers, plus, people with writing and thinking skills who aren’t, strictly speaking, “music critics,” who may, in fact, have no connection to rock criticism whatsoever but might have something interesting to say regardless. (The truth is, though, my first question would not be “who?”, but rather, “what?” I’d like to think that if the latter was handled well, the former would follow easily enough. And one thing it would absolutely NOT be is another stupid music mag full of record reviews and artist profiles.)
Failing all that, I’d try and get a direct line somehow to Bangs, Kael, Nelson, Willis, et al.
David Henderson, Barry Michael Cooper, Sacha Jenkins, Frank Owen, Amiri Baraka, Tony Parsons, Pedro Bell, Barney Hoskyns, Vivian Goldman, Greg Tate, David Toop, Geoff Dyer, Rob Kenner, Ahmir Thompson, Miles Marshall Lewis and Mark Skillz.
…mark skillz is an exciting writer for wax poetics. check his work out at: http://hiphop101a.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html
It’s a little strange to get a question about an ideal magazine when so many magazines are closing.
I grew up reading really great writers on cultural topics, such as Joan Didion and Gore Vidal, and Paul Nelson in Rolling Stone, and slightly later James Baldwin, Stanley Crouch and others, and enjoying magazines such as Musician and Option. Consequently, I like work that shows culture as more than entertainment, as a revelation of human relationship, fallibility, and possibility.
If I were doing a music magazine, there’s a very good chance I’d want certain people to be involved in one way or another: Christian John Wikane, Claudrena Harold, Delphine Blue, Stanley Crouch, Gene Seymour, Playthell Benjamin, Will Layman, Sarah Rodman, Michelangelo Matos, Greg Kot, Jim DeRogatis, Nelson George, Farah Jasmine Griffin, Nate Chinen, Kandia Crazy Horse, Kelefa Sanneh, Armond White, Carl Wilson, and Jay Smooth (I’m probably forgetting someone interesting). I do not know any of these people so, it is, entirely, a momentary wish list.
http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/index.php?name=News&catid=&topic=14&allstories=1
I agree with Scott’s opinion of ‘what’ as opposed to ‘who’. And similarly, I would want a cross-section of writers, photographers & artists. Today, more than years before, it seems to me, populist thought gives way to ageism, stereotyping and fascism.
Therfore I would want a staff who not only provide an alternative to this, but actually represent different demographics themselves.
As for writers & photogs, my list would include: John Mendelsohn, Fred Mills, John Sigler, Byron Coley, Chuck Eddy, Jim Fouratt Jackson Griffith, David Lindsay; Deb Frost, Kandia Crazy Horse, Daisann McLane, Sylvie Simmons, Denise Sullivan, – Paul Natkin, Ebet Roberts, Laura Levine & Theresa Kereakes.