(The Root) — There were a lot of cassette tapes that got play on my silver Sony Walkman as the summer of 1987 waned, including LL Cool J’s Bigger and Deffer, U2’s Joshua Tree, Jody Watley’s self-titled debut, Prince’s Sign O the Times and Public Enemy’s Yo! Bum Rush the Show. But by that August,…

(The Root) — In an experiment worthy of Battle Royale, NPR’s All Songs Considered recently commissioned two of its “unimaginably young” interns to pen controversial editorials, which have since earned them the scorn of music purists far and wide. In mid-June, college senior Emily White blogged-bragged about owning 11,000-plus mp3s in her iTunes library but…