The New York Times - Louder: The Vitality of Black Criticism

January 7, 2022

By Caryn Ganz

Pop Music Editor

When Greg Tate — a writer, musician and thinker who inspired so many — died in December, there was one bright spot in my inbox: a message from Daphne A. Brooks, the Yale professor and author who contributes to The Times. Greg had appeared on a panel called “Black Critics Matter” that she’d organized for the annual Pop Conference last April alongside Thulani Davis, Wesley Morris and Danyel Smith, and we were fortunate to be able to excerpt the conversation for this week’s Arts & Leisure. Selecting an article-sized chunk from such a sweeping round table was extremely difficult; the full video is now available online, too.

Also this week, a report from Alex Marshall and Joe Coscarelli on the killing of a Swedish rapper last October and its political aftermath. Einar was the country’s biggest music star, and his death has become part of a larger conversation about gun violence and immigration, with the music being labeled, in a very ’90s throwback, “gangster rap.”

Plus: The Grammys have been pushed back to … (you tell us?), new music from a Radiohead spinoff and a dance critic examines how Britney Spears has used movement to exert control over her life.

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The Vitality of Black Criticism

Before his death, Greg Tate spoke with four other critics at the Pop Conference about the need for Black writers to face down racist institutions and take the lead in cultural conversations.

By Daphne A. Brooks

The Playlist

A Radiohead Spinoff’s Snarling Single, and 8 More New Songs

Hear tracks by Burial, Amber Mark, Delaney Bailey and others.

By Jon Pareles, Jon Caramanica, Isabelia Herrera and Giovanni Russonello

12 Things Our Critics Are Looking Forward to in 2022

“Better Call Saul” returns, Cecily Strong stars in a one-woman show, and Faith Ringgold gets an overdue retrospective.

Christine Olsson/EPA, via Shutterstock

After a Star’s Killing, Sweden Struggles With ‘Gangster Rap’

Hip-hop, the country’s most popular music, has quickly become a lightning rod for Sweden’s long-roiling problems with gun violence and gang warfare.

By Alex Marshall and Joe Coscarelli

DANCE

Max Morse/Getty Images

Critic’s Notebook

Britney Spears Has Always Fought Back. By Dancing.

Before, during and now after the conservatorship that oversaw her life for 13 years, the pop star has used dance to assert her power and connect with her audience.

By Madison Mainwaring

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Harnessing an Unusual Kind of Natural Energy: Dancers’ Body Heat

The power of dance? It’s literal at a Glasgow arts center that is installing a geothermal heating and cooling system that runs on heat from dancing bodies.

By Margaret Fuhrer

NEWS

Grammy Awards Postponed Amid Covid-19 Surge

The Recording Academy has not announced a new date for its 64th annual show, originally scheduled for Jan. 31 in Los Angeles.

By Ben Sisario

Bowie Estate Sells Songwriting Catalog to Warner Music

In the latest blockbuster catalog deal, Warner has agreed to buy David Bowie’s songs for about $250 million, bringing nearly all of the star’s work under one corporate roof.

By Ben Sisario

The Charts

Adele Closes Out 2021 With a Sixth Straight Week at No. 1

“30” ended the year with the equivalent of 1.8 million sales in the United States.

By Ben Sisario

Lawsuit Accusing Nirvana of Sexually Exploitive Imagery Is Dismissed

Spencer Elden, who was pictured naked as a baby on the cover of “Nevermind,” said Nirvana had engaged in “child pornography.”

By Maria Cramer

OBITUARIES

via Danny Clinch

Sandra Jaffe, Who Helped Preserve Jazz at Preservation Hall, Dies at 83

With her husband, she opened a club in New Orleans in 1961 to showcase traditional jazz. Defying changes in musical fashion, it has been open ever since.

By Richard Sandomir

via Colomby family

Harry Colomby, Teacher Who Aided a Jazz Great’s Career, Dies at 92

A chance encounter with Thelonious Monk led to a 14-year stint as his manager. After seeing a young Michael Keaton at a stand-up club, he became his manager, too.

By Richard Sandomir

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They Could Be Anything They Want (Together)

The folk singer Arlo Guthrie and Marti Ladd, who met 20 years ago, forged a long lasting friendship that started over Guinness beer and his grandmother’s cheese blintzes.

By Tammy La Gorce