From Slate, Jody Rosen on the DORF Matrix: A theory of NPR's taste in black music. There is no such thing as "black music": Why should we speak in historical terms when discussing modern music? Listener as Operator: The "compositional improvising" of jazz, from big band to free to AACM, is, in its shared precarity, "tellingly inarticulate". Genre is still king: Bob Wills should be a jazz legend, but superficial criteria like instrumentation and audience have relegated him to the "country" ghetto. A review of The Jazz Book: From Ragtime to the 21st Century by Joachim-Ernst Berendt and Gunther Huesmann. A review of Selling Sounds: The Commercial Revolution in American Music by David Suisman. The Beatles were a triumph of capitalism — and it was all down to Brian Epstein. Bob Dylan’s band camp: An excerpt from We’ll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives by Paul Shaffer (and a review). Is it really only the lonely who play?: For decades, the wisdom of 1980s songs has led and guided us — but are their claims true? Alligator lizards in the air: When it comes to identifying truly awful lyrics that are the result of neither idiocy nor ambition, it’s best to consider the soft and mushy center between those two poles. Stairway to Heaven: Can you be saved by rock ’n’ roll? From PopMatters, deconstructing the clap: Rock music is the only art form that invites amateurs to perform along with the professionals and with predictable results; and the (indie) music industry is all right: The media is too preoccupied with the funeral arrangements of the mainstream music industry to celebrate the life that is happening elsewhere.