Alan Light

Alan Light is an Emmy Award-winning music journalist, a best-selling author, and the co-host of the music news podcast “Sound Up! With Mark Goodman and Alan Light.” He is a frequent contributor to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Esquire, among other publications.

Alan’s latest book is DON’T STOP: WHY WE (STILL) LOVE FLEETWOOD MAC’S RUMOURS, which Kirkus called “fun and fascinating” with “enjoyable writing and real insight,” and Publishers Weekly said, “combined vivid anecdotes and perceptive analysis.”

His previous titles include THE HOLY OR THE BROKEN: LEONARD COHEN, JEFF BUCKLEY AND THE UNLIKELY ASCENT OF “HALLELUJAH,” which the New York Times called “thoughtful and illuminating” and Kirkus named one of the best books of 2012. A documentary based on the book, titled Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song (for which he served as Consulting Producer), opened to widespread acclaim in July 2022 following screenings at the Venice, Telluride, and Tribeca film festivals and was shortlisted for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award.

His other books include LET’S GO CRAZY: PRINCE AND THE MAKING OF PURPLE RAIN and biographies of Johnny Cash, Nina Simone, and the Beastie Boys. Alan is the co-author of the best-selling memoirs MY CROSS TO BEAR with Gregg Allman (which Rolling Stone and Billboard named one of the best rock & roll autobiographies of all time) and DO YOU FEEL LIKE I DO? with Peter Frampton.

Alan was a reporter for the Emmy-winning fx/Hulu documentary MALFUNCTION: THE DRESSING DOWN OF JANET JACKSON and the writer of HBO’s 2018 ELVIS PRESLEY: THE SEARCHER. From 2016 to 2023, he co-hosted SiriusXM’s daily music talk show “Debatable.”

Alan was the founding music editor (1993-'94) and editor-in-chief ('94-'97) of the urban culture monthly Vibe. In that time, Vibe’s circulation climbed from 200,000 to 600,000, and the magazine was nominated for four National Magazine Awards. Alan then served as the editor-in-chief of Spin magazine from January 1999 until March 2002.

Before coming to Vibe in 1993, Alan was a Senior Writer at Rolling Stone. He has interviewed and profiled hundreds of artists, including Taylor Swift, U2, Beyoncé, the Rolling Stones, Eminem, Led Zeppelin, and Tom Petty. Alan’s writing has appeared in such publications as The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Pitchfork.com, Variety, the Hollywood Reporter, New York magazine, and Mojo, and he is a two-time winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for excellence in music journalism.

Alan edited the New York Times best-seller TUPAC SHAKUR and the groundbreaking VIBE HISTORY OF HIP-HOP. He has written liner notes for albums and DVDs by such artists as the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Whitney Houston, and Chuck Berry, and his essays on subjects from Bruce Springsteen to the roots of hip-hop have appeared in many other books.

Alan is one of the country's leading commentators on issues relating to music and culture, offering his analysis on numerous television and radio programs, including frequent appearances on CNN, MSNBC, VH1, and MTV. He served as the longtime Director of Programming for “Live from the Artists Den,” a concert series on PBS.

Alan has taught a course in Arts Criticism at the City University of New York’s Journalism school and at Yale, and has lectured at colleges including Northwestern, the University of Pennsylvania, and New York University. He is a member of the nominating committee for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
 
After graduating from Yale in 1988 (where he wrote his American Studies senior thesis on the Beastie Boys), Alan joined the staff of the National Magazine Award-winning publication 7 Days as a reporter. In 1989, he began working for Rolling Stone as an Assistant Editor. Alan lives in New York City.