How to Write a New Yorker Profile

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In trying to take this grand story of music in mostly the twentieth century, a and a condensito, however many pages are in the book, like 500. I would have guessed three hundredear it, so it's a 500 page tha book that feels like a 300 page book. There were points in the book where i wasa, o o oh. You can't justlike, only give ike a page and a half to this, you know? "I don't mean to make it sound pretentious, like i was crafting this master work"

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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