The Best Music Journalism of 2024
Our political lives suck, so how about some great music writing?
One huge plus of covering the music beat right now is that as bad as things get there, it’s not as cataclysmic as the turmoil of the election season.
Don’t get me wrong, we all know what a dire state the music biz is in, which I’ll detail here, with some positive signs and glimmers of hope.
The biggest news flash in the music writing world this past year had to be the Conde Nast overlords deciding that Pitchfork wasn’t a fun plaything anymore early this year and ‘folding’ the publication into GQ, which is bitter irony considering how the indie mag did so well with female staff and editors, a number of whom were canned in the process. It was definitely an inflection point: If something that big goes down, who’s safe? Anyone grave dancing on them also forgets how many artists it helped prop up, too.
As Craig Jenkins at Vulture pointed out, it didn’t mean all music scribe was kaput though it sure won’t be the same (an editor there also admitted that Jenkins was actually more shook up than he let on too). Nast went on screwing with staff and sowing confusion for a while about how the publication would continue. As for where Pitchfork stands now, the site does still exist, but as Chris Schulz points out, “It no longer breaks stories, deep-dives are few and far between and its reviews are hit-and-miss.” Several of the editors and writers I’ve known there are still looking for work and others have just given up on writing altogether, which is pretty depressing. As for the farce that Pitchfork had to be strangled “cause it was ‘struggling,’” compare the online traffic numbers even now between the indie mag and GQ and see how they measure up.
For some bigger perspective, the whole journalism field is still a mess and not many of the established places are safe either. Sports Illustrated had huge layoffs not long after, promising political site The Messenger also shut down and the Wall Street Journal had to cut its DC staff. Ted Gioia had a frightening survey of yet more carnage, where seeming powerhouses like Time, Los Angeles Times, and Business Insider all had substantial shedding of staff. No wonder a survey of journalists found that most of them want out of the industry. The problem here isn’t just the Internet’s reconfiguration of media but also the clueless people who run the pubs and rich people who don’t know what to do with them. Remember the recent political debacles about non-endorsements at The Washington Post (where I cancelled my subscription) and Los Angeles Times thanks to its craven owners.
Speaking of established places taking a beating, Rolling Stone editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman left in February, supposedly after a clash with CEO Gus Wenner, which is a shame ‘cause whatever else you thought, Shachtman was responsible for good investigative pieces being done there. If that wasn’t bad enough, the magazine reneged on a promise that they made 20 years ago to readers for a lifetime subscription.
Meanwhile, the up-and-down saga of Vice was striking even by its own standards. The year started out with them axing 100’s of people and ending any publishing online but then launching again with Savage Ventures and going back into print again in September, proving that Crypto wasn’t the only place to offer head-spinning highs and lows.
Going back to huge companies having no clue about what to do with their properties, Paramount decided to kill off MTV News’ website of online archives. I know, you’re probably thinking “so what…?” but there actually was a lot of useful history contained there, not to mention CMT (Country Music Television) also getting its archive wiped out in the same stroke. Thank God then for the Internet Archives, which was able to come to the rescue of much of that material copied over to its own site.
In other sad publication news, Guitar Player decided to end its print production and stalwart New Orleans magazine Offbeat shut down. Should also pause to note some notable writers who passed away in 2024, including Steve Albini, Charles Cross, Neil Kulkarni, Dan Morganstern, Steve Morse, Chuck Phillips and Rob Stone.
In the “I don’t even know what to think about this” department, there were warnings about scamming going on with fake Fader writers trying to get money for review from artists and Complex Media was taken over by an online shopping platform.
And just in case you didn’t think music writing or reviews meant anything anymore, there was the anti-anti-Taylor backlash. Seems that some writers weren’t taken with The Tortured Poets Department, leading Paste to publish an anonymous negative review after a similar one in 2019 led to death threats. Still, The Washington Post, Business Insider and USA Today managed to skewer T-Swizzle’s latest otherwise.
In the Tech world, unless you think that the digital world necessarily provides answers for all of us, live streaming platform Twitch ended business with several major music publications and unless Washington DC steps in, TikTok, which is an amazingly huge source for viral music, may be outlawed in the United States. And while AI does have promising uses, it’s also helping sites steal articles to generate traffic, not to mention all the musical fakes that it generates online, plus ridiculous stories like the Dead Boys’ label using it to reincarnate their late singer. More promising ways for pubs to survive and raise revenue is through sponsorship of mailings/posts (No Depression and Spin do this) or articles, which Consequence of Sound does sometimes.
As for the glimmers of hope, SPIN Magazine is actually back in print for the first time in a dozen years and some of the former Pitchfork staff have banded together to form an impressive new publication called Hearing Things, which you should read. And though it’s been dormant for a bit, rockcritics.com, a venerable site where my music journalism lists first began, has promised that they would be updated there soon.
And some more glimmers. There’re the 23 articles below that hopefully prove that there’s still quality scribing out there, sourced from big pubs, smaller ‘zines, blogs (which are still a valuable resource), a broadcast and a podcast. As always, please support your favorite publications with subscriptions and online clicks and let them know when you like the material (writers rarely hear feedback). And if you need help getting through the next few years otherwise (which is gonna be tough for writers for sure), take some advice from NiemanLab’s Laura Hazard Owen and switch to a healthier intake of news. And try some new music too — it always works for me.
1. Callie Ahlgrim “Want to make money as a pop star? Dream on” (Business Insider, November 21, 2024) Truth be known, it was never easy to be a pop star but even for Raye, a multi-platinum diva, she’s just proud right now that she can claim to break even. Streaming pays almost nothing and being a TikTok star isn’t necessarily a meal ticket, plus live shows (usually most of the money that performers make) aren’t any guarantee now. Singer Tyler Parx is perhaps most practical of all — despite the hits she’s written, she makes bank on real estate. So yes, even would-be pop stars have to supplement their art with “day job” stuff, just like so many indie bands.
2. Harry Benson “When the Beatles Stormed America, I Was With Them” (Vanity Fair, January 17, 2024) Wow, that bragging title, and do we really need another article about the Beatles back in the day? In this case, yes. Not only do we see the historic pics he took of them as they conquered America but also the behind the scene stories of them- how John was actually polite and even then, battled with Paul for dominance in the band, how they actually tidied up their hotel rooms, how the author set up the photo session with Muhammad Ali, how receptive their manager was to even smaller publications and more. You feel the excitement and their nervousness at breaking new ground but also their giddiness- they were barely men then, after all. And to think that they were just getting started.
3. Andrew K. Choe “Virtually Famous: Music Journalism in A Social Media World” (Harvard Crimson, May 2, 2024) Who needs writers when fans have social media to find out about music? Some of the most successful bands got that memo and used their Facebook/X/Instagram/TikTok accounts to get the word out and build up a fanbase. As Choe points out, scribes still have an important place in the music ecosphere, helping to boost performers who don’t get enough love. Curious note- Dylan’s mysterious mystique did help sell his brand but as of late (after this article), he’s been posting on X/Twitter some intriguing things.
4. Andy Cush “This One Weird Email Helps Explain the Horrible State of Concert Ticketing” (Hearing Things, October 14, 2024) A head-spinning, twisted tale where an internal email nabbed from a well-meaning Congressman seems to back better concert ticketing legislation but soon got watered down and overcome by the two behemoths that it looked to tame- Live Nation and Ticketmaster. As Cush points out in this great pull-quote: “Just because the two monsters are fighting doesn’t mean one of them is the good guy” (which also applies to horror movies). For more on how the ticketing industry gets in on “fan friendly” fakeness, also see this Hypebot article from Chris Castle. And there’s even more on where the thread for Cush’s story began in the entry for Matt Stoller below.
5. Chuck Eddy “150 Best Albums of 2023” (Eliminated For Reasons of Space, January 5, 2024) The title is kind of a misnomer- yes, he does provide an extensive, valuable listing for last year but more importantly, he asks some bigger questions that are worth pondering and answering. Is rock really, finally dead? Also, what is “indie rock” anymore? And is ‘pop middle class’ a thing?
6. Suzy Exposito “Kesha Freed Herself. Now She’s Saving Music.” (Elle, October 3, 2024) For all the crap about ‘Free Britney,’ this L.A. pop star’s story is a bigger, more important one. After making waves in 2009 and through the next few years, she was cut off because of a sexual harassment lawsuit with producer Dr. Luke, which stopped her from working with anyone she wanted to on her music. That thankfully finally ended late last year, letting her put out her music her own way and a testament to her fighting spirit, which could have cost her a career but luckily didn’t. She’s not only inspiring a new generation of singers but also doing her own thing on her own indie label and looking to change the way that other singers have to deal with onerous contracts so they don’t get stuck like she did. A huge hill to climb but props to her for trying to do something.
7. Brad Friedman “Learning the Steps With Ezra Collective” (Tidal, October 29, 2024) Yes, this is the same music streaming service that was bought in part by Jay-Z and yes, they do articles there too. This British jazz band has gotten plenty of well-deserved digital ink in their homeland but not enough here about how genre-breaking they’ve been, throwing in house music, Afrobeat and gospel into their stew. A good deep-dive into their unique nature, with plenty of input from the band itself.
8. Greg Ipp “Indie Sleaze And The Death Of Modern Counterculture” (Medium, February 11, 2024) An insider to the dance party culture of the early millennium looks back at the cocaine-filled disaster it became, starting out as something of a bohemian counterculture at first. Soon, it developed into a snake chomping down its backside as the music/art/culture became secondary to the drugs. Now mourning two friends, Ipp admits that he was part of the problem and reaches out to try to find solutions to it.
9. Tom Gledhill “What Films Get Wrong About Club Culture. And Three That Get It Right.” (Resident Advisor, January 16, 2024) An interesting look at how a trio of movies goes beyond the usual hedonistic bouncing-bodies of the dancefloor to reveal more. We see political connections that we usually don’t think about, the ugliness that also happens there and even more daddy-daughter bonding that you probably wouldn’t imagine otherwise. Plus, you gotta love the intro, giving this connection: “Cinemas and nightclubs are cousins. Both are dark rooms filled with strangers, primed to simultaneously overwhelm and deliver sensory deprivation.”
10. Jeremy Gordon “Steve Albini Was Proof You Can Change” (The Atlantic, May 8, 2024) Q: Who would have hated gauzy pieces about Steve Albini? A: Steve Albini. To the credit of many obit writers, they acknowledged what a schmuck he could be, though many couldn’t help making lists of great albums he produced again and again and again. He’s the thing about Albini’s schmucky side — he actually lightened up later in life, as Gordon notes with Twitter/X posts to prove it and that this turnaround actually inspired others. As notable and noble as it was to chronicle this about Albini though, he actually wasn’t always a schmuck — through two interactions with him, in the 80’s and 2010’s, I can attest that he wasn’t a shrinking violet but he could also be forthcoming and generous in his responses and correspondence. But hey, that’s not as fun as chronicling all his bitchy writing and behavior otherwise now, is it?
11. Jill Mapes “Adrianne Lenker has turned tenderness into an artform” (Crack, January 3, 2024) Sure, Big Thief is a big deal now after years of hard work but as their singer steps out on her own yet again, her folkie side comes out and she’s the first to admit that though she might seem to be an easy cover star, she’s only recently getting comfortable with it. Here, she kickboxes in the middle of a Brooklyn street, downs plates of sashimi and teaches a songwriting course without coming off at all as haughty, which is quite an achievement itself.
12. Vivian Medithi “Kendrick Lamar and Drake took it as far as we demanded” (Fader, May 8, 2024) Two rap giants escalate a war of words to new depths and while some people are scoring how slamming the disses are (K’s “Not Like Us” > D’s “The Heart Part 6”), Medithi thoughtful points out that the back and forth includes some ugly innuendo, rumors and unproven facts about the women involved here. No matter whose side you’re on, both of the combatants aren’t necessarily scoring points as much as they’re dragging themselves down as such. Will that matter to their fans or the pop culture world? Sadly, probably not. It’s the rap equivalent of The Jerry Springer Show. And hey, plenty of people are banking buck off this rap war like the good, shameless capitalists they are, so in whose interest is it really to stop the feud?
13. Olivia Ovenden “Can Fontaines DC Make Rock Bands Cool Again?” (GQ, October 16, 2024) The answer is “no,” and that’s not the Irish band’s fault ‘cause no one group could pull off that feat alone. But credit them with at least maybe being able to do just that. Tracing the group’s scrappy beginnings, they not only crammed in a van as you’d expect but also crashed a Patti Smith college speaking gig to meet her, which you might not expect. Now they’re on their ascent, with awards, film soundtracks and bigger tours, and here galivanting around France as they prep to headline a festival gig. As for the dreaded, “accessible” tag to their music now, the band could give a toss and labels anyone who wants them to stay in the same place as “misty-eyed” nostalgics, which is a pretty clever way to turn the question back about who they are and what they should be doing. The band isn’t nostalgic about leaving Dublin either.
14. Yiren Ren “Music can change how you feel about the past” (The Conversation, December 2, 2024) Holy Twilight Zone — we can shift around our yesteryears without any worries about the Butterfly Effect? Well… kinda. A psych researcher details the way that her team studied how certain music can affect parts of our brain that deal with memory. The subjects would be given some info to learn/memorize and then when upbeat music was played back as they recalled the info, their memories got upbeat too, plus the opposite happened with more down key music. What this means is that our brains may craft our past recollections based on what we’re hearing when we recall it all. Kinda makes you wanna try this at home yourself, doesn’t it?
15. Elle Rogers “In trying to make this huge sound…Jon Gomm on how Joni Mitchell changed progressive acoustic guitar forever” (Guitar World, January 5, 2024) Who’d think that Joni Mitchell was one of the most innovative guitarists of the 70’s? Genre-shifting songwriter, sure and her voice was a radical break in the folk/pop form but there was much more than that to her unique artistry as it turns out. Her tunings, her “orchestral” approach to the guitar, her powerful right-handed strums and fingerpicking made her a pioneer, too. Leave it to another noted guitarist to pick up on this and elucidate it for the rest of us. Note to the editor though — 36 words is a helluva lot for an article title (abbreviated above).
16. Ernie Smith “Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too” (Tedium, Aug 25, 2024) The name Gregg Alexander probably doesn’t ring a bell but you know his song “You Only Get What You Give,” done as the New Radicals. One hit wonder? Yes, but it was on his own terms, stepping behind the scenes and making good there. Thing is, many other ’90s acts weren’t as smart or savvy and it didn’t help that the big labels tried to squeeze hits out of them ruthlessly. Alexander survived and thrived on his own terms and had a moment again when his hit had a comeback at the DNC convention. As Smith argues though, he’s had plenty of other moments before then and his story is a tale that could be a good lesson in surviving long-term in the music biz.
17. Sandra Song “The rise of meditation music” (Fader, July 15, 2024) Maybe it’s not a shock that in a stressful political year (and a few years to come now), people need to chillax and as the old theatrical quote goes music hath charms to soothe the savage beast. Hundreds of YouTube videos, apps, streaming playlists are there to help, too, including such seemingly unlikely and wide-ranging figures as Matthew McConaughey and Lil Jon. And just in case you’re interested, Song provides plenty of sources to get your calm on.
18. Joachim Spieth “FOCUS | RAFAEL ANTON IRISARR” (Joachim Spieth, April 23, 2024) An inside job, consider that the author/DJ/label owner/sound designer is collaborating and putting music out by the subject (an ambient artist) but he gets such undeniable, indelible quotes from the subject. “Failing is equally as important (if not more so) than succeeding.” “…comfort only breeds mediocrity. Scarce resources and limitations on the other hand, they are truly the mother of inventions.” “…make music with what you already have, not what you wish you had. Ultimately, equipment won’t fix the lack of inspiration or ideas.” And that’s just for starters. By now, Eno is either jealous, taking notes or scribbling these into an Oblique Strategy.
19. Chris Schulz “I asked music journalists to sum up 2024. They did not hold back.” (Boiler Room, November 27, 2024) What I love about this is that we get to hear a perspective from outside the usual US/UK axis of music writing where New Zealand now has a voice. And yes, it’s grim, very grim. But maybe we can commiserate a bit and realize that it’s not just happening in the States- the journalism crisis is everywhere. I do wish he could have gotten some of the other scribes to name themselves, if not to give them credit but also find out more about the sources and where we can read more of ‘em.
20. Chris Stanton “Robert Smith Is a Big Ol’ Book Nerd” (Vulture, November 5, 2024) You probably heard that The Cure finally put out a new record for the first time in over a decade and a half and read about all the gushing about it but here’s a novel angle. Ol’ Robert returning to his literary roots (remember their first single was based on some Albert Camus vignettes) for anyone ready to dig for them, like here. Taylor beat ‘em to Dylan Thomas and Shakespeare is everywhere but we sci-fi nerds can appreciate the Ray Bradbury nod and then there’s two toasts to lesser-known Brit writer Ernest Dowson. As Stanton rightfully asks, “Did you think Smith wouldn’t be drawn to outrageously ill-fated poets?“
21. Allison Stewart “The Future of Music and Music Journalism in 2024” (WNYC, January 23, 2024) In the wake of the Pitchfork debacle, Atlantic writer Spencer Kornhaber penned “A Dark Omen For the Future of Music” for that publication- note that he didn’t qualify that by adding the word “journalism” at the end. Expanding on that thoughtful piece a week later, here he discusses what ‘indie’ means and how Pitchfork helped define that genre in the ’90s and beyond, the magazine’s scrappy beginnings, the significance of their decimal-numbered reviews, how the publication doesn’t get enough credit for diversification among their staff, plus how algorithms now lull all of us music fans into our own aural safe spaces.
22. Matt Stoller “Explosive New Documents Unearthed On Live Nation/Ticketmaster” (Big, March 29, 2024) Andy Cush’s expansive Hearing Things article above details the twisted tale of ticketing giants and Congressional bills meant to be fan-friendly, but are actually more chummy to Live Nation-Ticketmaster. The story there began in the same place it does here but at a different point. The late U.S. Representative Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) floated some bills in Congress that Cush discusses, but before that, his office spilled the tea on the predatory practices of Live Nation with a March report, which is where Stoller’s article comes in, detailing how the company corners the concert market through threats, intimidation, kickbacks and monopolizing on their many venues, which Stoller bolsters with some digging into investor reports from the company too. Pascrell died in August while his tainted Congressional bills lay dormant on Capitol Hill, further twisting the tale.
23. Laura Tenschert “Someday everything’s gonna be beautiful” (Definitely Dylan, March 25, 2024) By now, the subject of every boomer’s favorite songsmith seems beaten into the ground where there’s nothing left to say unless he’s got a new record out. This Spotify podcast proves that’s wrong. Taking “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” an early 70’s chestnut from Dylan, and making the seemingly impossible case of its importance, Tenschert finds that it’s revival into his recent setlists (with poignantly changed lyrics) is no accident as it may also be part of the basis for his Rough and Rowdy Ways album, and how he’s now confronting mortality, his own work and other weighty topics. Makes you want to plough through the other episodes to see what else she unearthed.
- Twinkle, Twinkle Uncle Floyd - January 29, 2026
- Best Music Journalism 2025 - December 23, 2025
- Rock & Roll Globe’s 20 Great Music Videos of 2025 - December 21, 2025
You May Also Like
-
May 12, 2021 -
March 25, 2021 -
January 17, 2024
What a great wrap-up. And I really appreciate the mentions of all the great music journalists who died this year — a bigger, sadder list than usual.