Our favorite music longreads of 2016. Subscribe to Stack to get one each week.
January 6th, Stack №72
They Did It All for the Nookie: Decibel Explores the Rise and Fall of Nu-Metal
The intro is long. Nearly 50 seconds without tipping its hand. A new band should be terrified to open a record like this, worried that potential listeners will get bored with a lone ride cymbal and… — Decibel Magazine
January 13th, Stack №73
David Bowie longreads
A few of the pieces published this week exploring David Bowie’s legacy as a musician, performer, and cultural icon. — Music Longreads Tumblr
January 20th, Stack №74
How a 90-Year-Old Missing Person Became a Hit on Spotify
In 1960, Connie Converse gave up music for good. In 1974, she disappeared and nobody ever heard from her again. And in 2009, her first album debuted. — Priceonomics
January 27th, Stack №75
The history of featured rappers and other featured artists in pop songs.
Twenty-five years ago, in late July 1990, the Billboard Hot 100 welcomed a No. 1 single that, while very mediocre, would turn out to be quietly histori ... — Slate
February 3rd, Stack №76
9:30 Club: the hardcore venue that hosted the president
The famously stinky Washington DC music den, now 35 years old, was a crucible for the local hardcore scene – and even hosted the Clintons — The Guardian
February 10th, Stack №77
Will Streaming Music Kill Songwriting?
Songwriting has offered a decent living for many in the trade, and the prospect of extraordinary wealth for a few. But that’s changing. — The New Yorker
February 17th, Stack №78
The Improbable Story of How Kendrick Lamar's "Alright" Became a Protest Anthem
The kid from Compton mirrors the movement. — Mic
February 24th, Stack №79
The A-Z Guide to Every Song Sampled on Kanye West's 'The Life Of Pablo'
The rapper's highly-anticipated seventh album features everyone from Arthur Russell to Yoko Shimomura. — Thump
March 9th, Stack №81
Is the Album Review Dead?
With every song available for free the instant of its release, do we still need critics to tell us what’s good? — Noisey
March 16th, Stack №82
Say “Hello” to the Era of the One-Word Song Title
The hits of the 1960s were "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "You're All I Need to Get By" and "Devil With a Blue Dress On". Today's hit songs are titled "Rude" and "Work" and "Baby". What's driving the… — Priceonomics
March 31st, Stack №84
The Deranged True Story Of Heavy Metal Parking Lot, The Citizen Kane Of Wasted Teenage Metalness
Suburban dirtballs of the 1980s are a lost culture, worthy of academic study, that disappeared abruptly, leaving mysterious artifacts for future generations to work over. Think of them as, say, the an… — The Concourse
April 6th, Stack №85
The Man Who Recorded, Tamed and Then Sold Nature Sounds to America
A forgotten 1970s-era hippie polymath named Irv Teibel created the "soothing" vibe of the great outdoors. — Atlas Obscura
April 13th, Stack №86
Reclaiming The Queer Dance Floor
A new crop of parties across the U.S.A. is reconnecting dance music with a particular chapter in its own vivid history. — NPR
April 27th, Stack №88
Uffie's Back: Let's Talk About Bloghouse
Meaghan Garvey on the birth, death, and rebirth of Bloghouse — MTV
May 4th, Stack №89
Dancing music in the C20: swing (1928-31)
As Louis Armstrong explained on Bing Crosby’s radio show, “Ah, swing, well, we used to call it syncopation — then they called it ragtime, then blues — then jazz. Now, it’s swing. Ha! Ha! White folks,… — 20jazzfunkgreats
May 11th, Stack №90
Jamie xx On Vinyl, DJing And Hunting For Records
The easiest way to understand the music of Jamie xx, a producer and DJ whose dance-inspired beats are tempered with reserved atmospherics, is to accompany him on a crate-digging excursion. — NPR
May 18th, Stack №91
Let’s All Remember The Late-’90s Swing Revival
It's Weird '90s Week on Stereogum. All week long we're looking at the strangest musical moments and trends of the decade. Check out more here. One month in 1998, long before Alternative Press was a st… — Stereogum
May 25th, Stack №92
The Dark Art of Mastering Music
Shedding light on the elusive studio practice thatâs all but necessary to make music sound great. — Pitchfork
June 1st, Stack №93
The Broken Pop of James Bond Songs
What can the endurance of the messy, campy canon of James Bond theme songs tell us about contemporary popular music? — Longreads
June 8th, Stack №94
The True Story Of The Fake Zombies, The Strangest Con In Rock History
In 1969, the Zombies had a huge hit single, despite having broken up two years earlier. To meet the unexpected demand, one promoter did the only sensible thing: hire four kids from Texas to tour Am... — Buzzfeed
June 15th, Stack №95
Scene Report: Rock in Bangkok, Thailand
It’s not hard to find live music in Bangkok. From hotel lobbies and beer gardens to the tourist-choked Khao San Road, an acoustic duo performing questionable ’90s covers is never too far out of earsho… — indexed
June 22nd, Stack №96
How Randy Newman and His Family Have Shaped Movie Music for Generation
David Kamp chronicles the Newman version of the American Dream. — Vanity Fair
June 29th, Stack №97
A top audio engineer explains NPR’s signature sound
The crisp, bright tone comes from a particular microphone — and a few other elements. — Current
July 6th, Stack №98
The Long Play: The Death and Resurrection of the Pop Album
A data-driven look at Beyonce, Kendrick, Rihanna, Drake, Kanye and the evolution of the pop album. — Third Bridge Creative
July 13th, Stack №99
The Playlist Professionals At Apple, Spotify, And Google
At the most powerful companies in Silicon Valley, small teams of anonymous, diehard music fans race to solve the music industry’s toughest problem. — Buzzfeed
July 20th, Stack №100
Who Was the Baby on Aaliyah’s “Are You That Somebody?”
Jeremy D. Larson tracks the source of an iconic sample that has so far eluded the internet’s pervasive annotative efforts — Red Bull Music Academy Daily
July 27th, Stack №101
Headphones Everywhere
Are they just another emblem of catastrophic social decline, a tool that edges us even deeper into narcissism, solipsism, vast unsociability? — The New Yorker
August 3rd, Stack №102
Groovy chemistry: The materials science behind records
From wax to vinyl, chemistry shaped the history of recorded sound — Chemical & Engineering News
August 10th, Stack №103
Stranger Things And How Tangerine Dream Soundtracked The '80s
Molly Lambert on the German synthwave band's TV moment. — MTV
August 17th, Stack №104
Moments in Music: 10 Synth Wizards and the Machines They Fell in Love With
Did you know acid house and Bollywood cinema have things in common? — LANDR
August 24th, Stack №105
Is Bandcamp the Holy Grail of Online Record Stores?
A lesser-known artist you love makes a new recording — say, the hip-hop group Clipping or the Chicago punk band Mace or the electronic composer Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. You feel you have to graft it ont… — NY Times
August 31st, Stack №106
The Millennial Whoop: A glorious obsession with the melodic alternation between the fifth and the third
This week, The Lonely Island released a music video for a song that was cut from their new movie, Popstar. The deleted scene for the song, “Fuck Off,” shows Conner4Re… — The Patterning
September 7th, Stack №107
The Early Days of London's Fabric Nightclub
In honor of the 15th anniversary of the London institution, we met with co-founder Keith Reilly to discuss the club's history. — Vice
September 14th, Stack №108
The new wave of new age: How a maligned genre finally became cool
Adam Bychawski speaks to Matthewdavid, Deadboy and Sam Kidel about the resurgence of new age and why it's far from being wallpaper music for hippies. — FACT
September 21st, Stack №109
Dance Music 101: An Online Reading Course
Brush up on your knowledge of the major electronic genres with the latest installment of Off the Record. — Thump
September 28th, Stack №110
The 50 Best Ambient Albums of All Time
Wallpaper music? None here. These are the albums that have shifted moods and created new worlds — Pitchfork
October 5th, Stack №111
When Rent Was Cheap and Dance Music Reigned
As Tim Lawrence chronicles in a new book, the New York of the early eighties disappeared in the wake of two forces: money and AIDS. — The New Yorker
October 12th, Stack №112
Anohni on art, corporations, and the music industry
Anohni speaks about her ambivalence towards writing songs, her interest in making visual art, the way corporations damage culture, and why the independent music industry is dying. — The Creative Independent
October 26th, Stack №114
Sweet Reggae Music Pon di Attack: A History of Soundclash
Jamaican culture is defined by competition. Athletics is a national virtue, showcased in force on track at the 2016 Olympics. The country has also managed to make a sport out of music. From lyrical co… — Red Bull Music Academy Daily
November 2nd, Stack №115
The new cool: how Kamasi, Kendrick and co gave jazz a new groove
A generation of jazz musicians has grown up with hip-hop in its blood. The result is the thrilling reinvention of a genre that has been guilty of fixating on its past — The Guardian
November 9th, Stack №116
A Perfect Imaginary Town Full of Mutants: St. Petersburg’s Lo-Fi Pop Tape Labels
It’s 3am at the VNVNC club in St. Petersburg, Russia, when Fog Star goes on—late enough that the drawbridges connecting one island to another are raised, making it hard for people to get home until… — Bandcamp Daily
November 16th, Stack №117
Label Love #66: On The Corner Records
“I honestly don’t think there’s anybody else doing quite what we are… matching the modal jazz with young electronic producers that are hungry for those stems.” — Ransom Note
November 22nd, Stack №118
What.cd is gone: A eulogy for the greatest music collection in the world
RIP What.cd, one of humanity's greatest cultural achievements. — Quartz
November 29th, Stack №119
Tiny Desk: how NPR’s intimate concert series earned a cult following
The show brings honesty and nakedness to an age of overproduction. — Vox
December 7th, Stack №120
Preventing Another Oakland Warehouse Tragedy Means Supporting Artists, Not Punishing Them
As the death toll rises from a devastating fire that tore through the Ghost Ship arts space in Oakland, California on Friday, opportunistic publications have begun spinning. Their assessments of the t… — Village Voice
December 14th, Stack №121
Why We Can't Forget Meg White - And the Sexist Way We Talked About Her
Indeed, it’s often hard to untangle the criticism and evaluation of Meg White: The Musician from Meg White: The Female Body. In the fan communities, on the forums and the message boards and blogs, the… — Watt