Five Year Flashback: Top Ten Songs I Was Listening To – January 2007 Edition
So I am introducing a new (intended to be) monthly column here. Up until very recently, I’ve been religiously making mixes. Every month, I put together a mix for my friends. It was what I was listening to at that
Top Ten Samples in Rap Music
Sampling is essential to rap music. I’ve always liked the idea of DJs and producers pouring over crates of records. I imagine that our current generation of rappers are as informed by YouTube searches as they are by what’s available
Top Ten Songs For Being Home Away From Home
My brother Jesse and me, with a spray-painted snowman in front of our childhood home, circa 1987. Excuse me while I get a little personal. Back in September I went to visit my parents for a full 12 days. For the
Top Ten Inspirational 80s Songs
If you know me in real life, there is a good chance you know that in real life I work in the Digital Media Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There is also a pretty good chance you know
What Newport Folk Listen To
At Newport Folk Festival this past weekend, I had the opportunity to interview many of the musicians playing over the two days. While I could have asked pretty much anything, I find the most interesting question to be one that
New York I Love You
I have been working on this mix for as long as I have been writing for Popten. It was at one point over 60 songs, and has morphed its way through at least 7 different versions. I found it so
Top Ten Songs For Easter
I want to wish you all a very happy Passover! However, there are not really any awesome Passover songs, unless you count Go Down Moses, which is only awesome when my cantor brother sings it in his bass-falsetto voice.* So
Top Ten Shows I Saw at SXSW11
By all accounts I saw 70 shows in the 10 days I was in Austin. Not only is that a lot to take in, it’s also a lot to process and a lot to recuperate from. In the past I’ve
Top Ten Commercial Songs – Take Three
Time for a round up of the songs I like in recent commercials.(See other commercial songs posts here and here.) These ones all break down to football, cars, and winter. I think it is time for booze to step up
Top Ten New Bands of 2010
I really only took one factor into account when figuring out what constitutes a new band in this list: their first full length album was released in this country in this calendar year. So you may try to argue that
