Dan Charnas
@dancharnas.bsky.social
Author | Professor | Producer
Reposted by Dan Charnas
"We raise young performers up, call them prophets when they validate our worldview, then scan their work for inconsistencies and blast them because they don’t deploy the privileged vocabulary, expertise or nuance of a graduate student."
- @dancharnas.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/o...
- @dancharnas.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/o...
Opinion | Kendrick Lamar Can’t Save the World. Why Do We Expect Him To?
Now that he’s performing at the Super Bowl, it seems like he’s inherited a no-win situation for all the conflicted expectations that await him.
www.nytimes.com
February 9, 2025 at 9:57 PM
"We raise young performers up, call them prophets when they validate our worldview, then scan their work for inconsistencies and blast them because they don’t deploy the privileged vocabulary, expertise or nuance of a graduate student."
- @dancharnas.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/o...
- @dancharnas.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/o...
Reposted by Dan Charnas
Hey @dancharnas.bsky.social, this rich story you expertly tell is revelatory, maddening and sad—even as it highlights hidden gems that evoke joy and nostalgia.
Hopefully, today’s villains will be less impactful in reversing cultural and racial progress.
slate.com/culture/2024...
Hopefully, today’s villains will be less impactful in reversing cultural and racial progress.
slate.com/culture/2024...
The Song of the Summer Is Actually the Song of 1982
Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” is one of several recent hits bringing back the genre that never got a name.
slate.com
May 3, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Hey @dancharnas.bsky.social, this rich story you expertly tell is revelatory, maddening and sad—even as it highlights hidden gems that evoke joy and nostalgia.
Hopefully, today’s villains will be less impactful in reversing cultural and racial progress.
slate.com/culture/2024...
Hopefully, today’s villains will be less impactful in reversing cultural and racial progress.
slate.com/culture/2024...
The value is in the telling, not the tale.
November 23, 2024 at 3:20 PM
The value is in the telling, not the tale.
Reposted by Dan Charnas
Very excited to host author @dancharnas.bsky.social on October 24 as part of a speaker series I do at UMich called Diasporic Dialogues. He’ll be in conversation with my colleague Stephen Ward, talking about Dilla, Detroit, and hiphop…Roll through if you’re around the way!
October 18, 2024 at 7:50 PM
Very excited to host author @dancharnas.bsky.social on October 24 as part of a speaker series I do at UMich called Diasporic Dialogues. He’ll be in conversation with my colleague Stephen Ward, talking about Dilla, Detroit, and hiphop…Roll through if you’re around the way!
Fiorello La Guardia, in his *current condition*, would be a better mayor than Adams at this point.
September 27, 2024 at 12:21 PM
Fiorello La Guardia, in his *current condition*, would be a better mayor than Adams at this point.
New Yorkers do a lot of looking at the sky on this day.
September 11, 2024 at 1:40 PM
New Yorkers do a lot of looking at the sky on this day.
I don’t ever want to hear this man talk again.
September 11, 2024 at 2:45 AM
I don’t ever want to hear this man talk again.
Reposted by Dan Charnas
A number of folks have asked what I think. First, Ezra Edelman’s film must come out. Over the years, in talking to folks he interviewed, and to those who’ve seen the film, it’s clear he understands Prince’s story in a way few do, far beyond the myth that the man made. That’s a good thing. And…
September 8, 2024 at 6:05 PM
A number of folks have asked what I think. First, Ezra Edelman’s film must come out. Over the years, in talking to folks he interviewed, and to those who’ve seen the film, it’s clear he understands Prince’s story in a way few do, far beyond the myth that the man made. That’s a good thing. And…
Few combinations of words make me more viscerally happy than “big pot of coffee.”
April 26, 2024 at 2:38 PM
Few combinations of words make me more viscerally happy than “big pot of coffee.”
Something about that first scene in Breakfast at Tiffany’s always chokes me up… seeing a New Yorker in the 50s with a cup of coffee and a pastry and a paper bag… and thinking both how similar and how different we are from that time.
March 18, 2024 at 11:59 PM
Something about that first scene in Breakfast at Tiffany’s always chokes me up… seeing a New Yorker in the 50s with a cup of coffee and a pastry and a paper bag… and thinking both how similar and how different we are from that time.
There is nothing so triggering for me as hearing an album’s worth of incredible beats for an artist I signed who never finished their album.
March 12, 2024 at 4:50 PM
There is nothing so triggering for me as hearing an album’s worth of incredible beats for an artist I signed who never finished their album.
Of all the vices and weaknesses I have, I feel quite fortunate that “industry event FOMO” isn’t one of them.
March 11, 2024 at 1:09 AM
Of all the vices and weaknesses I have, I feel quite fortunate that “industry event FOMO” isn’t one of them.
Respectability Politics and Authenticity Politics are two sides of the same counterfeit coin.
March 1, 2024 at 1:11 AM
Respectability Politics and Authenticity Politics are two sides of the same counterfeit coin.
Reposted by Dan Charnas
This is the way. If low marriage rates are denying people the benefits of marriage, the answer is not coercing or shaming people into marriage--it's granting those benefits to support the many ways people do build community, stability, and family.
Opinion | Marriage has a monopoly on legal benefits. It shouldn’t.
Marriage isn’t always forever — or for everyone. Our policies should protect a wider array of committed relationships.
www.washingtonpost.com
February 13, 2024 at 11:03 PM
This is the way. If low marriage rates are denying people the benefits of marriage, the answer is not coercing or shaming people into marriage--it's granting those benefits to support the many ways people do build community, stability, and family.
Nothing makes me feel the beauty of the urban experience like Ash Wednesday in New York.
February 14, 2024 at 5:20 PM
Nothing makes me feel the beauty of the urban experience like Ash Wednesday in New York.
Does me slipping into using Garamond again simply reveal my deeply internalized elitism?
February 14, 2024 at 4:57 PM
Does me slipping into using Garamond again simply reveal my deeply internalized elitism?
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) still the best movie with the city of San Francisco in a leading role.
February 11, 2024 at 4:29 PM
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) still the best movie with the city of San Francisco in a leading role.
Reposted by Dan Charnas
Dug this pitch by @dancharnas.bsky.social for hip hop's early DJs as librarians granting "access to specific records [sometimes from parents' collections], both on the airwaves and in those temples of music, discotheques, a portmanteau, en français, literally meaning 'record library.'"
Opinion | Hip-Hop Is the Music of Vinyl Librarians
Hip-hop tracks became a retelling of parents’ and grandparents’ histories; each discovery of a sample source was like finding an ancestor.
www.nytimes.com
September 16, 2023 at 12:59 AM
Dug this pitch by @dancharnas.bsky.social for hip hop's early DJs as librarians granting "access to specific records [sometimes from parents' collections], both on the airwaves and in those temples of music, discotheques, a portmanteau, en français, literally meaning 'record library.'"
Reposted by Dan Charnas
I’m reading Dilla Time by @dancharnas.bsky.social and it’s great. There are so many good stories, like the time @questlove.bsky.social ran up a $300 phone bill listening to Slum Village’s album on a transatlantic call
October 14, 2023 at 1:18 AM
I’m reading Dilla Time by @dancharnas.bsky.social and it’s great. There are so many good stories, like the time @questlove.bsky.social ran up a $300 phone bill listening to Slum Village’s album on a transatlantic call
Reposted by Dan Charnas
Join me + @dancharnas.bsky.social for a discussion of my book 𝙊𝙡𝙙 𝙏𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙍𝙤𝙖𝙙 about the Lil Nas X song of the same name—we’ll be at Housing Works bookstore Tue 14 Nov. Bring my book to be signed or buy one there—purchases support HW’s vital mission. 🎤📚🐎
RSVP: www.eventbrite.com/e/book-launc...
RSVP: www.eventbrite.com/e/book-launc...
October 26, 2023 at 2:52 PM
Join me + @dancharnas.bsky.social for a discussion of my book 𝙊𝙡𝙙 𝙏𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙍𝙤𝙖𝙙 about the Lil Nas X song of the same name—we’ll be at Housing Works bookstore Tue 14 Nov. Bring my book to be signed or buy one there—purchases support HW’s vital mission. 🎤📚🐎
RSVP: www.eventbrite.com/e/book-launc...
RSVP: www.eventbrite.com/e/book-launc...
Reposted by Dan Charnas
So many of these guys are the same guy.
October 4, 2023 at 2:54 AM
So many of these guys are the same guy.
Reposted by Dan Charnas
Colors of the day.
October 5, 2023 at 1:47 PM
Colors of the day.