Best Music Writing of 2014 & more articles

Red Bull Music Academy was nice enough to let me do another year-end round up of "Best Music Journalism 2014" and while I'm always honored to get the chance to do this (previously for the good people at rockcritics.com, Blurt and PopMatters), I'm also always kind of let down by doing it too.

Mostly, that's because there's other articles I'd love to list but don't have the space for, not to mention that I won't listen anything from Perfect Sound Forever 'cause that would be favoritism (though I really think that ALL our writers there deserve props).  Also, just like any year-end music round up, you always find out about great items after the fact and think 'how the hell did I miss that?' 

In that spirit, here's a number of other music articles I really liked from 2014. 

• Gregory Ciotti "How Music Affects Your Productivity” (Sparring Mind, July) 
• Shenequa A. Golding “Nas Researches His Ancestry And Finds The Man Who Enslaved His Family” (Vibe/PBS, October 27)
• Adam Harper "System Focus: Inside 1080p, Zoom Lens & the New Digital DIY Labels" (Fader, June 4) 
• Ron Hart “’Beat Street’: The Making of a Hip-Hop Classic” (Grantland, August 15)  
• Steven Hyden “Pop In A Hopeless Place: Calvin Harris and EDM’s Hair Metal Phase” (Grantland, November 4)
• Lorne Manly “Legal Debate on Using Boastful Rap Lyrics As A Smoking Gun” (New York Times, March 26)
• Nick Messitte “What John Coltrane on the Billboard Charts Tells Us About Music Sales in 2014” (Forbes, October 21) 
• Matt Patches “Brothers in BRONG: How Hans Zimmer and Christopher Nolan Make The Boldest Scores in Hollywood” (Grantland, November 7)

(As a side note, I forgot to mention in the RBMA intro that another great source for rounding up music stories is SXSW Daily Chord.)

I notice that when I do these lists, some writers will say that they're a little let down that I didn't include them there.  I understand that- all of us scribes need a pat on the back sometimes, especially since we usually don't get that kindness from readers, editors and peers.  I always say that when you do see a good article, you should contact the writer/editor/publication to say so- that way, you'll not only boost the confidence of the writer to do more quality work but you might also convince the editor/pub to keep working with them.  The next time you want to complain that there isn't any good music writing out there, why not be part of the solution instead?  And if you're still not satisfied, why not write yourself?

As for 2015, I'm already starting to round up good articles. I know that they're gonna still be out there, no matter what the shape of the scribe biz is in.