The Best Online Essays of 2020

Here is a list, in no particular order, of essays and articles I enjoyed during 2020. They are mostly longform
essays, with a focus on music and culture, but with a few articles on other subjects included as well.
T.G.

For a list of my favorite recordings of the year, click here .

“Every Place is the Same Now” by Ian Bogost
The Atlantic, January 16, 2020

“Why Are Pop Songs Getting Sadder Than They Used to Be?” by Alberto Acerbi and Charlotte Brand
Aeon, February 4, 2020

“What I Learned from the Worst Novelist in the English Language” by Barrett Swanson
The New Republic, August 6. 2020

“Brain Wave: Binaural Beats and the Poetics of Brainhacking” by Suzannah Showler
Real Life, February 10, 2020

“Winner Take All: Igor Levit in the Attention Economy” by Hartmut Welscher
Van, February 20, 2020

“America’s Best Wedding Band Will Be Back After a Brief Break” by Daniel Riley
GQ, July 22, 2020

“Reading Richard Rorty in Tehran” by Samuel Thorpe
The Nation, February 28, 2020

“An Existential Crisis in Neuroscience” by Grigori Guitchounts
Nautilus, January 23, 2020

“The Politics of Pop: The Rise and Repression of Uyghur Music in China” by Elise Anderson
Los Angeles Review of Books, May 31, 2020

"Black Mystery School Pianists" by Matthew Shipp
New Music Box, December 18, 2020

“Why a 272-Year-Old Philosopher Just Got Carted Across a College Quad” by Isaac Schultz
Atlas Obscura, March 4, 2020

“Buddy Bolden’s Blues” by James Karst
64 Parishes, May 22, 2020

“The Black Dahlia: The Long Strange History of Los Angeles’ Coldest Cold Case” by Miles Corwin
CrimeReads, September 10, 2020

“A Cultural History of the Cranked Snare Drum” by Jonathan Pfeffer
Full Stop, October 16, 2020

"The Missing Black Notes" by Harmony Holiday
Oxford American, November 10, 2020

“The Professor of Gimmicks” by Charlie Tyson
The Chronicle of Higher Education, June 25, 2020

“The Data of Long-Lived Institutions” by Alexander Rose
The Long Now Foundation, October 21, 2020

“The Woman in Black” by Eric Jager
Lapham’s Quarterly, March 23, 2020

“Why Do We Even Listen to New Music?” by Jeremy D. Larson
Pitchfork, April 6, 2020

“The Philosopher and the Detectives: Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Enduring Passion for Hardboiled
Fiction” by Philip K. Zimmerman
CrimeReads, September 24, 2020

“The Most Important Technology Critic in the World Was Tired Of Knowledge Based on Clicks. So He
Built an Antidote” by Maurits Martjn
The Correspondent, March 26, 2020

“Are There Laws of History?” by Amanda Rees
Aeon, May 12, 2020

“On Technodiversity: A Conversation with Yuk Hui” by Anders Dunker
Los Angeles Review of Books, June 9, 2020

"Bob Dylan Has a Lot on His Mind" by Douglas Brinkley
New York Times, June 12, 2020

“There Goes the Neighborhood: What Really Caused the Decline of 18th & Vine?” by Zeb Larson
Scalawag, December 8, 2020

"Do You Speak Euro English?" by Lindsey Johnstone
Euro News, April 23, 2020

“In Exile from Dreamscape” by Rubin Naiman
Aeon, December 23, 2020

“Audio’s Opportunity and Who Will Capture It” by Matthew Ball
Matthew Ball’s personal website, October 15, 2020

T ED GIOIA

Follow Ted Gioia on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/tedgioia

MUSIC: A SUBVERSIVE HISTORY

"I can't speak highly enough about Music: A
Subversive History."
Michael Dirda in Washington Post

“A dauntingly ambitious, obsessively researched
labor of cultural provocation."
Robert Christgau in the Los Angeles Times

"An entirely new way to look at how music
evolved."
The Atlantic

"One of the most perceptive writers on music has
cut a wide swath down the path of history,
illuminating details often left in the shadows and
broadening our understanding of all things sonic.
Gioia vividly points out that the wheels of cultural
advancement are often turned by the countless
unsung heroes of inventiveness. A mind opening
and totally engaging read!"
Terry Riley

“In the past, [Gioia has] written a series of
acclaimed books about jazz, but Music: A
Subversive History is by some distance the most
wide-ranging and provocative thing he’s come up
with.”
Alexis Petridis, The Guardian

“The highlights are too many to list, and mostly
arrive via Gioia’s refreshingly non-academic take
on the subject – he knows how to tell a story in a
way that will keep people reading….He has a
lovely light touch, a mischievous sense of humour
and a determinedly skewed take on how music
has been chronicled.”
Lloyd Bradley, The TLS

"In this excellent history, music critic Gioia dazzles
with tales of how music grew out of violence, sex,
and rebellion. Crisply written with surprising
insights."
Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Gioia's sprawling and deeply interesting history
of music defies all stereotypes of music
scholarship. This is rich work that provokes many
fascinating questions. Scientists and humanists
alike will find plenty to disagree with, but isn't that
the point? 'A subversive history' indeed."
Samuel Mehr
Director, The Music Lab, Harvard University

“This book fells like the summation of a lifetime’s
avid musical exploration and reading. It has an
epic sweep and passionate engagement with the
topic that carries one along irresistibly.”
Ivan Hewett, The Telegraph

"Ted Gioia's Music: A Subversive History is one of
the most important and welcome books I've
encountered in the last decade. If ever there were
a book the world sorely needed, it's Gioia's."
Jeff Simon in Buffalo News.

"As a fan of 'big histories' that sweep through
space and time, I gobbled this one like candy as I
found myself astounded by some idea, some fact,
some source, some dots connected into a fast-
reading big picture that takes in Roman
pantomime riots, Occitan troubadours,
churchbells, blues, Afrofuturism, surveillance
capitalism, and much more. A must for music
heads."
Ned Sublette
Author of Cuba and Its Music and The World
That Made New Orleans

"In this meticulously-researched yet thoroughly
page-turning book, Gioia argues for the
universality of music from all cultures and eras.
Subversives from Sappho to Mozart and Charlie
Parker are given new perspective--as is the role
of the church and other arts-shaping institutions.
Music of emotion is looked at alongside the
music of political power in a fascinating way by a
master writer and critical thinker. This is a must-
read for those of us for whom music has a central
role in our daily lives."
Fred Hersch

“A sweeping and enthralling account of music as
an agency of human change.”
Booklist (starred review and selected as one of the 10
best arts books of 2019)

"A bold, fresh, and informative chronicle of
music's evolution and cultural meaning."
Kirkus

“Thought-provoking….Gioia’s argument is
persuasive and offers a wealth of possibilities for
further exploration.”
Library Journal

The Best Online Essays of 2020

One of the 15 Best Books of the Year
(The Atlantic)
One of the 50 Notable Nonfiction Books of the Year
(Washington Post)
One of 13 Best Non-Fiction Books of the Year
(Christian Science Monitor)
Best Art Books of the Year
(Library Journal)
Best Art Books of the Year
(Booklist)

CRITICS' RESPONSES TO TED GIOIA'S
MUSIC: A SUBVERSIVE HISTORY