For his 2007 critically acclaimed 33 1/3 series title, Let's Talk About Love, Carl Wilson went on a quest to find his inner Céline Dion fan and explore how we define ourselves by what we call good and bad, what we love and what we hate.
At once among the most widely beloved and most reviled and lampooned pop stars of the past few decades, Céline Dion's critics call her mawkish and overblown while millions of fans around the world adore her "huge pipes" and even bigger feelings. How can anyone say which side is right?
This new, expanded edition goes even further, calling on thirteen prominent writers and musicians to respond to themes ranging from sentiment and kitsch to cultural capital and musical snobbery. The original text is followed by lively arguments and stories from Nick Hornby, Krist Novoselic, Ann Powers, Mary Gaitskill, James Franco, Sheila Heti and others.
In a new afterword, Carl Wilson examines recent cultural changes in love and hate, including the impact of technology and social media on how taste works (or doesn't) in the 21st century.
Carl Wilson is a writer and editor at The Globe and Mail, Canada's national newspaper, and his work also has appeared in Pitchfork, Slate, The New York Times, Blender and many other publications. His pieces were selected for two of Da Capo Books' annual Best Music Writing collections, in 2002 and 2007, by guest editors Jonathan Lethem and Robert Christgau. He runs the popular music blog Zoilus.com and is part of the team behind Trampoline Hall, Toronto's acclaimed nightclub series of lectures by non-experts, which toured America in 2002.
Table of Contents
A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER PART I Let's Talk About Love: A Jourbaney to the End of Taste Carl Wilson 1. Let's Talk About Hate 2. Let's Talk About Pop (and Its Critics) 3. Let's Talk in French 4. Let's Talk About World Conquest 5. Let's Talk About Schmaltz 6. Let's Sing Really Loud 7. Let's Talk About Taste 8. Let's Talk About Who's Got Bad Taste 9. Let's Talk with Some Fans 10. Let's Do a Punk Version of "My Heart Will Go On" (or, Let's Talk About Our Feelings) 11. Let's Talk About Let's Talk About Love 12. Let's Talk About Love PART II Essays: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love Carl Wilson, "Introduction" Nick Hornby, "The Artists We Deserve" Krist Novoselic, "With the Lights On, It's Less Useless" Ann Powers, "If the Girls Were All Transported" Mary Gaitskill, "The Most Obvious Thing" Jason King, "Compared to What?" Daphne Brooks, "Let's Talk About Diana Ross (In Memory of Trayvon Martin)" Drew Daniel, "Deep in the Game" Sukhdev Sandhu, "Children of the Corn" James Franco, "Acting In and Out of Context" Marco Roth and the Editors of n+1, "Too Much Sociology" Jonathan Sterne, "Giving Up on Giving Up on Good Taste" Owen Pallett, "When I Come Home" Sheila Heti, "Playlist: Let's Listen to Love" PART III Afterword Carl Wilson, "Let's Talk Later" ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
