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Sailer In TakiMag: Music Is The Most Popular Thing In The World

By Steve Sailer

10/19/2022

From my new column in Taki’s Magazine:

Ali G: [Explaining his business idea] What is the most popular thing in the world?
Donald Trump: [Ponders the question, then decisively finds the right answer] Music.
G: [Stumped, after a pause] No.
Trump: [Bored] Tell me.
G: Ice cream!
Trump: Okay…

Because music may well be the most popular thing in the world, I’m going to review two fine new books on music: Let’s Do It: The Birth of Pop Music: A History by Bob Stanley, a prequel to his well-regarded 2013 history of the rock era Yeah Yeah Yeah, and This Is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You by Susan Rogers, a popular science work about popular music.

Both writers are themselves old music pros. Stanley had a few hits in the 1990s with his cultivated dance band Saint Etienne, while Rogers was the recording engineer on Prince’s world-conquering album Purple Rain.

And both really love music and know a vast amount about it.

Both books are written in the 21st-century manner in which old-fashioned snide rock-music criticism has been displaced by poptimism, in which if you can’t say something nice about popular favorites, don’t say anything at all.

In his history of American and British pre-rock pop music, Stanley finds something good to say about almost every major figure, although blackface star Al Jolson is a challenge…

[Comment at Unz.com]

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