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Best Music of 2001
BY POPMATTERS MUSIC CRITICS
Rock returned in a big way with sell-out Radiohead concerts from coast to coast, The Strokes emerging as critical darlings, and the tried-and-true rock formula of monster guitar bands like Creed storming the Billboard charts.
[end of year 2001]

Best Film and Television of 2001
BY POPMATTERS FILM AND TV CRITICS
Business tends to go on as usual. And, following the trend of previous years, 2001 will go down as yet another disappointing one in movies and tv.
[end of year 2001]

All Too Much: George, History, and Psychedelia
BY MARK DESROSIERS
There are countless Beatles classics that would be nothing without George Harrison's trademark pretty, jangly, button-down riffs suffusing them like a potent incense cone.
[6 December 2001]

George Harrison, Like All Things, Passes
BY SCOTT THILL
For George, let's remember that it is sometimes within silence that we can make ourselves best heard.
[6 December 2001]

Give Me Life, Give Me Hope
BY GARY GLAUBER
Although George has passed on, his spirit and talent lives forever in the music. Thank you George, your talent and music continues to enrich our lives forevermore.
[6 December 2001]

25 Up: Punk's Silver Jubilee: Shadow of a Gunman: Brit-Punk and Northern Irish Terrorism
BY MICHAEL STEPHENS
Although U2 were indeed Irish, they had about as much personal connection with the Northern Irish troubles as the Jackson Five.
[30 November 2001]

25 Up: Punk's Silver Jubilee: "Good Clean Fun": Mike Thorne Looks Back on Punk
BY WILSON NEATE
"I find it very disappointing that punk in the 21st century has turned into a style and something to be worn like a jacket, rather than something which has a specific attitude to it."
[22 November 2001]

Masquerades: The 14th Virginia Film Festival
BY SUSAN BROWN
Set amid the gorgeous fall splendor of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Virginia Film Festival year after year remains an all-around classy production.
[15 November 2001]

Harry Potter: The Storm Breaks
BY JOHN G. NETTLES
It's Harry's world right now -- the rest of us just live in it.
[15 November 2001]

25 Up: Punk's Silver Jubilee: So Tough: The Boy Behind the Sid Vicious Myth
BY CHARLOTTE ROBINSON
The punk rock version of James Dean, Vicious solidified his fame by dying young, leaving behind memories of his notorious behavior and the mystery of girlfriend Nancy Spungen's murder. Although he contributed little to punk music, Vicious remains its most famous name, and his cult has only grown.
[8 November 2001]

25 Up: Punk's Silver Jubilee: Aesthetic Anesthetic: Liberating the Punk Canon
BY MARK DESROSIERS
Let's gob on the punk canon and see what happens.
[8 November 2001]

25 Up: Punk's Silver Jubilee: Atypical Girls
BY CHARLOTTE ROBINSON
Punk produced a larger number of influential female artists than most any other pop movement [but] most female punk artists either denied their feminism or avoided the issue altogether. The result was one of punk's greatest contradictions: While playing music without a blatant feminist agenda, female artists made real inroads in the male-dominated music world.
[2 November 2001]

25 Up: Punk's Silver Jubilee: "Are You Taking Over Or Are You Taking Orders?": Some Thoughts About The Clash
BY MATT CIBULA
The Clash got into music not because they wanted the publicity, or wanted to be down with the scene, or because they wanted to get laid. They did it because they had no choice. They loved rock and roll too much not to try and save its life.
[25 October 2001]

25 Up: Punk's Silver Jubilee: So bored with the USA?: reflections on a transatlantic divide
BY SIMON WARNER
On their first album, in 1977, the Clash included the track 'I'm So Bored with the USA'. It was a sweeping rant. But with which USA were the band so bored? Was it the Velvet Underground or Iggy Pop? Unlikely. Was it US television, was it US militarism? More probable. Was it more to do with the Clash resenting the idea of latterday American imperialism and, by extension, a suggestion that that very imperialism might be claiming this simmering sub-cultural volcano as its own? Quite possible. Or was it something else?
[18 October 2001]

39th New York Film Festival
BY LUCAS HILDERBRAND
This year, the New York Film Festival had a special significance, as it marked the return to some sense of normalcy in the city, two weeks after the World Trade Center disaster.
[18 October 2001]

Is There Nothing Left?
BY CHARLES MARSHALL
The hard reality is that U2 is over. As good as All That You Can't Leave Behind is at showcasing the best of the band's traditions, there is no good place to go from here.
[11 October 2001]

Ghetto Love: Talking about Dave Hollister and Jaheim
BY YVONNE BYNOE
What makes singers Dave Hollister and Jaheim so refreshing is that while they are street-slick they are also vulnerable and accessible. While iced-out rap artists stack women like chips but eschew closeness, most R&B superstars romance models in exotic locales free from everyday concerns. In contrast, Dave Hollister and Jaheim have the personas of guys from around the way who made good telling stories for and about average Black folks.
[28 September 2001]

Adventures in Dust: A Journal of the 2001 Burning Man Festival
BY ANDY HERMANN
What follows is less a review than a personal narrative. Maybe a journalistic recap of Burning Man is possible, but to me it misses the point. It's a participatory event, and everyone's experience of it is extremely different.
[28 September 2001]

Tears, Fears, and Mariah Carey
BY CYNTHIA FUCHS
Maybe I'm just trying to sort out why I was moved by Carey's performance on America: A Tribute to Heroes, why I was glad to see that she looked less frazzled than I expected.
[27 September 2001]

Banned in the U.S.A.?
BY PATRICK SCHABE
Following the turmoil felt all across the United States after the events of September 11, 2001, Clear Channel Communications announced a list of songs that are deemed 'questionable' in the wake of terrorist attacks and a move towards war . . . And this sensitivity, it seems, means that anything that may cause listeners to think about the crisis at all is to be avoided.
[27 September 2001]

Eddie Kramer Reminisces about the American Chap with the Big Hair
BY NICOLAS TAYLOR
He crawled out from under the avalanche of Hendrix tapes he is continually working with to chat with PopMatters about the latest Jimi Hendrix release, Voodoo Child: The Jimi Hendrix Collection.
[21 September 2001]

Hooked on Kael
BY EMILY WOODWARD
Perhaps the greatest indication of Kael's impact on the movie industry lay in its repeated attempts to lure her over to its side.
[20 September 2001]

Big Boss Man Samuel Arkoff (1917-2001)
BY DAVID SANJEK
... time has shown that his commitment to entertainment and customer satisfaction led to a body of work that retains its appeal long after more supposedly sophisticated cinema has proven pale and pointless.
[20 September 2001]

The End of the Push-Button War
BY MIKE WARD
The explosions of our weapons in foreign wars will not look like a video game. Not anymore.
[16 September 2001]

I Am The World Trade Center
BY PATRICK SCHABE
After seeing and feeling this most recent national tragedy, I am proud, scared, anxious, and angry to pronounce that I, too, am the World Trade Center.
[16 September 2001]

Thinking With the Wrong Hemisphere
BY JOHN G. NETTLES
In the minds of whoever is responsible for these reprehensible attacks on the United States, the hijacked planes were but the means to an end –- their ultimate work will be done by us the moment we sacrifice any of our liberties in the name of security.
[16 September 2001]

Four Movements and a Coda: Perspectives on a National Tragedy
BY MARK ANTHONY NEAL
I have been deeply conflicted by the events of the last week and the prayer vigil allowed me to finally understand that mourning the dead and valorizing American imperialism are two radically different concepts. The differences in these concepts will, unfortunately be will lost on some Americans.
[16 September 2001]

It goes on and on and on
BY CYNTHIA FUCHS
Criticism is product too, absorbed and deployed by the machine, as a sign of genius and innovation (like Cobain or Biggie Smalls), and also as a product to be sold, to be sucked back into the ever-envelope-pushing machine. Aaliyah is part of it, yes.
[10 September 2001]

Genius of Cool: Dan Hicks and the Post-Ego Trip
BY MICHAEL STEPHENS
Dan Hicks is to music what Philip K. Dick is to Sci Fi, what R. Crumb is to comics, what The Dude is to bowling: a true original in a world of copies.
[6 September 2001]

Film Revolutionary: Films By and About Mohsen Makhmalbaf
BY JONATHAN BEEBE
Luckily, audiences in the U.S. now have the opportunity to experience this pragmatic idealism for themselves.
[9 August 2001]

Is There a Gangsta Double Standard?
BY YVONNE BYNOE
I personally have no problem saying that The Sopranos and The Marshall Mathers LP are masterpieces. I am simply waiting (maybe in vain) for media critics to acknowledge the creative genius of Black rap "gangstas."
[10 July 2001]

Robert Johnson and the Art of Jimi Hendrix
BY NICOLAS TAYLOR
In his attempt to reconcile his blues heritage with his pioneering psychedelic rock, Hendrix created an unbelievable recording that defies any categorization. Like Johnson, his accomplishment was singular.
[21 June 2001]

Questioning the Answer
BY TOBIAS PETERSON
Now that Iverson is a superstar in professional basketball, critics are no longer able to point to his controversial gangsta image as a sign of the juvenile unruliness that had prevented him from winning early in his career. Instead, Iverson is widely praised for recognizing the error of his ways in order at last to "grow up," to "accept responsibility," and to "become a man."
[14 June 2001]

The Monroe Doctrine
BY JOHN G. NETTLES
Perhaps the saddest thing about Monroe's death is the culture of pervasive necrophilia that has risen since. Elton John brings the house down and rakes in millions singing, without a trace of irony, about how heinously those 'other' people so exploited her.
[31 May 2001]

A Song for Memorial Day
BY CHUCK HICKS
On this Memorial Day, while others will attend cookouts, go to the movies, or find the nearest swimming hole, I will be going on a search to find Clyde's grave.
[25 May 2001]

Forever Older, Forever Wiser? Dylan Hits 60
BY SIMON WARNER
Bob Dylan has resisted the fatal demons that came to haunt so many of his contemporaries. On May 24th, 2001, that giant of the 1960S reaches 60 himself.
[23 May 2001]

Recovering the Memory of Pop: Radiohead's Amnesiac
BY NICOLAS TAYLOR
Since 1997's OK Computer, Radiohead have been crafting a horrific vision of modern life in an age of technological global capitalism. Theirs has been the voice of the embattled idealist, desperately hanging on to the shards of authentic identity left to an individual in a world of money and commerce, corporations and conglomerates. The hell of 'Amnesiac' is the fear of becoming just another cog in the corporate machine.
[11 May 2001]

Havana Film Festival New York 2001
BY PRAIRIE MILLER
How much the US is missing by denying contact with the vibrant fruits of another country's artistic labors became strikingly evident at this April's Havana Film Festival New York 2001.
[4 May 2001]

Joey Ramone 1951-2001
BY DEVON POWERS
To paraphrase Griel Marcus, punk takes on many forms, and exists in a multitude of moments. In the days After Joey, let us let this be.
[26 April 2001]

(Your Name Here) Is a Punk Rocker: A Tribute to Joey Ramone
BY NORMA COATES
I love the Ramones -- I have for half my life. But what moved me most on hearing the news was my long-overdue realization that Joey Ramone was a hero to me. I generally avoid using autobiography as a way to comment upon culture, but I can't resist the impulse in this case. Joey's death made me realize how he, the Ramones, and punk rock, saved my life, not once but twice. I can't help but believe that he did the same for many others.
[26 April 2001]

The Zen of Mike Tyson
BY CYNTHIA FUCHS
"What in the world is fascinating about me, besides I fight and beat people spectacularly. Other than that, what's so fascinating about me?" You have to hand it to Mike Tyson -- this is exactly the right question to ask.
[26 April 2001]

No More Puff Daddy
BY CYNTHIA FUCHS
But even if we can see that hiphop has survived even Puff Daddy, an obvious, if not exactly pressing, question remains: how did he ever sell so many records?
[11 April 2001]

South by Southwest 2001
BY THOMAS SWISS
What do folks want most when they arrive for SXSW? The Big Bag. What's in it? Free CDs, mags, food, pens, lighters, CD openers, a flashlight, discount coupons, schedules of events.
[16 March 2001]

South by Southwest 2001
BY THOMAS SWISS
At the moment, there might 5,000 of the promised 15,000 participants from the music, film and Internet industries here. Most will arrive tomorrow when the music festival begins with the Austin Music Awards: Lucinda Williams, Alejandro Escovedo, James Cotton, and others will be playing.
[14 March 2001]

Tish and Snooky's Manic Panic
BY CHARLOTTE ROBINSON
Tish and Snooky are the Bronx-bred sisters who have been making the world more colorful with Manic Panic cosmetics for nearly 25 years. Although they started out with just a few hundred dollars and a single shop in New York City, today the sisters are at the helm of a thriving worldwide wholesale business.
[1 March 2001]

Slim Shady, Network Engineer
BY JAMES MANN
I will defend any ones right to say damn near anything at any time or any place, even crap like Eminem. But dear god, don't let me grow old in their world.
[1 March 2001]

Defending Eminem: Or, Steely Dan Ain't Nothin' to Mess With
BY KEVIN DEVINE
At popular music's senior prom, Eminem did what he has done perfectly for the past two years: pissed in the punch and left us to deal with it. Disagreeable or not, it's refreshing to see a pop star fan flames and not feel immediately compelled to play the firefighter right afterwards.
[1 March 2001]

And the Winner Is — Everybody!
BY MICHAEL ABERNETHY
This year, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences will present a whopping 100 awards, of which only a handful will be presented during the live telecast. The rest will be presented off-camera before the telecast begins.
[22 February 2001]