“Best Of” Lists Are Opportunities for Publications to Assert Their Brand

All “best of” lists say as much about their authors as the content they praise. An individual’s curated list says what they like. An aggregate chart of a website’s ratings says who their userbase is. A publication’s list is an assertion of their brand. This is true of basically any content, but for now I will consider music, which I find has the strongest association with “best of” lists. Music gets in our heads and we don’t forget it, leading to increased reflection and the persistence of older songs in culture. People who grew up in the 70’s don’t primarily still watch 70’s movies; a lot of people who grew up in the 70’s still listen to classic rock radio.

What It Means to Be Human: A Review of Reds (1981)

“The most problematic sense of man's life is embodied in the history of twentieth-century Communism. It was through Communism that, in our time, one could grapple most fiercely with what it means to be a human being.” [1]

The Kids Are Back in "Somewhere City"

How one album brought me back to my beginnings, in music and to writing.