Danyel Smith (Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop) and Kelefa Sanneh (Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres) have lived, breathed, and written about music for decades—and their epic new books are both years in the making. But beyond the ambitious scope, what these projects share is an unusually personal approach, looking at how artists, sounds, scenes, and genres have shaped the authors’ own identities. Now, Alan Light leads the two in a discussion that promises to be as lively and passionate as the teenage obsessions, fan loyalties, and outsized enthusiasms that inspired their lives-in-music in the first place.
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