Well, if you are music scholar and author Daphne Carr, series editor for the newly released Best Music Writing 2011, it begins with a lot of reading - about 5,000 articles worth of reading to be exact.
Of course, she did have help from guest editor, author, and music critic from The New Yorker Alex Ross. "We tried to maximize the diversity of music in our selections," Ross says. "I think the great thing here is you have so many different types of music spoken of from P-Funk to Wagner."
Carr and Ross appeared at the Politics and Prose book store tonight to discuss the latest book in the undergoing series. They were joined by 4 Washington area contributors, whose readings of their articles definitely demonstrated the diversity found in the compilation. The 4 stories included:
- a critique of a Wagner opera from a rock critic's perspective
- the story of a Nashville song writing couple who composed hundreds of country songs, almost 20 pop hits for the Everly Brothers, and the University of Tennessee fight song "Rocky Top."
- the opus of a failed Wilmington, Delaware musician who finally achieved success as a purveyor and promoter of elusive 78 rpm records and
- the first-person search for the original massive missing Mother Ship prop from George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic tours, which according to music legend and myth may be rusting away in a dense Maryland woods.
In discussing both the past and the future of the music series, Carr and Ross continually referenced 21st Century changes in the writing and publishing business. For example, while traditional printed materials such as essays, profiles, interviews, reviews, and news articles were featured, about 1/3 of the material came from on-line sources such as websites and blogs. In fact, even the way in which material is selected and the annual compendium is published will be more tech savvy next year. To read more about that process, click here.
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