Mark Kemp (born April 10, 1960) is an American

music journalist Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...

and author. A graduate of

East Carolina University East Carolina University (ECU) is a public university, public research university in Greenville, North Carolina. It is the fourth largest university in North Carolina. Founded on March 8, 1907, as a Normal school, teacher training school, East ...

, he has served as music editor for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' and vice president of music editorial for MTV Networks. In 1997 he received a

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

nomination for his liner notes to the CD ''

Farewells & Fantasies ''Farewells & Fantasies'' is the 1997 posthumous box set of the work of singer/songwriter Phil Ochs, chronicling his life and career in music from 1964 through 1970. With its non-chronological running order, it plays like three separate albums, ea ...

'', a retrospective of music by '60s protest singer

Phil Ochs Philip David Ochs (; December 19, 1940 – April 9, 1976) was an American songwriter and protest singer (or, as he preferred, a topical singer). Ochs was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, political activism, often alliterative lyrics, and ...

. His book '' Dixie Lullaby: A Story of Music, Race and New Beginnings in a New South'' was published by Free Press/Simon & Schuster in 2004 and issued in soft cover by the

University of Georgia Press The University of Georgia Press or UGA Press is the university press of the University of Georgia, a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia. It is the oldest and la ...

in 2006. Kemp began his journalism career as a newspaper reporter at the ''

Times-News (Burlington, North Carolina) ''The Times-News'' is an American, English language daily newspaper based in Burlington, North Carolina formed in 1931 by the merger of the ''Burlington Daily Times'' and'' The Burlington News''. History ''The Times-News'' was founded in 1887. It ...

'', and later as an editor at the science magazine ''

Discover Discover may refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''Discover'' (album), a Cactus Jack album * ''Discover'' (magazine), an American science magazine Businesses and brands * DISCover, the ''Digital Interactive Systems Corporation'' * Di ...

''. In the late 1980s, he began writing for the alternative music and culture magazine '' Option''. The Los Angeles-based publication was one of the chief chroniclers of the

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...

independent

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

, hip-hop, experimental

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...

, and

avant-garde music Avant-garde music is music that is considered to be at the forefront of innovation in its field, with the term "avant-garde" implying a critique of existing aesthetic conventions, rejection of the status quo in favor of unique or original elemen ...

scenes, as well as a rich source of information on so-called world music. Kemp became the editor of ''Option'' in 1991, the year

Nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...

's breakthrough album ''

Nevermind ''Nevermind'' is the second studio album by the American rock band Nirvana, released on September 24, 1991, by DGC Records. It was Nirvana's first release on a major label and the first to feature drummer Dave Grohl. Produced by Butch Vig, ''Neve ...

'' stormed the pop charts. ''Options visibility in the early '90s led to Kemp's hirings at ''Rolling Stone'' and MTV. During Kemp's tenure at ''Rolling Stone'', several acts made first-time appearances on the magazine's cover including

Beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his Experimental music, experimental and Lo-fi music, lo-fi style, and became ...

Marilyn Manson Brian Hugh Warner (born January 5, 1969), known professionally as Marilyn Manson, is an American rock musician. He came to prominence as the lead singer of the band which shares his name, of which he remains the only constant member since it ...

The Prodigy The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music band formed in Braintree, Essex, in 1990 by producer, keyboard player and songwriter Liam Howlett. The original line-up also featured dancer and singer Keith Flint and dancer and occasional l ...

and

Sean Combs Sean Combs (born Sean John Combs; November 4, 1969), also known by his stage names Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Puffy, or Diddy, is an American rapper, actor, record producer, and record executive. Born in New York City, he worked as a talent directo ...

. Kemp also was responsible for assigning a controversial investigative cover story on

Pearl Jam Pearl Jam is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. The band's lineup consists of founding members Jeff Ament (bass guitar), Stone Gossard (rhythm guitar), Mike McCready (lead guitar), and Eddie Vedder (lead vocals, guita ...

singer

Eddie Vedder Eddie Jerome Vedder (born Edward Louis Severson III; December 23, 1964) is an American singer, musician, and songwriter best known as the lead vocalist and one of four guitarists of the rock band Pearl Jam. He also appeared as a guest vocalist i ...

, reported by a team of three journalists, staff writers

John Colapinto John Colapinto (born in 1958) is a Canadian journalist, author and novelist and a staff writer at ''The New Yorker''. In 2000, he wrote the ''New York Times'' bestseller '' As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl'', which exposed ...

(now at The New Yorker), Matt Hendrickson (Garden and Gun) and Eric Boehlert (Media Matters), and without Vedder's cooperation. At MTV Kemp was part of a team responsible for launching the popular daytime music-video series ''

Total Request Live ''Total Request Live'' (known commonly as ''TRL'') was an American television program broadcast on MTV that premiered on September 14, 1998. TRL featured popular music videos played during its countdown, and was also used as a promotion tool by ...

''; he also helped develop shows for MTV's sister station VH1. Kemp left MTV in 2000 to focus on writing his social/cultural memoir ''Dixie Lullaby'', in which he revisited the

southern rock Southern rock is a subgenre of rock music and a genre of Americana. It developed in the Southern United States from rock and roll, country music, and blues and is focused generally on electric guitars and vocals. Author Scott B. Bomar speculat ...

of his youth and examined its social and psychological impact on young Southerners in the years following the civil rights movement. In 2002 he returned to his home state of

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

, where he served as entertainment editor of ''

The Charlotte Observer ''The Charlotte Observer'' is an American English-language newspaper serving Charlotte, North Carolina, and its metro area. The Observer was founded in 1886. As of 2020, it has the second-largest circulation of any newspaper in the Carolinas. I ...

'' and editor in chief of the alternative weekly ''

Creative Loafing Creative Loafing is an Atlanta-based publisher of a monthly arts and culture newspaper/magazine. The company publishes a 60,000 circulation monthly publication which is distributed to in-town locations and neighborhoods on the first Thursday of ...

''. From 2014 to 2016, Kemp served briefly as the editor of ''

Acoustic Guitar (magazine) ''Acoustic Guitar'' is a monthly magazine published in the United States since July/August 1990 by String Letter Publishing. The magazine offers information, inspiration, and instruction related to acoustic guitars for players of all levels from ...

'' and ''

SF Weekly ''SF Weekly'' was a free alternative weekly newspaper founded in the 1970s in San Francisco, California. It was distributed every Thursday, and was published by the San Francisco Print Media Company. The paper has won national journalism awards, ...

'' in the San Francisco Bay Area, but returned to North Carolina where he serves as senior editor at ''

Our State ''Our State'' (full title: ''Our State: Down Home in North Carolina'') is a monthly magazine based in Greensboro, North Carolina, featuring travel and history articles and photographs about North Carolina people, places and events. First publishe ...

''.

References

Currin, Grayson. "Home is where the South is: A city boy returns to Dixie to reconnect with his music roots."
Independent Weekly. September 15, 2004. Retrieved May 22, 2008
40th Annual Grammy Awards Coverage
Musical Theater, Film and Television, Box Sets and Writing. *Hochman, Steve. "Pop Music; Cover boy." Los Angeles Times. November 17, 1996. *Stout, Gene. "Rolling Stone tries to expose Vedder as 'master manipulator,' 'hustler.'" Seattle Post-Intelligencer. November 15, 1996. *Pergament, Alan. "Buffalo kid before he became a star." The Buffalo News. December 15, 1999.
Lawson, Kimberly. "Former EIC Mark Kemp named senior editor at Acoustic Guitar"
Creative Loafing, November 6, 2013.
Examiner staff. "New editor named for SF Weekly"
San Francisco Examiner, January 16, 2015.

External links

Southern Roots and Healing: E-mail Interview with Mark Kemp
Rockcritics.com.
Video interview with Mark Kemp about "Dixie Lullaby," Part 1Part 2Part3
Nashville Public TV's "A Word on Words" with John Seigenthaler.
Radio interview with Mark Kemp about "Dixie Lullaby"
North Carolina Public Radio station WUNC's "The State of Things," with host Melinda Penkava.
Radio interviews with Mark Kemp and others on the state of the New South
Baltimore Public Radio station WTMD's "Clear Reception," with host Sheri Parks (Kemp is the second interview on this show.) *Country music write
Chet Flippo on "Dixie Lullaby"
CMT.com.
Mark Kemp's Simon & Schuster Biography''Dixie Lullaby'' page at University of Georgia Press
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kemp, Mark 1960 births Living people American music critics American music journalists American newspaper editors East Carolina University alumni Writers from Charlotte, North Carolina People from Asheboro, North Carolina Journalists from North Carolina