Richmond Magazine Examines the City’s Music History

I’m not an avid reader of Richmond Magazine, but I have to say that I am blown away by their recent “RVA Musicology” issue.

The cover is a bit misleading as it states the “50 major players on the local scene.” I took this to mean as their picks for who’s popular in the music scene today (meaning I was probably going to disagree with most of their picks).

Much to my surprise and delight, the music feature is in fact a look back at the people who have mattered to the Richmond scene over the past 30 years.

And the list is pretty damn accurate. It delves into many different genres – most notably punk since that was so huge in our music history. Aside from the shoe-ins (No BS Brass, Plan 9, WRIR), there are some big surprises on here that I wouldn’t expect the writers of Richmond Magazine to even acknowledge (Tim Barry and Fontaine? Yes!) and some awesome choices that came completely out of left field (Hot Lava gets some love).

Go pick up a copy of the recent issue for all of the content, but they have quite a bit posted online.

There’s also a collection of their favorite songs, which you should check out.