Ken Tucker | |
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 Tucker in 2008 | |
| Born | Kenneth Tucker |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | B.A., English, New York University |
| Occupation(s) | Arts critic, magazine editor and non-fiction book writer |
| Years active | 1974 [1] –present |
| Website | www.kentucker.net |
Kenneth Tucker is an American arts, music and television critic, magazine editor, and non-fiction book writer.
Tucker was born in Manhattan, New York City, New York, and raised in Stamford, Connecticut. He earned a bachelor's degree in English from New York University.
While attending NYU, he began writing freelance reviews for The Village Voice , SoHo Weekly News , and Rolling Stone . [2] From 1979 to 1983, Tucker was the rock critic for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner . From 1983 to 1990, he worked at The Philadelphia Inquirer , first as the newspaper's rock critic, and then its television critic.
In 1990, he joined Entertainment Weekly (a Time Inc. publication) as a founding staffer. He was the magazine's television critic, [3] DVD critic and an editor-at-large until 2013, [4] except for one year (2005–06) as film critic at New York Magazine .
Since 1982, Tucker has been a rock and pop music critic for the National Public Radio (NPR) talk show Fresh Air with Terry Gross . [2] [5]
Tucker has appeared many times on television, including multiple appearances on The Today Show , Good Morning America , The Charlie Rose Show , and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson . [6] He appears in the 1984 documentary The Gospel According to Al Green . [6] He is interviewed on-camera in Cartoon College , a documentary about the history of comics.
Tucker's reviews have provoked some notable responses from his subjects. In August 1980, Billy Joel, enraged by a negative review of his music Tucker had written in the L.A. Herald Examiner, tore up the review on stage during one of his concerts. [7]
Tucker's negative reviews of Seth MacFarlane’s animated series Family Guy resulted in a number of MacFarlane counter-criticisms, including a scene in which Stewie Griffin breaks the neck of an Entertainment Weekly writer widely assumed to be Tucker. [8]
For his critical writings, Tucker was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Criticism in 1984, [9] the first rock critic to become a Pulitzer finalist. [10] He won a National Magazine Award in 1995 [11] and has twice won a Deems Taylor Award by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). [12] [13]
Tucker has written frequently about poetry and comic books, most notably for The New York Times Book Review [14] [15] and The Best American Poetry blog. [16] His 1985 New York Times review [17] of the serialized portions of Art Spiegelman’s then-work-in-progress Maus is considered a factor in the mainstream acceptance of graphic novels and the publication of Maus by Pantheon Books. [18]
He has contributed essays to the following anthologies:
Sleater-Kinney is an American rock band that formed in Olympia, Washington, in 1994. The band's current lineup features Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein, following the departure of longtime member Janet Weiss in 2019. Sleater-Kinney originated as part of the riot grrrl movement and has become a key part of the American indie rock scene. The band is also known for its feminist and liberal politics.
Marquee Moon is the debut album by American rock band Television. It was released on February 8, 1977, by Elektra Records. In the years leading up to the album, Television had become a prominent act on the New York music scene and generated interest from a number of record labels, eventually signing a record deal with Elektra. The group rehearsed extensively in preparation for Marquee Moon before recording it at A & R Recording in September 1976. It was produced by the band's frontman Tom Verlaine and sound engineer Andy Johns.
Robert Palmer was an American writer, musicologist, clarinetist, saxophonist, and blues producer. He is best known for his non-fictional writing on the field of music; his work as a music journalist for The New York Times and Rolling Stone magazine; his production work for blues recordings ; and his clarinet playing as a member of the 1960s jazz band, the Insect Trust.
Ann K. Powers is an American writer and popular music critic. She is a music critic for NPR and a contributor at the Los Angeles Times, where she was previously chief pop critic. She has also written for other publications, such as The New York Times, Blender and The Village Voice. Powers is the author of Weird Like Us: My Bohemian America, a memoir; Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black & White, Body and Soul in American Music, on eroticism in American pop music; and Piece by Piece, co-authored with Tori Amos.
Corin Lisa Tucker is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist best known for her work with rock band Sleater-Kinney. Tucker is also a member of the alternative rock supergroup Filthy Friends, and previously recorded with the indie rock group Heavens to Betsy and The Corin Tucker Band.
Los Angeles is the debut studio album by American rock band X, released in April 1980, by Slash Records. It was produced by ex-Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek and includes a cover of the 1967 Doors song "Soul Kitchen".
The American adult animated sitcom Family Guy has been the target of numerous taste and indecency complaints. The show is known to include offensive jokes including racial humor and violent, gory, and disturbing images.
In the Jungle Groove is a compilation album by American funk musician James Brown, released in August 1986 by Polydor Records.
Edmund Ward was an American writer and radio commentator, the "rock-and-roll historian" for NPR's program Fresh Air from 1987 to 2017 and one of the original founders of Austin's South by Southwest music festival.
Margo Lillian Jefferson is an American writer and academic.
Stephen Holden is an American writer, poet, and music and film critic.
David Browne is an American journalist and author. He is currently a senior writer at Rolling Stone, where he has been a contributor since 2008. He was the resident music critic at Entertainment Weekly between 1990 and 2006. He was an editor at Music & Sound Output magazine and a music critic at the New York Daily News before EW. He has written articles for a variety of publications, including The New York Times, Spin, The New Republic and Time, as well as stories for NPR.
David Hajdu is an American columnist, author and professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He was the music critic for The New Republic for 12 years and is music editor at The Nation.
The second season of Family Guy first aired on the Fox network in 21 episodes from September 23, 1999, to August 1, 2000. The series follows the dysfunctional Griffin family—father Peter, mother Lois, daughter Meg, son Chris, baby Stewie and their anthropomorphic dog Brian, all of whom reside in their hometown of Quahog. The show features the voices of series creator Seth MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, Seth Green, Lacey Chabert and later Mila Kunis in the roles of the Griffin family. The executive producers for the second production season were David Zuckerman and MacFarlane; the aired season also contained eight episodes which were holdovers from season one.
Will Hermes is an American author, broadcaster, journalist and critic who has written extensively about popular music. He is a longtime contributor to Rolling Stone and to National Public Radio's All Things Considered. His work has also appeared in Spin, The New York Times, The Village Voice, The Believer, GQ, Salon, Entertainment Weekly, Details, City Pages, The Windy City Times, and Option. He is the author of Love Goes To Buildings On Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever (2011), a history of the New York City music scene in the 1970s.
The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do, frequently abridged as The Idler Wheel..., is the fourth studio album by Fiona Apple. Like her second album When the Pawn..., its title derives from a poem written by Apple herself. It was released in the UK on June 18, 2012 and in the US on June 19 by Epic Records. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, her highest debut yet, selling 72,000 copies in its first week. The album received a nomination at the 2013 Grammy Awards for Best Alternative Album. The album received widespread acclaim from critics, and was frequently included in year and decade-end lists by several publications; in 2020, Rolling Stone placed the album at number 213 on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
John Fullbright is an American singer-songwriter from Okemah, Oklahoma. While still in high school, Fullbright performed at the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in Okemah. In 2009 he released the album Live at the Blue Door and three years later released his first studio album, From the Ground Up, which received a Grammy nomination in the category Best Americana Album. He has been the subject of two segments on NPR and was a 2012 winner of ASCAP Foundation's Harold Adamson Lyric Award.
Low Cut Connie is an American rock and roll band based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Low Cut Connie has become the alter ego for frontman, pianist, and songwriter Adam Weiner, who has been the band's only constant member since its formation. Beginning as an impromptu recording session in 2010, Low Cut Connie gradually evolved into a vehicle for Weiner's songwriting and his onstage persona. The band has earned praise for its high-energy live performances, which Los Angeles Weekly described as "unmatched in all of rock right now." NPR Music described Weiner as “masterfully fluent in the foundational languages of Western pop.” Low Cut Connie has also gained notoriety for attracting high-profile endorsements such as a surprise inclusion on Barack Obama’s Spotify Summer Playlist in 2015, and a personal association with Elton John, who has called the band one of his favorites. Drummer/bassist Jarae Lewis joined in 2019.
Charles Aaron is an American music journalist and editor, formerly for Spin magazine, where he worked for 23 years.
Country Music is a documentary miniseries created and directed by Ken Burns and written by Dayton Duncan that premiered on PBS on September 15, 2019. The eight-part series chronicles the history and prominence of country music in American culture.
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