Sources for Best Music Writing

This is the Best Music Writing links section, where you can see what materials are read by the series editor for possible inclusion in the book. It's not a traditional “blogroll” in that these links do not represent friends, allies, a network, community, peers, or those I endorse. It is just a list of all the music-related publications that are currently on my radar because they do or have in the past offered some modicum of substantial music writing. That said, my section of single author blogs does have a filter in that the person has to be writing original material of some good length and with some frequency for me to keep coming back.
The list below is part of my attempt to keep the Best Music Writing section process as transparent as possible. All of the publications* below are “on my radar” in as much as I know them and will read their collected print or webrun of major articles before making my selections for the book. I do not claim to have read every word in every publication and cannot possibly read every single piece of music writing that gets printed in the world each year.

That is why I ask for your help. If you do not see on this list your favorite publication or (…) the publication for which you work, then email me and give me a heads up about the publication, who its best writers are and how I can get ahold of it if it not available on newsstands or on the net. If there is a piece from one of the publications already listed or an author you particularly love and think deserves to be in the book, please do email me (musicwriting@gmail.com) and tell me all about it.

Music Criticism Meta-Sites
Rockcritics (dot) com
Rock’s Back Pages
I Love Music (ILM)

Media World
Gawker

Music Industry News
Coolfer
Idolator

Print Music Magazines
Alternative Press

BPM
Club Systems International

Death & Taxes

Decibel
DJ Times
Downbeat
Fader
Filter
Gramophone
Harp

Hip Hop Connection

Jazz Times
Mass Appeal

MOJO Magazine
NME
Paste Magazine
Q
Relix
Revolver
Rolling Stone
Signal To Noise

Skope

Spin

Venus Zine
Vibe
Uncut

Under The Radar
Urb
Wax Poetics

The Word
The Wire

XLR8R

XXL
Yeti

Academic Music Journals
American Music
Black Music Research Journal
Current Musicology
Ethnomusicology
Journal of Popular Music Studies
Leonardo Music Journal

Yearbook For Traditional Music
Popular Music
Popular Music and Society

Mags w/ Music Sections, frequent music coverage, or a “music issue”
ANP Quarterly

Newspaper Music Sections
Chicago Tribune

Los Angeles Times

Miami Herald

New York Times

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

San Francisco Chronicle

Washington Post

Alt Weekly Music Sections
City Pages
Flagpole

Web Music Magazines, Bigtime music blogs, multi-authored blogs
Brainwashed

Music-related fiction

2nd Hand

Loose Strife by Robert Barbara

Web magazines that have music writing
Slate

Salon

Online music services that have blogs/writing (radio,shops, etc)

NPR Music blogs

Single Author Blogs

The sea of blogs is endless but this list is contained. Parameters for inclusion are 1) original content 2) good writing 3) new approaches to critical thought about music and musical culture. I am always looking for new, thoughtful, entertaining blogs so please email me with recommendations, specifying how the blog you like fits in to the criteria above. The blogs are organized loosely by genre/interest.

Dance/Electronic
The Original Soundtrack by Geeta Dayal
Blissblog by Simon Reynolds

Michaelangelo Matos

Did You See Jupiter? by Andy Battaglia

Four Four by Rich Juzwiak

k-punk

woebot

wayneandwax by Wayne Marshall

Philip Sherburne

Hip-Hop/Soul/R&B
Can’t Stop Won’t Stop by Jeff Chang
SF/J by Sasha-Frere Jones

Soul Sides by Oliver Wang
Hello, Babar by Jalylah Burrell

Tofu Hut

Out-/Indie/Weirdo

Techgnosis by Erik Davis
Lacunae by Douglas Wolk
Zoilus by Carl Wilson
Andy Beta blog

Player Piano Party by Amanda Petrusich

The Scowl by Toby Carroll