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 ...

and author. A graduate of

East Carolina University East Carolina University (ECU) is a public university in Greenville, North Carolina, United States. It is the List of universities in North Carolina by enrollment, fourth largest university in North Carolina and the only one in the state with s ...

, 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, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

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

Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

nomination for his liner notes to the CD '' Farewells & Fantasies'', a retrospective of music by '60s protest singer

Phil Ochs Philip David Ochs (; December 19, 1940 – April 9, 1976) was an American songwriter, protest song, protest singer (or, as he preferred, "topical singer"), and Political Activist, political activist. Ochs was known for his sharp wit, sardonic h ...

. 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 land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia. It is the oldest and largest publishing house in Georgia and a me ...

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 * "Discover", a song by Chris Brown from his 2015 album ''Royalty'' Businesses and bran ...

''. 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 music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

independent

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

hip-hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hi ...

, 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. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

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 came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mos ...

, 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 elem ...

scenes, as well as a rich source of information on so-called

world music "World music" is an English phrase for styles of music from non-English speaking countries, including quasi-traditional, Cross-cultural communication, intercultural, and traditional music. World music's broad nature and elasticity as a musical ...

. Kemp became the editor of ''Option'' in 1991, the year

Nirvana Nirvana, in the Indian religions (Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism), is the concept of an individual's passions being extinguished as the ultimate state of salvation, release, or liberation from suffering ('' duḥkha'') and from the ...

's breakthrough album ''

Nevermind ''Nevermind'' is the second studio album by the American rock band Nirvana (band), Nirvana, released on September 24, 1991, by DGC Records. It was Nirvana's first release on a Record label#Major versus independent record labels, major label an ...

'' 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), known mononymously as Beck, 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 mus ...

Marilyn Manson Brian Hugh Warner (born January 5, 1969), known professionally as Marilyn Manson, is an American rock musician. He is the lead singer and the only original member remaining of the Marilyn Manson (band), same-titled band he founded in 1989. Th ...

The Prodigy The Prodigy are an English electronic music band formed in Braintree, Essex, in 1990 by producer, keyboardist, and songwriter Liam Howlett. The original line-up also featured Rapping, MC and vocalist Maxim (musician), Maxim, dancer and occasi ...

and

Sean Combs Sean John Combs (born November 4, 1969), better known by his stage name Diddy, and formerly Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, is an American rapper, record producer, and record executive. Born in Harlem and raised in Mount Vernon, New York, Mount Ve ...

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

Pearl Jam Pearl Jam is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. One of the key bands in the grunge, grunge movement of the early 1990s, Pearl Jam has outsold and outlasted many of its contemporaries from the early 1990s, ...

singer

Eddie Vedder Eddie Jerome Vedder (born Edward Louis Severson III; December 23, 1964) is an American singer, musician, and songwriter. He is the lead vocalist, primary lyricist, and one of three guitarists for the rock band Pearl Jam. He was previously a gues ...

, reported by a team of three journalists, staff writers John Colapinto (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'' (commonly abbreviated as ''TRL'') is an American television program that premiered on MTV on September 14, 1998. The early version of ''TRL'' featured popular music videos played during its countdown and was also used as ...

''; he also helped develop shows for MTV's sister station

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...

. 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 and blues, and is focused generally on electric guitars and vocals. History 1950s and 1960s: origin ...

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 U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

, where he served as entertainment editor of ''

The Charlotte Observer ''The Charlotte Observer'' is an American newspaper serving Charlotte, North Carolina, and its metro area. The Observer was founded in 1886. it has the second-largest circulation of any newspaper in the Carolinas. It is owned by Chatham Asset ...

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

Creative Loafing Creative Loafing is an Atlanta-based publisher of an arts and culture news and events newspaper/magazine. The company historically published a weekly publication that once had a 160,000 weekly circulation. While Creative Loafing is no longer p ...

''. 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'' is an online music publication and formerly 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 ha ...

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

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