Millennium pop is a quarterly newsletter based on an interesting premise: as the info-glut thickens, and mass culture becomes more pervasive than ever, there's a distressing lack of animated, literate commentary about our so-called cultural dream life. "As the pop catalog explodes across 500 cable channels and the mushrooming Internet," says mp Editor Tim Riley (who's authored solid tomes on the music of The Beatles and Bob Dylan), "illuminating pop criticism is fading from the mainstream media."
I'm not so sure I agree - quality aside, it seems that serious critics are addressing themselves more to Madonna than to atonal music these days - but that's no reason to pass over millennium pop. Its first issue (summer 1994) provides 24 pages of witty, sometimes delightfully contrarian commentary on issues ranging from Eddie Murphy's flop-ridden film career to the discreet charm of Helen Mirren. Comics fans will learn about Dylan Dog, a pomo strip that's taken Italy by Fiat, and theater mavens will appreciate a dyspeptic take on the recent Lincoln Center revival of Carousel.
Pop music, however, is front and center - I think Riley's real goal is to resuscitate the once gonzo-proud, now semi-brain-dead genre of rock criticism. The best things in mp's first edition are Chuck Eddy's hilarious take on rock sellouts, and Milo Miles's brave puncturing of the hype balloon surrounding Johnny Cash's "roots" effort on American Recordings.
The contributors to millennium pop all seem to hold day jobs writing for places like the Village Voice, the Boston Phoenix, The Washington Post, and National Public Radio - but in these pieces one senses a liberation that comes from writing straight to insiders. It's the pop-criticism equivalent of a jazz club after the rubes go home, when the musicians play to satisfy only themselves. Somewhere in heaven Lester Bangs is smiling.
millennium pop: US$24.95/4 issues. +1 (617) 661 4518, e-mail 71477.304@compuserve.com, 173 Morrison Ave., Somerville, MA 02144.
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