Fantastic or formulaic?

The current "glut" of books about music deserved discussion and dissection in an article - but Michael Hann's piece for the Guardian strikes an odd note.

Rather than celebrating the breadth and depth of recently published works and a genre in rude good health, he complains that a trend for "the music writer's memoir with a twist" has become formulaic and laments a lack of diversity among authors, which inevitably results in a lack of diversity among readers: "the vast majority of music publishing seems to be middle-aged white blokes, writing about the youthful adventures of other middle-aged white blokes, for the reading delectation of other middle-aged white blokes".

At least Hann has sufficient self-awareness to acknowledge that that cap fits very snugly when it comes to his own book, Denim & Leather - but his characterisation of the wider landscape seems unnecessarily sour, cynical and indeed distorting.

Lee Brackstone might accept that his White Rabbit list could and should be more diverse ("That's something I'm really conscious about"), but in 2022 his imprint alone has published well-received books by the likes of Jude Rogers, Sinead Gleeson and Kim Gordon, and Adelle Stripe (in conjunction with Fat White Family's Lias Saouidi).

On Twitter, Rogers - while rather generously suggesting that Hann may have been up against word count restrictions - has justifiably sought to set the record straight: "I wanted to take the chance to shout out others from 2022 to show that diversity which is questioned (which needs broadening, but still - we're here!)."