David Hajdu, author, music critic and more

Columbia Journalism School presents a conversation with Prof. David Hajdu, who teaches arts journalism and is the music critic of The New Republic. He'll discuss his new collection of essays, "Heroes & Villains," which is about a wide-range of arts issues, from the blues to Beyonce. ABOUT THE BOOK: "Hajdu's work is music and history scholarship disguised as popular writing: It explains why later movements and eras were possible. Hajdu writes with clear authority and always has the correct reference, quote or example at hand. His strong referential style--bringing in obscure, far-flung yet meaningful examples and corollaries--is like a grown-up Chuck Klosterman, minus the cocaine. Heroes and Villains is dense, but it's hot." -- Matt Woolsey, Forbes. "In this rollicking collection of essays, Hajdu combines the cutting candor of Lester Bangs and the measured and judicious cultural learning of Lionel Trilling as he takes aim at subjects ranging widely from jazz, rock and country music and cartoon characters like Elmer Fudd to broader cultural topics such as blogging, MySpace, and remixing. Hajdu's essays never fail to amuse, please and provoke." -- Publisher's Weekly. More on Hajdu, whose last book, "The 10 Cent Plague," was Amazon's top arts book of 2008, at http://DavidHajdu.com