20,000

So I’m working on a thing, and I went to the Pazz & Jop archives to grab some age-related data. For artists, I used age at the end of the poll year. For bands, the number of years they had been in existence (a band that formed in 1992 and got votes that year, like Basehead, gets a 0). I’ve gone backwards from 2012 in five-year increments, except for 1972, which had no poll, so I used the inaugural 1971 poll. Here are the averages for age/years of existence for the top 10 artist and band vote-getters each year (EDIT - for albums, not singles):

• 2012: Artists 37.5 years, bands 9.5 years 
• 2007: Artists 34.8 years, bands 10.5 years
• 2002: Artists 38.8 years, bands 9.1 years
• 1997: Artists 32.1 years, bands 5.5 years
• 1992: Artists 37.2 years, bands 7.4 years
• 1987: Artists 38 years, bands 7.9 years
• 1982: Artists 35.2 years, bands 4.7 years
• 1977: Artists 34.3 years, bands 4.6 years
• 1971: Artists 27.4 years, bands 5.3 years

I am not a statistician. But it seems that critically-acclaimed acts have been around for longer than they used to, at least based on this one measurement. Didn’t expect this. Obviously I’ll be pulling more data and snatching at possible explanations.

aceeccentric:

That awkward moment when you discover a song you love and have on repeat for a while and then you suddenly realize or look up the lyrics and it’s actually about sex.

SPOILER ALERT

(via watchful-entity)

I was scratching my head trying to figure why “THE INTERNET WAS EXPLODING”. I had narrowed it to Harvard’s tournament upset and Farrah Abraham’s post-DUI interview. But naw, it was Complex.

Not that anyone asked, but of the most embarrassing facets of that women-in-tech article, tied for third was the fact that most of the writeups were two sentences, tops. Paging through the slideshow was like reading the most obnoxious SXSW Interactive program ever. What’s the going freelance rate for 50 sentences?

EDIT: Crystal responds with the figure. Christ.

sweetasspring:

*goes to the T.J. Lane tag, regrets it immediately* 

yeah whoops

For some reason, I can’t reblog this - I guess cos it’s a question answered with an ending question - but it’s too good not to pass along. The question first, then jawnita’s response.

That piece on noisey about music critics of color (well at least that’s what the main focus ended up being) was silly. But, to be honest, I actually wish I knew about more good music critics (specifically rap critics) of color. I know they exist but I’ve barely heard of any within the group of critics I follow. You, Craig SJ, and Rembert Browne are holding it down but I’m sure there are plenty others out there worth recommending. (Is XXL a good place to start?)

Yes XXL, egotrip, newly relaunched Mass Appeal and it also continually astounds me when people who write about rap and R&B say they don’t readVIBE, which still does the type of music journalism most ppl wish they were doing. Granted, there is a disconnect between online and print content with both XXL and Vibe which is unfortunate, but dudes, if you don’t have five bucks, at least go to the magazine bodega and flip thru that shit. VIBE’s staff are some of the best of newer and older schools of music journalism: John Kennedy and Bonsu Thompson are two I’ve worked with recently and who are fantastic writers and editors (but you know Bonsu, right?), andClover Hope has been one of my favorites for years. Keith Murphy is the hip-hop game’s gumshoe reporter and the biggest Prince fan you have ever encountered in your life (and apparent Alicia Keys hater. Haha Murph!).  Tracy Garraud no longer is on staff at VIBE (she’s now on staff at Sway in the Morning), but she continues to freelance and wrote the absolute best piece I ever read about Lil B—approaching him as a human to be unpackedas opposed to a fucking alien to be ironically exalted. Off the dome, Google: Felipe Delerme, Jayson Rodriguez, Matthew Trammell, Hillary Crosley, Chloe Hilliard, Timmhotep Aku, Anupa Mistry, Alexis Stephens, Puja Patel, Maurice Garland, Blanca Mendez, Geeta Dayal, David Turner, Jason Parham, Nuria Net, Cord Jefferson. Some of those people are outside of JUST RAP, because there is a whole world out there. (Also people, just cause some writers don’t do 5000-word academic think pieces on rap records does not mean they are not talented. And just cause you write down yr thoughts about music and get paid for it, don’t mean you’re a critic, neither.) But otherwise, I recommend outside the mainstream white publications that most music writers tend to read. Follow some ppl outside yr Twitter circle. Make a blogfeed OR WHATEVER RSS SHIT IS COMING NEXT.

Here’s another thing I don’t understand, do newbie white rap writers know their history? I feel like they don’t, but everyone EVERYONE should be up on Danyel Smith (my former boss and mentor, whose recent piece on Barry Manilow is the best piece of music writing I have read in a decade), Greg Tate, dream hampton, Karen Good, Joan Morgan, Elizabeth Mendez Berry, kris ex, Aliya S. King. To people who think Elliott Wilson is just the Rap Radar guy, have you ever READ any of his Editor’s Letters from when he ranXXL? That shit was fucking genius, criticism and poetry in 300 words, every month another Ether. Do ppl know the history of ego trip? Sacha Jenkins remains one of the most compelling music critics out when he does it. Gabriel Alvarez just wrote the new Mass Appeal story on Earl Sweatshirt and that white comedy longhair who I have no idea who he is. The list goes on, these are just people off the top.

Actually what I really wanna say is, Fresh from Crunk&Disorderly is a funnier, more interesting and more relevant hip-hop critic on Twitter than nearly all the white mane Lil B stans put together. And she is succinct!

The thing that bums me out the most is that I don’t even have a staff editing job anymore, I spend all my time writing from my kitchen, and yet I know all this stuff. Why don’t more (white) editors do their jobs and reach out/dig in/research?

Cerebral Decanting: Dewey Tendrils Of Spring Etc Etc: Andrew Sullivan Waxes Rhapsodic Over Pope Francis