No more pop generation gap, claims this survey by Pew Internet. “There’s now broad agreement across the generations about one realm of American culture that had been an intense battlefield in the 1960s: the music.” (more…)[…]

The lyrics from “Two Tribes” as Jack Kirby next-issue boxes, by Al Ewing from a concept by me. More here[…]

It’s the time of year when i say: Come and see HIBBETT in Edinburgh! If you’re lucky, you might even see a SPACE DINOSAUR wandering up and down the Royal Mile (hint: it is ME).
AH-OO AH-OO AH-OO
We’ve even got a trailer this year: ([…]

Here’s something I did for fun yesterday: a graph showing the % of UK #1 hits with female lead vocals, year by year. (Shared male/female leads counted half)*.

(Click on it if you want it a bit clearer).
The red bars are the percentage of femal[…]

Frustrating thinkpiece by Ann Powers on Lady Gaga and an apparent turn to theatricality in pop. Frustrating because what I want it to do is zero in a bit more on what Gaga’s “persona” that “never breaks” is and instead i[…]

The music video for Sons Of Maxwell’s “United Breaks Guitars” has racked up almost 3.5 million hits in just over two weeks. You can’t buy the MP3 anywhere and it’s by a band you’ve almost certainly never heard of: […]

It might have been the death of Steven Wells, or the closure of VIBE, or just people having a tired old moan, but there’s been a lot of mulling over the state of music writing this last couple of weeks. It seemed to me that one obvious thing to[…]

Has there ever been a person where the proportion between hagiography and actual talent been so disparate as there is with Sid Vicious? Attitude of punk perhaps but cack-handed bassing aside, he is known for spitting, swearing, drugging, dying and ma[…]

NEVER BEFORE Has Such An Array Of THRILLING GUEST-STARS Been Assembled In One Pitchfork Column!! Chris Weingarten! Simon Reynolds! Steven Wells! Frank Kogan! Chuck Eddy! Mark Sinker! Seth Godin! Tim Finney!
BEHOLD — The Final Fate Of The POP CH[…]

Last week I posted a list of my favourites among my own 2009 pieces. I also asked people on Twitter to tell me what their favourite thing THEY’D written this year was, promising a bit of link love. And here it is! No editing or vetting – […]