Mainstream Music's Delightful Guardian: The Wire Primers

    

In 2009, The Wire (Britain's informative magazine covering all things avant-garde from hip-hop, contemporary classical music, electronic music, post-rock, and jazz) published a collection of articles called The Wire Primers: A Guide to Modern Music to supply what Alex Ross could not cover in his The Rest is Noise.
      But first, let me explain "the Primer." Originally intended as a listening guide to Karlheinz Stockhausen's music, "the Primer" serves as a supplement of reasons for today’s music consumer to buy and indulge in "modern" music.  Within each supplement contains the title of the suggested artist, then a brief introduction (which usually lasts 3 or 4 paragraph and explains the writer's take on the artist), and a list of the artist's recordings which contains a synopsis of each CD, LP, cassette, etc.  All together, this concept is what really drives the Wire’s focus.  
    An array of authorities on today's music, like Ben Ratliff of the NY Times and Louise Gray, author of the No-Nonsense Guide to World Music, have contributed to the Wire's first collection of "Primers" which serve as the publication's expert opinion on 20th/21st centuries’ most significant artists.
      On behalf of the Wire, something as informative as The Wire Primers is smart and sensical since "the Primer" itself is one of the Wire's most interesting facets, which is why (while walking past the numerous volumes of books in the Oberlin Conservatory's library) I was genuinely compelled to randomly grab it on a night of intense studying.  Its silvery, metallic cover donned with a collage of (well, I honestly don’t know what, but it's so cool).  Honestly, why wouldn’t anybody want this?  (I was seriously considering reading it that very same night rather than doing the much necessary work haunting me at home.)
    Despite some controversy I uncovered (protesting its gross generalizations especially in regards towards its section titled “Avant-Rock"), The Wire Primers is certainly a wonderful beginners manual to the world of modern music. That is why, for a person like me with training in classical music theory and performance, it is perfect, and an ideal work to be sitting on the shelves of Oberlin Conservatory’s library, because after all for most students there, “Modern music” is an unfortunate acquaintance briefly encountered in a music history 100-level course.