"Music's biggest night"

Plus: a house pioneer needs help. [View this email in your browser]( [READER Logo]( Daily Reader | February 7, 2024 I suppose the Grammys constitute “music’s biggest night” if you prefer to experience music in five-minute spurts between commercials for sports-betting companies and whatever new stale procedural CBS has introduced to its broadcast schedule. But as much as I chafe at the idea of turning art into a competition, I won’t begrudge anyone for their interest in the Grammy Awards. I don’t often get the sense that I exhibit the same musical world as those who vote for these awards, but when an artist whose music has touched me wins a trophy on national TV, I recognize the power of such a moment—at the very least, it can convince a viewer to listen to a musical act they might not otherwise know about. This is part of the reason I still have an emotional reaction to a big awards show; the material rewards do exist. I also get upset with the Grammys because of how mainstream institutions reinforce the idea that an awards show is somehow the pinnacle of music, the most important event for an art form that I love because it’s fluid and everyday. I experience music as a band whose live set blindsides me, as a record I find while flipping through used bins at a record store, as a song a stranger sings with great feeling on a CTA car, as a YouTube video I play and replay late at night because I love it so much. Music is a powerful thing I have dedicated my life to writing about, and I still fumble with the language I need to say why a specific album shakes me to my core. The music that means the most to me, and the contexts within which it resonates, are hard to duplicate and explain. Of course I’ll be upset by the idea that a Sunday night TV broadcast has any sort of supremacy over all the ways music continues to keep me spellbound all year. As quick-hit reports from the Grammys flooded my RSS feed through Monday morning, my thoughts turned to matters that were more pressing to me. Earlier this week, I learned that [Chosen Few collective]( member and Chicago house pioneer Jesse Saunders has been struggling with severe health challenges since he suffered a stroke in November 2022. Last week, Kirk Townsend [launched a GoFundMe]( to fund Saunders’s rehab stay. Townsend, too, is a Chicago house pioneer; in the 1970s, he spearheaded dances at [Mendel High School that transformed it into a house haven](. Saunders spun at Mendel during those halcyon days, and the communal bond he’d formed with Townsend has remained through generations. As [Duane Powell wrote for the Reader in 2022]( the [Chosen Few]( made Townsend a member of the Frankie Knuckles DJ Hall of Fame in 2011. I’m saddened by the news of Saunders’s health. How could I not be? House music as I know and love it is rooted in a movement Saunders helped shape. Part of what I love about house is how much of the culture is bound up in community, and the bonds that helped house become a global phenomenon remain just as strong. The GoFundMe for Saunders is just one expression of those communal ties. The second paragraph on the fundraiser’s description lists all the people who’ve joined together to raise funds for Saunders, and the names contain a who’s who of Chicago house legends. All this shows me the power of music—as a force that can bring people together, as an art form that connects people across their lifetimes. And that’s something that cannot be contained in an awards show. ◈ [“High School Musical changed everything: An oral history of the Disney Channel Original Movie,”]( by Matty Merritt (Morning Brew) ◈ [“How Condé Nast bought and destroyed America’s iconic music publication,”]( by Max Tani (Semafor) ◈ [“In the Shadow of Silicon Valley,”]( by Rebecca Solnit (London Review of Books) ◈ Liquid Mike, [Paul Bunyan's Slingshot]( ◈ Lightleak, [Heads /]( ◈ Citric Dummies, [Zen and the Arcade of Beating Your Ass]( ❄️ Leor’s [“First February 2024 playlist”]( [Internet.Hotspot rings in the Lunar New Year at Phố Việt]( Plus: Gerda Barker reads from her memoir of Chicago’s punk and industrial scenes, and Fallen Log hosts the second all-ages Hallogallo mod dance party. by [Leor Galil]( | [Read more]( → [Renaissance of the Culture showcases some of Chicago’s best underground hip-hop]( by [Cristalle Bowen]( | [Read more]( → [Polish legends Vader celebrate 40 years of brutal death metal]( by [Luca Cimarusti]( | [Read more]( → [Escuela Grind invite you to the grind side]( by [Jamie Ludwig]( | [Read more]( → What’s new, what’s next. For the latest in visual and performing arts in the city, sign up for our arts and culture newsletter, Second and Fourth. The next issue drops Thursday, December 14th at 3 PM - with an introduction written by Theater & Dance Editor Kerry Reid. [GET A BEHIND-THE-SCENES LOOK AT ARTS & CULTURE]( Get the latest issue of the Chicago Reader Thursday, January 25, 2024 [READ ONLINE: VOL. 53, NO. 8]( [VIEW/DOWNLOAD ISSUE (PDF)]( [Become a member of the Chicago Reader.]( [Twitter icon]( [Facebook icon]( [Instagram icon]( [LinkedIn icon]( [YouTube icon]( [Website icon]( [Logo] You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from the Chicago Reader. Want fewer emails from us? [Click here to choose what you want us to send you](. Or, [unsubscribe from all Reader emails](. We’ll miss you! [Sign up for emails from the Chicago Reader]( | [Forward this e-mail to a friend]( © 2024 Chicago Reader. All rights reserved. Chicago Reader, 2930 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 102, Chicago, IL 60616