Chuck Taylor (born September 28, 1962 in
Lynchburg, Virginia, United States) 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 ...
. He served as a reporter, senior writer, columnist and senior editor at ''
Billboard'' magazine from 1995 to 2009. There, he held the titles of Senior Editor/Talent, Senior Writer, Radio Editor, host of the Billboard Radio Countdown (online), columnist of AirWaves and, Single Reviews Editor since 1998; as well as Managing Editor of Top 40/AC for affiliated publication Billboard Radio Monitor, and senior editor/features and AC format editor for Billboard sister Radio & Records.
Life
Taylor graduated from
James Madison University
James Madison University (JMU, Madison, or James Madison) is a public research university in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Founded in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Harrisonburg, the institution was renamed Madison Coll ...
(journalism and speech/English), then worked in metro Washington, DC, for 11 years, including writing gigs at the ''Washington Business Journal'' and ''
Radio World
''Radio World'' is a trade journal published by Future US targeted at radio broadcast executives and operations personnel worldwide. Multiple editions are published for the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and the Car ...
,'' as well as a stint as Editor for Clark Construction Group (Washington's leading construction firm), before relocating to New York in the fall of 1995 to begin his career at Billboard.
Taylor has interviewed more than 2,000 artists and music executives, including
Olivia Newton-John
Dame Olivia Newton-John (26 September 1948 – 8 August 2022) was a British-Australian singer, actress and activist. She was a four-time Grammy Award winner whose music career included 15 top-ten singles, including 5 number-one singles on the ...
,
Celine Dion
Céline Marie Claudette Dion ( ; born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Noted for her powerful and technically skilled vocals, Dion is the best-selling Canadian recording artist, and the best-selling French-language artist of all time. Her ...
,
Britney Spears,
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...
,
Elton John,
Josh Groban
Joshua Winslow Groban (born February 27, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. His first four solo albums have been certified multi-platinum, and he was charted in 2007 as the number-one best selling artist in the United States, wi ...
,
Bette Midler,
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A six-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, havi ...
,
Tony Bennett
Anthony Dominick Benedetto (born August 3, 1926), known professionally as Tony Bennett, is an American retired singer of traditional pop standards, big band, show tunes, and jazz. Bennett is also a painter, having created works under his birt ...
and
Toni Braxton
Toni Michele Braxton (born October 7, 1967) is an American R&B singer, songwriter, actress and television personality. She has sold over 70 million records worldwide and is one of the best-selling female artists in history. Braxton has won ...
. He also penned liner notes for
'N Sync
NSYNC (, ; also stylized as *NSYNC or 'N Sync) was an American boy band formed by Chris Kirkpatrick in Orlando, Florida, in 1995 and launched in Germany by BMG Ariola Munich. Their self-titled debut album was successfully released to Europea ...
's "
Greatest Hits
A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be crea ...
" and Backstreet Boys 2015 Box Set, and was a regular contributor to Time-Life's themed music compilations throughout the 1990s.
He has been interviewed on music and pop culture topics on ABC's "
20/20", "
CBS Evening News
The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featuring news reports, feature st ...
",
CNNfn, VH1's “
Behind the Music
''Behind the Music'' is a documentary television series on VH1. Each episode profiles and interviews a popular musical artist or group. The program examines the beginning of their career, their road to success, and the hardships they may have ...
,”
MTV,
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
''. He was profiled in the career manual, "How To Get A Job in the Music Industry" () written by Keith Hatschek.
Taylor's artist specialty at Billboard was
. He penned seven front-page articles about the singer, including her first global interview previewing the release of 2003 album "A New Day." He also led a Celine Dion Special Section