‘The First Collection Of Criticism By A Living Female Rock Critic’: An Interview With Jessica Hopper

Plus, miseducation, re-education and Lauryn Hill

View this email online by Marissa Lorusso and Lyndsey McKenna Mercedes Zapata/Courtesy of Farrar, Straus and Giroux Back in 2015, writer Jessica Hopper published a book with a title that speaks for itself: The First Collection of Criticism By a Living Female Rock Critic. The groundbreaking volume included work from across Hopper’s career as a critic, reporter and lifelong fan of music whose passion and feminist vision have been an inspiration to a generation of young music journalists and writers (including your newsletter editors!). Last week, Hopper published a revised and expanded version of her Collection, which is twice as long and features more than a dozen additional pieces. We asked her a few questions about the initial reception to her collection, and what it was like to put together the new version. NPR Music: Nearly every essay in this book made us want to put on a different record. Did you have a particular soundtrack to your additions and revisions? Did working on this book make you want to spend extra time with any of the records you had written about? Jessica Hopper: When I was weighing inclusion of a review or essay, I would put on the record – or in some cases watch the bands’ shows on YouTube – and see if I still held the same feelings about their work. Not so much did I agree exactly with what I wrote, but could I defend it. The feeling I had watching [Return To] Cookie Mountain-era TV On The Radio clips made me dig into the eight or so pieces I had written about the band to find the piece that most reflected how electrifying TVOTR was, and how much I loved it, to find one worth including. My impulse as a critic comes first and foremost from being a fan.  When this book was originally published in 2015, it felt like a major and necessary intervention. Now, six years later, there have been some changes in music journalism and criticism, but the systemic problems endemic to the industry obviously remain. Have there been any changes in the industry between when you first published the book and today that encourage or excite you?  Absolutely. I don't know if there have been changes to the industry as a whole that I can pinpoint, but I am deeply inspired and excited by the work of Doreen St. Felix at The New Yorker and Hanif Abdurraqib's books and his writing generally, which has helped me bring more heart into my work – he's just a tremendous critic and thinker. His work has done more to change music criticism, to expand it and make it accessible to a whole host of readers – his work is a revolution in itself. Similarly, Sasha Geffen's book Glitter Up The Dark cracked so many new ideas open and endows brilliant ideas on queer and trans lineage in popular music. Also, there are more women authoring music books than ever before, more mid-career women artists authoring music memoirs, which is essential to changing and opening up a better collective understanding of music and music history. And it can't happen fast enough. The expanded version features a ton of new articles, reviews and essays. How did you go about deciding what would comprise the new edition? This edition of the book was deeply inspired by meeting young women, young writers and musicians on the tour for the first First Collection. I met these two best friends in Santiago, Chile, both named Barbara, and they had mail-order copies of my book and were telling me about how they wanted to be music critics now. Meeting my readership, especially folks who were desperate to find music writing that reflected their own experiences or examined artists from a feminist perspective, gave me a mandate as well as the confidence to assemble a second edition that was unapologetic, and also focused on providing a connection to women’s work in music. I brought in pieces that worked together, say the way that my 1998 essay “Emo: Where The Girls Aren’t” and my profile of Sleater-Kinney and my interview with Björk all create a throughline. I wanted the new edition to make strong and cohesive arguments, ones that bring readers and listeners into a deeper relationship with the music. I am not the same person I was in 2014; I couldn’t just remake the same book. In the new afterword, you write about witnessing the impact of your book on young women, and how it made you think about “how the truth of women’s experiences had reoriented and rearranged” your work. What impact do you hope that this revised and expanded edition might have? Once it’s out in the world, it’s no longer my baby, so I don’t put expectations on it. I know its audience will find it. Still, my fantasy impact is that the five alt-weeklies I wrote for, that all ceased publication in the last year, rise again, some big non-profit bankrolls a music journalism magazine that gives young writers great opportunities, that every newspaper that has a weekend book reviews section launches a music reviews section, that every newsroom union gets recognized and gets what they ask for and that every major book prize creates a special cash award just for music books. I like to dream big. Newsletter continues after sponsor message New Music On this week’s New Music Friday from All Songs Considered, hear the fragmented rock of The Goon Sax, an artful achievement from R&B singer Snoh Aalegra, a heart-pumping thrill ride from Brooklyn’s Attacca Quartet and even more new releases out now. Rapper Vince Staples has built a reputation as a critically acclaimed rapper who constantly experiments with sound while paying homage to his hometown of North Long Beach. On his new self-titled record, Staples is still drawing from the same well of emotion and life experience, but his vision and his voice are clearer than ever – thanks, he says, to a newfound sense of creative freedom. This week, resident Viking Lars Gotrich highlighted some standout 2021 Tiny Desk Contest entries from the worlds of metal, ambient, solo guitar and more. Featuring In the years since her Pulitzer win made her a star overnight, Caroline Shaw has neither settled into a traditional composer's path nor swerved toward pop. Instead, she seeks instances where the boundaries of classical blur beyond recognition, like collaborating with Kanye West and writing for film. Her latest trick? Reinventing as a songwriter. This year, our Turning the Tables series is asking writers one question: What album changed your life? This week, we shared a response from writer and scholar Namwali Serpell, who describes how The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill helped her fall in love with Blackness. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis have produced No. 1 hits for Mariah Carey, George Michael, Boyz II Men and Usher, among others. Now after more than 40 years of making music, Jam and Lewis are releasing their own debut record, Jam and Lewis: Volume 1. From NPR Live Sessions: Watch tenor saxophonist Dayna Stephens and his quartet perform “Stalemate” for WRTI's 2nd @HOME video series. Tiny Desk NPR This week’s Tiny Desk (home) concerts span the globe. Surrounded by a slew of records and cassettes, the post-Brexit post-punk band Dry Cleaning recontextualizes its sound for a relatively subdued set from World of Echo in East London. In South Africa, the production duo Black Motion – that’s turntablist Bongani Mohosana and percussionist Thabo Mabogwane – staged an Afro-House performance at the former residence of Nelson Mandela. Also, JAMBINAI mixes elements of metal, noise and Korean tradition in a larger-than-life recreation of Bob Boilen’s desk filmed on Jeju Island. Incoming The 2021 Tiny Desk Contest closed on June 7, and since then, the judges have been combing through all the entries to find a winner. Starting weekly on Thursday, July 22, you can join us for Tiny Desk Contest Top Shelf, a livestream series highlighting the judges’ favorite entries. For more details and to RSVP for reminders when we go live, head to NPRPresents.org. One More Thing ☀️ Happy Song of the Summer season! Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from WUFT 89.1 (edit station). What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: nprmusic@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Books, Pop Culture, Health and more! Need a new playlist? Follow NPR Music on Spotify and Apple Music! You received this message because you're subscribed to NPR Music emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy