Crown by Eric Gales: Blues but for the grace of Bach

‘Is this the beginning or the end of time?’ — Jimi Hendrix. Eric Gales is back with a blues record to compete with contentions to foundation of a new genre of music, along the lines of Bach’s foundation of classical music in the baroque period. The opening track of Gales’ record ‘Death of Me’ echoes … Continue reading Crown by Eric Gales: Blues but for the grace of Bach →

Blackpink in Dallas, Texas: Dancing in the Moonlight — a Comprehensive Concert Review

What a show. Blackpink’s solid and surprising debut to 20,000 fans at the KSPO Dome in Seoul, South Korea, has been matched by an extremely competent and at times riveting performance to thousands more fans at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. The opening ‘How You Like That’ is a perfect way to introduce … Continue reading Blackpink in Dallas, Texas: Dancing in the Moonlight — a Comprehensive Concert Review →

Tchaikovsky, Drake, and how music dies

One of the most popular moves in popular music is to make everything about love. This is sweet, and there’s nothing wrong with it. But the problem is when music fails to recognise what this move entails: the death of music. Let me explain. Art to an extreme. Music in the modern age begun with … Continue reading Tchaikovsky, Drake, and how music dies →

Sabrina Carpenter’s rocking James Corden show: The heir to the pop throne perfects her craft

YouTube comments are funny things. (I should know.) ‘GIVE THIS WOMAN A GRAMMY ALREADY’ — ‘SHE DOESN’T NEED A GRAMMY. THE GRAMMYS NEED HER. [STAR EMOJI]’ — ‘FRRR’. Or so goes one string of comments that express the vibes of a fan base of a newcomer to celebrity and pop music. But Sabrina Carpenter is … Continue reading Sabrina Carpenter’s rocking James Corden show: The heir to the pop throne perfects her craft →

Why Lisa from Blackpink is the next queen of hip hop, but it may take a while for her to break free

K-Pop is paradoxically encaged by its global popularity. Breaking through to the American audience at the beating heart of global capitalism is key to success in modern music. For with commercial success can come the freedom to make truly artistic music. This happened most recently with hip hop, which transformed through its late ‘90s and … Continue reading Why Lisa from Blackpink is the next queen of hip hop, but it may take a while for her to break free →

WAMBOP: A new music genre is born

Every age gives birth to its own art form. This is ours. The contested birth of jazz music, a century ago. Think of classical, rock, hip hop — or jazz, which took off in the last roaring ‘20s. What will this new genre sound like? Here’s a hint. More generally, I have argued that Kanye … Continue reading WAMBOP: A new music genre is born →

How music survived: The turn from romanticism to jazz

Modern music began with J. S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, which laid the foundations for a new harmonic structure of overlapping melodies to replace the medieval unison chorus, and Renaissance eclecticism. Bach took folk tunes and made them the ‘themes’ of his new architecture. After Bach’s ‘baroque era’ of the early eighteenth century, Mozart developed the … Continue reading How music survived: The turn from romanticism to jazz →

Mixing my lead single, ‘First Time’

I have just uploaded my debut lead single ‘First Time’, from my upcoming debut EP ‘Born’, to SoundCloud. It’s an electropop song which I wrote, recorded, produced, and engineered. This is the version ‘in the mix’ — with the complete ‘master’ on the way. Here it is! Edmund Wilson · First Time (Mix)

Calvin Harris’s ‘Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 2’: A voyage into the future

Charlie Puth and Calvin Harris and Shenseea’s ‘Obsessed’ is remarkable, because three things are happening simultaneously: 1. Charlie Puth is doing his classic jazz-inflected vocal production magic, 2. Calvin Harris is employing his distinctive discopop sonic skills that dominated the 2010s club scene, and 3. Shenseea is rapping well — sulkily, smoothly, and skilfully. Calvin … Continue reading Calvin Harris’s ‘Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 2’: A voyage into the future →

Aitch and the 50 Cent / Kanye Pivot

Hip hop is not what it was. Or is it? In order for hip hop to expand beyond its core bases of east and west coast radio stations and recording studios, as well as the Chicago scene which gave birth to the irreversible mainstreaming of hip hop, the now-universal genre of popular music has taken … Continue reading Aitch and the 50 Cent / Kanye Pivot →