Brittany Spanos

The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. Find sources: "Brittany Spanos" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Brittany Spanos is an American music journalist. Spanos is a senior writer at Rolling Stone. As well as writing for the magazine, she hosts two podcasts: Don't Let This Flop and 500 Greatest Albums. She is also an adjunct instructor at New York University Tisch School of the Arts.^[1]

Life and career[edit]

Spanos grew up in the South Suburbs of Chicago before moving to New York to study at NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study. She became Clubs Editor at the Village Voice and freelanced for magazines including Rookie, Cosmopolitan, Vulture, The Hairpin and SPIN before joining Rolling Stone as a staff writer in 2015.^[2][3][4] She is a frequent guest writer, opinion contributor, panel participant, and public speaker.^[5][6][7][8] Her work is often cited and has also been published in Smithsonian Magazine and Slate magazine, and she has worked as a consultant for MTV.^{[9][10][11][12][4]}

Though Spanos has been a regular and prolific critic, reviewing hundreds of individual releases, her longer form Rolling Stone journalism has often highlighted the creativity and variety of cultural production by Black women. In 2016 Spanos previewed Beyoncé's album Lemonade for Rolling Stone, arguing that it "reclaims rock's black female legacy".^[13] Spanos profiled Issa Rae twice for Rolling Stone in 2016-17.^[14] In 2018 Spanos interviewed Janelle Monáe, providing Monáe with an opportunity to give the first extended discussion of her queer identity politics.^[15] Her 2020 cover interview of Lizzo allowed Lizzo to articulate her experience of experiencing fame as a fat Black woman.^[16] She has also authored Rolling Stone cover interviews with Adele, Cardi B, Dua Lipa, and Harry Styles, amongst others.^{[11][17][18][19]}

Since 2020 she has been the host of a weekly podcast called Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums, which, according to the magazine, is based on an "updated version of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums list".^[20][21][22]

Spanos teaches a course on Taylor Swift at NYU's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music.^{[23][24][25][26][27]} According to American Songwriter magazine, the the course, which "follows the evolution of Swift’s career as a songwriter, entrepreneur, and artist in country and pop" is intended to "deconstruct both the appeal and aversions to Taylor Swift". The article continues, "Spanos, who has been covering the ascension of Swift throughout her career" said that she hopes to help her students "rethink how to engage with one of the world’s biggest and sometimes divisive stars".^[28] Since the class's inception in 2022, other universities such as the University of Texas at Austin, UC Berkeley, Harvard, and Stanford have begun offering similar courses.^[29][30]

In February 2024, Spanos delivered the keynote address at Swiftposium, a 2-day symposium on Swift at the University of Melbourne.^[31][32][8]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Be Your Own Vehicle for Your Voice with Brittany Spanos
• Teaching a Course in Taylor Swift (ABC interview with Rod Quinn)

This biographical article related to music journalism in the United States is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e