Spencer Kornhaber
Spencer Kornhaber writes about pop culture and music for The Atlantic, treating hit records, television shows, and celebrity personas as serious evidence of how people live, feel, and argue today. His work stands out for close, essayistic criticism that links the sound and spectacle of mainstream entertainment to questions of identity, power, and community. He approaches pop not as background noise but as material that demands full attention and careful thought.
Pop Culture and Music
Kornhaber is a long‑tenured staff writer at The Atlantic, where his beat centers on pop culture and music. He covers major releases and cultural events through criticism that foregrounds what songs and performances are doing emotionally and politically rather than through industry news or fan‑service coverage. In his writing on Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department, for example, he focuses on how the album excavates private life and narrative persona and then asks why that story feels familiar despite its intimacy.
That approach - starting from the details of a work and moving outward to broader patterns in culture - recurs across his coverage.
His pieces tend to take the form of clear, argued essays that blend descriptive listening with thematic analysis, often drawing out how artists construct selves and speak to their audiences.
He writes as a critic rather than as a reviewer filing quick judgments, building sustained arguments about the meaning of celebrity myths, fandom, and the emotional scripts offered by pop. The work situates music among other cultural forms, showing how songs, performances, and public personas echo debates about authenticity, gender, queerness, and social change.
The Dark Side of Christmas Music
Kornhaber’s interest in what familiar songs conceal and reveal is evident in his Atlantic newsletter feature on “The Dark Side of Christmas Music.” There he treats holiday standards not as harmless seasonal wallpaper but as a canon with its own tensions, conflicts, and uneasy histories. The conversation dissects how music that is supposed to be comforting can carry stories of loneliness, commercialism, and cultural anxiety, illustrating his instinct to look for complexity inside seemingly light entertainment.
Pieces like this show his willingness to move beyond the latest release cycle and examine enduring repertoires as living cultural objects.
He uses accessible language and concrete examples, but the emphasis remains on explaining why certain songs matter and how they work on listeners. That mix of everyday listening and structural analysis makes his coverage useful when a story touches both on artistic choices and on how those choices land in people’s lives.
Anachronistic Period Pieces
Kornhaber’s pop‑culture beat also extends into television, especially where music and historical storytelling intersect. In a discussion about the Apple TV+ series Dickinson, he explores “the power of the anachronistic period piece,” looking at how modern sensibilities and contemporary soundtracks are used to reframe a canonical poet for new audiences.
He is attentive to how form, tone, and musical cues invite viewers to see old material - such as Emily Dickinson’s life and work - through present‑day concerns.
This kind of cross‑media analysis underscores his broader interest in how multiple art forms collaborate to shape cultural narratives.
He connects television and music to questions about who gets to tell a story, what historical distance means for viewers, and how playful or disruptive choices affect reception. That perspective makes him a fit for stories that bridge music with other cultural arenas or that hinge on how an artistic project communicates its themes beyond the page or the recording studio.
Career and Perspective
Kornhaber has spent more than a decade at The Atlantic, first editing its entertainment coverage and then writing as a staff critic on pop culture and music.
Before that, he worked as a staff writer and editor at local and digital outlets and contributed as a freelancer to music and culture publications including SPIN, Rolling Stone’s online platform, and The A.V. Club. This mix of alt‑weekly reporting, local editing, and national‑magazine criticism has given him long exposure to both grassroots scenes and mainstream entertainment industries.
His background informs a perspective that treats pop performers - especially divas and other larger‑than‑life figures - as serious subjects for cultural study.
He is the author of On Divas: Persona, Pleasure, Power, a book that distills his thinking on how star personas, vocal style, and audience desire interact. He has also been recognized with an Excellence in Column Writing award from NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists, reflecting sustained attention to queer experience and representation in his columns. Across outlets and formats, Kornhaber’s work combines an ear for hooks with a concern for how culture encodes pleasure, marginalization, and community, making his coverage distinctly analytical within the broader music beat.
4 more music journalists.
Andrea Dresdale
Andrea Dresdale manages entertainment content at ABC Audio and covers music-driven pop culture for news and audio platforms. Her beat centers on chart-friendly pop, new releases, mainstream artists, awards, residencies and industry milestones. She also reports on legacy acts, anniversaries, nostalgia, remixes, live performances and music’s links to film, television, streaming and social media. Her notable coverage includes Taylor Swift, BTS, The Weeknd, Madonna, The Beach Boys, Bruce Springsteen, Patty Smyth and Miley Cyrus. Her work has appeared through syndicated ABC Audio coverage on outlets such as WRMF, KS95 and Hot 96.7. Dresdale writes concise, timely pieces for radio audiences. She frames songs, tours, specials and career moments through cultural impact, fan appeal, commercial momentum and lasting relevance. Her stories connect current hits with music history and show how artists maintain attention through new releases, collaborations and reinterpretations.
Andrew Weber
Andrew Weber uses accountability reporting to examine who benefits from decisions shaping Austin’s music ecosystem. He reports for KUT as a government accountability reporter and works as a freelance reporter and associate editor for KUT News across the public radio network. His music coverage focuses on musicians’ pay at festivals, health care, mental health services, venue relief and working conditions. He treats SXSW as a workplace and economic system, reporting on low fees, sponsorships, boycotts and the political choices behind the festival. He also covers government and institutional issues, including KUT’s relationship with the University of Texas and the firing of general manager Debbie Hiott. His reporting ranges from nonprofit support systems to experimental sound art. He plays music on the side and brings digital storytelling experience, including an Edward R. Murrow award for social media work.
Andy Greene
Andy Greene is a senior writer at Rolling Stone who stands out for long-form interviews and narrative features that follow artists across entire careers. He focuses on music, especially classic rock performers, live shows, tours, and band dynamics. He runs the interview series Unknown Legends and King For a Day, which center on veteran musicians, sidemen, collaborators, and singers who replace legendary frontmen. He also writes cover stories and major features on high-profile figures, including Radiohead, Howard Stern, Bill Withers, Nathan Fielder, Steve Perry, Pete Townshend, and Stephen King. His reporting relies on access, detailed questioning, and a deep command of rock history. He also writes about film and television when they connect to music and culture.
Anna Grace Lee
Anna Grace Lee is a Vogue reporter who covers pop musicians and celebrities through fashion, weddings, and lifestyle culture, focusing on dresses, events, pets, and subcultures rather than industry news. She writes scene-driven features that place entertainers in vivid settings, from villas to underground food markets, and treats music-adjacent stories as fashion and craftsmanship narratives. Her Dua Lipa Sicily wedding coverage shows how she frames a wedding dress as a haute couture moment and a pop-cultural milestone, emphasizing design, making, and handwork. Her Millie Bobby Brown miniature poodle piece reflects a consistent interest in celebrity pets, fandom, and off-stage persona. She also reports lifestyle features like Brooklyn’s buzziest underground cheese sale, embedding in niche food scenes. At Vogue she contributes to weddings, celebrity, living, and Met Gala coverage, and maintains a portfolio of culture and lifestyle work built around entertainment-adjacent storytelling.