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Episode 467: Kelefa Sanneh

Longform

I Don't Want to Be With Them on the Dance Floor, I'm Doing Something

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As long as people use music to define their identities, music will continue. Music is such a social form that we don't want to be like those who listen to it. I'm not sure it's possible to dislike or hate music without thinking something not so charitable about the people who listens to it. It might also be a very american way of looking at the world.

Kelefa Sanneh is a staff writer at The New Yorker. His book is Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres.

“I’m always thinking about how to not be that person at a party who corners you and tells you about their favorite thing and you’re trying to get away. It’s got to feel light and fun. And what that means in practice is writing about music for readers who don’t care about music, while at the same time writing something that the connoisseurs don’t roll their eyes too hard at.”

Show notes:

Sanneh on Longform
Sanneh's New Yorker archive
01:00 "The Education of a Part-Time Punk" (New Yorker • Sep 2021)
14:00 "Paul McCartney Doesn't Really Want to Stop the Show" (David Remnick • New Yorker • Oct 2021)
17:00 "How Morgan Wallen Became the Most Wanted Man in Country" (New Yorker • Dec 2020)
23:00 "Party of One" (New Yorker • Jul 2009)
25:00 "Can Jake Paul Fight His Way Out of Trouble?" (New Yorker • Nov 2021)
34:00 "Gettin' Paid" (New Yorker • Aug 2001)

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