A selection of long-form pieces about music we’ve featured in our newsletter this year. Subscribe to Stack to get one each week.
The Fascinating Rise of YouTube Music Reaction Videos
Popular music reaction channels are racking up millions of views, forcing the rest of the industry to pay attention.
— Pigeons & Planes
Inside the Booming Business of Turning Hit Songs into Lullabies
There is not one, nor two, but at least three albums of Tool songs transposed into lullabies.
— Thrillist
How 88rising Is Making a Place for Asians in Hip-Hop
With artists like Rich Brian and Higher Brothers, Sean Miyashiro’s company is an authority on how to create pop-culture crossovers.
— The New Yorker
What ever happened to the mashup artist?
You weren’t supposed to sculpt dance music out of pop star outtakes and lo-fi EPs of garage rock
— The A.V. Club
When Critics Could Kill
What was it like when a review could end a career? Most musicians still don’t want to talk about it.
— Slate
Toward an expanded canon of dad rock
Dad rock usually means music for straight, white, American dads, even though there are so many other kinds.
— The Outline
Prince And The Power of Women
Prince wrote about women in a way that most contemporary male artists still can't.
— Noisey
How Smart Speakers Are Changing the Way We Listen to Music
With everyone trying to get us to talk to their speakers, should listeners be excited, or worried?
— Pitchfork
The definitive oral history of Korn’s “Freak On A Leash”
The story of the unlikely hit that made the Nu metal pioneers into a household name.
— The FADER
Enya’s “Orinoco Flow” Went From a Hit to a Punch Line to a Pop Culture Anthem
What, exactly, has made “Orinoco Flow” so popular?
— The Ringer
Missy Elliott’s “Supa Dupa Fly”
The 1997 album that defined a new hip-hop aesthetic and expanded the definition of rap.
— The New Yorker