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Hey Kim,

thanks for the thoughtful response.

Changing the subject to music, I wonder how your relationship to it has evolved.

I got into this business because I loved to write. I would have written about anything, and was writing about everything from mayors'
conventions to olive oil when I was was starting out in the Bay Area.
But then Too Short and Hammer and the three Tonys started blowing up, and I wanted to write about them. HAD to write about them, like life depended on it. One thing led to another, and I end up as music editor of Vibe, then editor in chief ... hm. My story's old and been told. ;)

All's to say, I loved music, the sound of it, the histories of it, the art and science of it, the lyric sheets in LP covers, all that. There's a part in BLISS, wherein Eva is young and taping songs off the radio with a GE Cassette Recorder. That's the kind of girl I was. And in my twenties (hey now! quite some time ago!), when it was all about the excitement of reviewing live shows, I felt like the luckiest chick in the world -- going to the Bud SuperFest, or the Frankie Beverly concert, for free, and getting to write, and have published, my opinion about the shows. It was a dream come true. A dream I didn't even know I had until I was in the middle of it.

So then I got serious. Slaved. Plugged. You know the drill.

Continue reading "Danyel Smith: What's a Music Critic's Relationship to Music?" »

Posted by Danyel Smith at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (59)

Hey Danyel,

Sorry it took so long to write back, I just got back in town. Yes, we’ve never hung out in person, but I guess we’ll make up for that here online. We’ve definitely, though, crossed paths, or even maybe, walked down the same one. I remember bumping into you at one of those VH-1 or MTV tapings, and you told me, “You’re doing a great job” and then you shot me this look. And I knew exactly what it was you were trying to say without saying.

I’m only about nine chapters or so into Bliss (by the way, congrats), but already I’m starting to remember what the “music industry”—or as I like to call it “music bubble”— is really about. Eva works in the music bubble, a place where nothing else exists besides her business (be it personal or professional). I’m starting to see this as a problem for Eva because as I’m over 100 pages into Eva’s life, I have yet to hear from a parent, a sibling, a best friend, an aunt, a grandparent, a cousin—you get the picture. It’s only been a couple of days for Eva, but that’s all it takes, because as most of us who have been-there-done-that know, 24 hours without contact to the outside world will turn you into the one thing you’d never admit to being: #4080’s shady ass industry person.

Continue reading "Kim Osorio: The Trap of the "Music Bubble"" »

Posted by Kim Osorio at 07:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (89)

Hello Kim,

We've never hung out, but it's a pleasure to meet you online. Hope you enjoyed the book. If you've got bones to pick with me, I'm ready ... : )

Hashim asked me to start with a little about the subject matter of Bliss, so here goes. This very first bit is basically from the flap copy:

At a 1998 gathering on the Bahamas Paradise Island, record exec Eva Glenn is throwing a comeback showcase for her singing sensation, Sunny Addison. At the event's peak, Eva begins to sink beneath the waves of a confusing sexual triangle, a career at a crossroads, fading self-confidence, and decisions to be made about her possible pregnancy. She decides to flee Paradise for the pastoral out island of Cat, and what begins as an idyllic break turns into an intense sojourn that brings Eva to terms with the crises closing in on her.

It was my goal to take a cold look at the machinations of the music industry, but to also write with a passion for the power of pop. I wanted this novel to be about the year after Biggie and Tupac were murdered -- the bizarre mood so many of us were in then -- and have it also be about the rhythm and blues of life, and why we hold tight to the sex and music and love that offer us a fleeting glimpse of bliss, even when the price is steep.

The book is about women on the business side of music -- women of our, and of the previous and the next generation -- dealing with new power, new money, the pressure to be and to stay motivated, tough, pretty, in shape, in a relationship, and to do all this while acting like they are oblivious to the racial and sexual tensions that exist in the world, and in the music biz specifically. Bliss is Eva's story, for sure, but there are other important characters -- Dart, Ron, Giada, Sunny, Hakeem, Myra, Ned, Gayle -- who have whole stories. The way these men and women interact with each other paint a portrait of the way things were ... way back when artists like DMX were brand new.

Continue reading "Danyel Smith: A Lil' Bliss For You" »

Posted by Danyel Smith at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (74)