New Yorker staff writer and acclaimed music journalist Kelefa Sanneh joined Greenlight virtually to launch Major Labels, his debut book of nonfiction and a deeply researched, expansive study of popular music over the past fifty years, refracted through the big genres that have defined and dominated it: rock, R&B, country, punk, hip-hop, dance music, and pop. Interviewed by Zoe Chace of This American Life, Sanneh discussed the status, politics, and stakes of musical genres in an age replete with streaming and multimedia crossovers, “hipsterdom”, the influence of social media on music criticism, his “nostalgia for a time when people were less nostalgic,” and so much more. (Recorded October 19, 2021)
The Greenlight Bookstore Podcast