Ann Powers

Ann Powers (2007)

Ann Powers (born 4 February 1964) is an American writer and pop music critic. She has written for many music publications, and her work has been widely anthologized.

Early life

Powers was raised in Seattle, Washington. She gained a Bachelors of Arts in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University, and a Master of Arts in English from the University of California, Berkeley. In her teenage years, Powers wrote about music in the now-defunct Seattle music tabloid The Rocket.

Personal life

Powers is married to rock critic and teacher Eric Weisbard.[1] They have an adopted daughter.[2]

Career

Powers has been writing about popular music and society since the early 1980s. The author of such books as Weird Like Us: My Bohemian America and coeditor of Rock She Wrote: Women Write About Rock, Pop, and Rap, she has written for various publications like the New York Times, Blender Magazine, and the Village Voice. Powers has been writing for The Record, NPR's blog about finding, making, buying, sharing and talking about music, since April 2011. She currently writes for NPR Music, and is a contributor for The Los Angeles Times.[1]

A female critic and journalist for a popular, male dominated industry, Powers’ work critiques the perceptions of sex, racial and social minorities in the music industry. She considers herself a “generalist” and critiques music from several genres. In the past she has studied literary theory, been a museum curator and written about topics such as religion, feminism and film.[3][4] After a brief stint at the New York Times in 1992-93, she was an editor for the Village Voice from 1993 until 1996, then returned to the Times as a pop critic from 1997 until 2001. During this time and even into 2003, Powers wrote articles for the NY Times that centered on everything from Rock ‘n’ Roll to Classical music, folk to the Four Tops. Notable articles included, “Jesus was a Loan Shark” in 2003, “When a Rock Star Goes Political” and “Sex, Death and Rock ‘n’ Roll” in 2002, and “MUSIC: The Year in Classical Music: The Critics’ Choices; A Canadian Bard and a Texas Tenor” in 2001.[5] From 2001 until May 2005, she was senior curator at the Experience Music Project, an interactive music museum in Seattle. After a brief tenure as Blender magazine's senior critic, in March 2006 she accepted a position as chief pop-music critic at the Los Angeles Times, where she succeeded Robert Hilburn.[6]

Most recently, Powers has been appearing in and writing many blogs and articles for WNYC, New York's flagship public radio stations broadcasting programs from NPR, American Public Media, Public Radio International and the BBC World Service, as well as local programming[7]

In 2014, Powers was a program committee member for the 13th Annual EMP Pop Conference.[8][9]

Books

In 2005, Powers co-wrote the book Piece by Piece with musician Tori Amos. The book discusses the role of women in the modern music industry, and features information about composing, touring, performance, and the realities of the music business.

In 2008 Ann Powers wrote a book titled Kate Bush’s The Dreaming published by Bloomsbury Academic. This piece specifically focuses on Kate Bush’s lyrics throughout her album, The Dreaming, which was released in the 1982. Powers uses this piece to deliver the information of the forms of gender experimentation in pop music during the 1980s. Powers also covers the types of hardships that Kate Bush experienced as she was going through her musical career breakthrough.[10]

Other Media

Powers once said in a PBS Frontline interview that “[she] really [doesn’t] think you can pinpoint a moment of purity in popular music where it was divorced from commercial desires and commercial interests.” [11]

Powers made an appearance on the film “The Punk Singer” [12] as an interviewee discussing the influence of Kathleen Hanna on Punk music.[13]

Awards

Powers was one of the winners of the 42nd Annual ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards (2010).[14]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Roderick, Kevin. "Critic Ann Powers leaves L.A. Times for NPR". LA Observed. Archived from the original on 20 February 2011. Retrieved 28 March 2011.
  2. ↑ "Sharing Rebecca". Parenting. Retrieved 28 March 2011.
  3. ↑ "Why I Write: Ann Powers Reflects on Writing About Rock". Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  4. ↑ "Pop music critic Ann Powers searches for the language of rock and roll". Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  5. ↑ "Ann Powers". Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  6. ↑ Patrick MacDonald, Ann Powers named L.A. Times pop critic, Seattle Times, March 7, 2006
  7. ↑ "People - Ann Powers - WNYC". Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  8. ↑ "Call for Papers: 2014 EMP Pop Conference." (n.d.): n. pag. EMP Museum. Sept. 2013. Web. 21 May 2014. <http://www.empmuseum.org/media/254876/emp_pop_conference_2014_call_for_papers.pdf
  9. ↑ "Pop Conference." Pop Conference. Experience Music Project, n.d. Web. 21 May 2014. <http://www.empmuseum.org/programs-plus-education/programs/pop-conference.aspx?t=zpowers#Tabs
  10. ↑ Powers, Ann. "Kate Bush's The Dreaming." Google Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 June 2014. <http://books.google.com/books/about/Kate_Bush_s_The_Dreaming.html?id=2GHdGAAACAAJ
  11. ↑ "Interviews - Ann Powers." Frontline. PBS, n.d. Web. 1 June 2014. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/interviews/powers.html
  12. ↑ "The Punk Singer". Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  13. ↑ "The Punk Singer: A Film About Kathleen Hanna". Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  14. ↑ 42nd Annual ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards Announced, ASCAP, 2010-11-08. Retrieved 2010-11-08.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ann Powers.