Mark Gauvreau Judge is an author and journalist who writes about popular culture, music, and American social life. He contributed to The Weekly Standard from 1996 to 2000, writing essays on topics ranging from swing music and comic books to Van Morrison and suburban culture. He is also known for his books on subjects including his youth in 1980s Washington, D.C., and American cultural history.
Religion and popular music -- yes, even rock 'n' roll -- have been close cousins for most of the century. Only in the last thirty years has rock 'n' roll put a premium on aggression and revolution, forsaking melody, harmony, and spiritual expression. Amazingly, in the last few years -- and leading…
In a recent interview in Rolling Stone -- part of the pre-publication hoopla for the much-anticipated A Man in Full, his first novel since the 1988 Bonfire of the Vanities -- Tom Wolfe bemoaned the state of contemporary American fiction. With only a few exceptions, he declared, fiction writers are…
As a leading cultural indicator, it doesn't rank up there with the national drop in crime. But it's close.
Last year, when the skies cleared following a three-day blizzard that had dumped 22 inches of snow and had trapped me inside my suburban home, I quickly donned my boots, pushed open the front door, and squeezed outside. And all at once it hit me: There was nowhere to go. I was standing on a street…
Like the deadly virus in the movie Outbreak that hatches in a tiny village then almost eats the world, Quentin Tarantino has gone from minor curiosity to malevolent force of nature in a very short time. Pulp Fiction, the young director's 1994 breakthrough film, has become a cinematic benchmark. Its…
In the last month, there have been several major surprises in the culture war over popular music. First, one of the music world's most liberal magazines issued a blistering rebuke of rock'n'roll's prevailing solipsism and spoiled-brat ethic. Then a respected classical-music critic published a…
In the world of rock'n'roll, as in the world of sports, a performer is often considered over the hill at an age when some people are in graduate school. Since the 1950s, pop music has celebrated the young and ephemeral; maturity, longevity, and ties to traditions have all become anathema to…
In the world of rock'n'roll, as in the world of sports, a performer is often considered over the hill at an age when some people are in graduate school. Since the 1950s, pop music has celebrated the young and ephemeral; maturity, longevity, and ties to traditions have all become anathema to…
FOR A SHORT TIME LAST YEAR, I was sure I was going to become an English professor. I had landed a job in the English department at Georgetown University, a job that offered free tuition. With the financial barriers to a Ph.D. eliminated, I was free to fulfill a lifelong dream. I would act on 20…