2026 Mix 38: Choosin’ Texas(?), American B-pop, Latin America in India, the Brazilian funk Esperanza Spalding, and other music that’s everything everywhere all at once
Dave, rockcritics.com is closed down forever,* but fortunately your 50 Favourite Songs entry has been archived by the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, so your essay and list (with your commentary) can be read at this link:
*Scott didn't renew with WordPress; he says he's saved everything ever posted at rockcritics.com, so nothing's permanently lost - though I don't know how much got scooped up by the Internet Archive.
Cumulative advantage for nepo baby music is extra because the outrage over unfairness plays into it, generating lots of free advertising. Economic injustice turns out to be the interesting new transgression that everyone's been looking for! It works because the obsession with wealth and celebrity as "goods" makes it ambiguous, not merely a bad thing.
A-pop theory helps with this because the biggest cases of rich people getting huge really doesn't cross over to the rest of the world that much. Stella Lefty doesn't do very well outside of the US (peaked at 73 on the GXU). I've heard an interesting case that I'm not informed enough to have an opinion about that one of Nashville country's success stories is still operating like an older-fashioned pop industry while major labels mostly abdicate that particular role
Dave, rockcritics.com is closed down forever,* but fortunately your 50 Favourite Songs entry has been archived by the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, so your essay and list (with your commentary) can be read at this link:
https://web.archive.org/web/20230603180203/https://rockcritics.com/2021/12/17/top-50-favourite-songs-david-cooper-moore
*Scott didn't renew with WordPress; he says he's saved everything ever posted at rockcritics.com, so nothing's permanently lost - though I don't know how much got scooped up by the Internet Archive.
oh wow, had no idea!
Cumulative advantage for nepo baby music is extra because the outrage over unfairness plays into it, generating lots of free advertising. Economic injustice turns out to be the interesting new transgression that everyone's been looking for! It works because the obsession with wealth and celebrity as "goods" makes it ambiguous, not merely a bad thing.
A-pop theory helps with this because the biggest cases of rich people getting huge really doesn't cross over to the rest of the world that much. Stella Lefty doesn't do very well outside of the US (peaked at 73 on the GXU). I've heard an interesting case that I'm not informed enough to have an opinion about that one of Nashville country's success stories is still operating like an older-fashioned pop industry while major labels mostly abdicate that particular role