December 2024: Kendrick's GNX Polarizes, Indie Rock Goes Bust, Pops Scavenger Hunts, and More
Howdy folks!
November contained an absurd amount of good music writing. I’ve got 3x more bookmarks this month than any other month I’ve been writing this newsletter. Great stuff was being published right up until yesterday so if I’ve missed something, well, there’s only so much one can do.
Part of this may be the rise of Bluesky. Starting over post-Twitter has given me the chance to rebuild who I follow and focus mostly on music writers and publications. I’m seeing more pieces show up regularly thanks to Bluesky’s pure chronological timeline. Starting this month, I’m creating an account (@ofnotenewsletter.bsky.social) where I will be sharing links to more writing in-between each issue of the newsletter. There’s a lot worth sharing, but only so much room in this email each month.
This is the longest edition yet because - if you know me - I’m long-winded and just can’t help myself. Below you’ll find links to several perspectives on the Kendrick Lamar’s surprise release GNX, a musician-focused looked at how Indie Rock went bust, deep analyses on pop lyric scavenger hunts and a Cat Power cover, and some loving tributes North Texas local music, Pitchfork Festival (RIP), and POV playlists.
Several Views on Kendrick Lamar’s GNX
If it wasn’t already clear that Kendrick Lamar is the biggest star of the year, his surprise release of GNX this month made it so. Its release was quickly followed by a ton of press, but not the uniforming gushing one might expect.
Sheldon Pearce at NPR hit us with one of the best opening lines of the year:
As he mounts the rap throne, the corpse of his rival in the succession contest strewn before him, there is still, apparently, unfinished business to settle. His official mandate is a cultural reset. But first: He's come for his credit.
In GNX, Pearce sees an artist grappling “with the responsibility of being anointed amid the pull of self-importance” and showcasing integrity and credibility among his community.
At Pitchfork, Alphonse Pierre just sees “petty grievance.” In a well-argued review, Piece sees GNX as doubling down on the popularity of the rap beef with Drake with limited returns. “This is no longer just Kendrick the rapper, but Kendrick the businessman,” he writes, leading to this all-timer:
Running a company doesn’t inherently hollow out his lyrics, but it does give all of GNX’s motivational phrases the coldness of quotes from a speech he’s giving at a Black Men in Tech conference.
Of Note favorite, Craig Jenkins writes that the people are getting what they want in “You Wanted The Beast? You got The Beast?” at Vulture. Jenkins, referencing John Lee Hooker and even Milton’s Paradise Lost, sees Lamar’s villain era as a natural progression. Violence sells.
If you do read all three, I think you’ll find a new appreciation of how looking at an album through different lenses can challenge your own thinking and enhance the music, too.
Getting Deeper
I was really inspired by Leslie Ken Chu’s essay “Music Journalism As A Gateway To Empathic Listening” in New Feeling, a coop of music writers covering Canada. She talks to several musicians who express a desire for better critical analysis of music in a industry that often overly focuses on culture. I read some great pieces that fit the bill.
Eric Harvey, Associate Professor in the School of Communications at Grand Valley State University, author of Who Got The Camera? and the much loved Marathon Packs blog, appreciates and critiques the never-ending scavenger hunt in modern pop and hip-hop lyrics at Flow, an online media studies journal out of UT-Austin. Academic, but well-written, Harvey connects lyrical tradition and modern engagement capitalism to help us understand what’s driving everyone from Taylor Swift to Kendrick Lamar to plant Easter eggs by the dozen, for better or worse.
It all appeals to the Spelling Bee fan in me, even if the revelations most often boil down to the 2024 pop star equivalent of “be sure to drink your Ovaltine.”
Few things for me are better than breakdown of a single song or performance. I love the hyper focus and deep understanding. So of course I loved Mark Richardson, in his newsletter Beauty Blew a Fuse, treating us to a in-depth appreciation of Cat Power covering “Shivers” by The Boys Next Door, a song she has only performed live. Not only is it loaded with YouTube videos of performances and an exhaustive history, but it includes links to the music theory of why the song works.
Indie Rock Goes Bust
Over at Hearing Things, Larry Fitzmaurice delves into “How The Indie Rock Boom Went Bust.” What stood out to me most about this piece is how he tells this story through its impact on current artists via interviews with Feeble Little Horse, Kara Jackson, Gia Margaret, Squirrel Flower, Dummy, Pom Pom Squad, Fucked Up, and Wednesday.
It’s expectedly bleak. To succeed today means not just being a great musician, it means being a savvy marketer and influencer.
“We went from ‘We’re not selling any records’ to ‘No one’s selling records anymore,’” [Mike Haliechuk of Fucked Up] says. “Our label was asking us to make a Spotify playlist, which I couldn’t see the benefit of. Why was that part of my job now?
Loving Tributes
I highly recommend Marissa Moss and Natalie Weiner’s Don’t Rock The Inbox newsletter about country music. There’s so much great stuff there, but I want to call out Issue #77: A case for local music, and thinking outside the hubs. Even if you don’t live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, this piece might make you wish you did or make you look more lovingly at your own local music scene.
Another wonderful tribute came after the announcement that the Pitchfork Festival would not be returning to Chicago. Jeremy Gordon, in his own newsletter, captures the magic that was Union Park in the summer.
Finally, I can’t end this newsletter without pointing you to Emily Lynell Edwards’ “What Wildly Specific POV Playlists Tell Us About How We Listen Today” at Hearing Things. Whether or not you’re familiar with this trend, Edwards will leave you with an appreciation of these “oases of humanity amid streaming’s algorithmic desert.”
Thank you for reading!
See you next month!
