Writing a Profile of a Person

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When i moved to the new york times, one of the things i realized was that i wasn't writing about culture. I didn't feel the urge to like, grab someone out of that cultural world and write a piece. So i found myself writing about people that i thought were interesting in some way. And similarly, i found there was lots of,. especially music, that i loved that i didn't necessarily feel like i needed to profile - right? There's plenty of records where, like, i heard it and i was like, man, i love this record, but like, you don't need to love this record if this is not what you're into, like, it

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.”

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