It's the WORD World Cup (disclaimer: not really a world cup)

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

Hullo poptimists! For a project I am working on which I shall reveal soon(ish), I would like your wise suggestions in four categories:

viz
A: music writers all should read (two parts)
B: music writing all should read (two parts)
C: zone of exchange that all should learn from
D: music-related film or documentary all should see

Eventually there will be polls and everything!

The four sections above will entail SIX tranches of nomination. (Tranche is a fancy word for slice: as in "combination boo and hoo, my tranche of cake is smaller than katstevens's -- this crime shall not stand ect ect")

1: First, imagine you were inducting a reasonably intelligent outsider, of natural curiosity and openness, into the world of strong, useful, insightful or inspirational writing about music: which FOUR writers would you point them to? (Note: it can be any kind of music AT ALL...)

To start us off, I am going to name nine writers not to bother naming: they get a bye into the poll. DON'T WORRY OR BRIDLE: If you hate them, this is your chance to vote against them! I just want to get a slightly wider pool of potential entrants, really. The nine not to name are: Richard Meltzer, Robert Christgau, Greil Marcus, Lester Bangs, Jon savage, Paul Morley, Ian Penman, Richard Cook, Simon Reynolds. ALSO: Don't name me. I will be all over any project I am involved with. Known and active Poptimists (apart from me) you can of course name, though you're all kind of a given just by turning up.

2: Now imagine the pool of writers we generally get to see in a "best of music writing". Which FOUR writers would you like to see added to it that currently don't get in? (This can be based on a much smaller body of work I think...) Which writers do you think are overlooked or poorly understood? Which writers have an approach -- perhaps mainly directed at some "non-popular" music, or indeed some NON-music -- which you think would be valuable if others adopted it?

re 1&2: Please append to any writers nominated an exemplary work --book, interview, review, sleevenote, whatever, long or short, typical or atypical.

3: Name SIX books about music that everyone should read. It can be about ANY kind of music. But it can't be by any of the folk you nominated in 1 or 2 (so yes, you may have to do some juggling to get the results you favour...). If six such books do not yet exist, please say so.

4: Now name FOUR pieces that AREN'T books -- can be reviews, blog posts, comments -- that everyone should read (they can be collected in books; they just can't be books). Again: not by any of the folk you named in 1-3.

5: Name THREE zones of debate or discussion that were really hoppin. Thus for example: the Zigzag gossip column 1977-79; the comments threads on the War Against Silence in 2001; the reviews pages of the east Village Eye in 1967... They have to be accessible -- so eg not pub discussions on that amazing night or so-and-so's tutorials when x was in her class; they can be the whole of a magazine across a slice of time; or a website; or whatever you want that fits the bill. This is a question about chemistry of voices, voices that haven't perhaps been so strong or interesting when divorced from their co-squabblees.

6: Name SIX films or documentaries about music that everyone should see: ; non-fiction; fiction; biopic -- whatever. What matters is the question of how they deal with music itself: how they make it the subject, or backdrop, or whatever they do.

Comments

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

OK, my four "not in anthologies" picks:

William B. Swygart
Mike Barthel
Erika Villani
Alfred Soto

Honorable mentions for Rodney Greene, Jordan Sargeant, and a few other Jukebox contributors.

(I also think a lot of Poptimists contributors fit the bill -- poptasticuk, piratemoggy, katstevens, petronia, weasel_seeker, cis, all of whom I think I nommed for Da Capo this year via Jukebox.)

Four books that haven't been mentioned (along with the collected Christgau consumer guides and Bangs anthologies, which I assume are covered under your "don't name these critics" list):

Sonata for Jukebox by Geoffrey O'Brien
This Is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin
The Real Frank Zappa Book by Frank Zappa and Peter Occhiogrosso
Performing Rites by Simon Frith

Four pieces that aren't books:

--Scott Woods's interviews (http://rockcritics.com/category/interviews/) with any number of critics (DeRogatis, Kogan, Eddy, etc.)

-- Tom Ewing on ABBA (http://pitchfork.com/features/poptimist/6632-poptimist-5/) and Gorillas (http://pitchfork.com/features/poptimist/6696-poptimist-8/) (not Gorillaz)

-- Jane Dark on Melodic Range (http://janedark.com/2006/12/26_singles_of_the_yearmelodic.html)

-- Mike Barthel, "The Death of the Tusk Era," which has been conveniently wiped off the face of the earth/Idolator (bleah) but is basically about the crumbling of the music industry using Kelly Clarkson's My December as jumping off point.

Conversation zones (of which I have been a member):

-- My back and forth with Susan at Fairytale in the Supermarket here (https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=2485230402686571805&postID=301522606875116266&pli=1) (and in surrounding posts)

-- HUMP DAY (http://www.cureforbedbugs.com/2007/05/hump-day.html)!

-- Migration to Tumblr has its pros and cons -- but I think the Ke$ha back 'n' forth this year (partially linked above by Frank re: Jonathan Bogart) is the best convo I've had in 2010.

-- Not a member of this one, exactly, but really liked the convo on ILM at Ashlee Simpson: Emo or Oh No (http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?action=showall&boardid=41&threadid=34085) (a proto-teenpop-thread thing).

(I think dubdobdee's "Ambushed by Emotion" idea has yet to get the convo that it really deserves.)

mike barthel's kelly clarkson piece

[maura.livejournal.com]

found it (http://idolator.com/277691/everybody-hates-kelly-why-the-tusk-era-is-officially-over).

[koganbot]

Oh yeah, now that I think of it I'm pretty sure I made a Da Capo nom for petronia too, her comparative gig reports for Pet Shop Boys, Kings of Leon, and Fever Ray. May have nominated WBS too (if not for 2009 then 2008).