About this item
In the New Yorker hired Ellen Willis as its first popular music critic Her column Rock Etc ran for seven years and established Willis as a leader in cultural commentary and a pioneer in the nascent and otherwise male-dominated field of rock criticism As a writer for a magazine with a circulation of nearly half a million Willis was also the countryrsquos most widely read rock critic With a voice at once sharp thoughtful and ecstatic she covered a wide range of artistsmdashBob Dylan The Who Van Morrison Elvis Presley David Bowie the Rolling Stones Creedence Clearwater Revival Joni Mitchell the Velvet Underground Sam and Dave Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wondermdashassessing their albums and performances not only on their originality musicianship and cultural impact but also in terms of how they made her feelBecause Willis stopped writing about music in the early smdashwhen she felt rock rsquonrsquo roll had lost its political edgemdashher significant contribution to the history and reception of rock music has been overshadowed by contemporary music critics like Robert Christgau Lester Bangs and Dave Marsh Out of the Vinyl Deeps collects for the first time Willisrsquos Rock Etc columns and her other writings about popular music from this period including liner notes for works by Lou Reed and Janis Joplin and reasserts her rightful place in rock music criticismMore than simply setting the record straight Out of the Vinyl Deeps reintroduces Willisrsquos singular approach and stylemdashher use of music to comment on broader social and political issues critical acuity vivid prose against-the-grain opinions and distinctly female and feminist perspectivemdashto a new generation of readers Featuring essays by the New Yorkerrsquos current popular music critic Sasha Frere-Jones and cultural critics Daphne Carr and Evie Nagy this volume also provides a lively and still relevant account of rock music during arguably its most innovative period.
About the Author
Nona Willis Aronowitz is a writer, speaker and radio producer from New York. She has written about women, sex, music, technology, film, and youth culture for numerous publications including The Nation, The Chicago Tribune, Salon, Slate, and BUST, and has produced for National Public Radio. She graduated from Wesleyan University in 2006 with a degree in American Studies. She is the editor of Girl-drive.com, a community blog based on her book, Girldrive. She lives in New York City.
