Welcome to Current Affairs. My name is Nathan Robinson. I am the editor-in-chief of Current Affairs magazine. I am joined today by the freelance journalist Michael Tedder. He has written about music, film, entertainment, television, health, masculinity, and he's also written, at one point is life, about current affairs.

He wrote a lovely profile of us and my work for The Daily Beast.

He has written for a number of publications.

He's here today because he's just published the book, Top 8, How Myspace Changed Music,

Available from the Chicago Review Press.

Michael Tedder, thank you so much for joining us on Current Affairs today.

Nathan, thank you for having me.

It's truly an honor.

Hey, it's good to talk to you again. So, what I'm talking about MySpace? I had a MySpace. I remember

this. I remember the MySpace era. I look back on it with fondness and nostalgia, as many people do.

Did you have one? Oh, of course I had one. Started one pretty soon after it came out.

Yes, been a half the wonder, Nathan. Who was in your top eight?

Who was in my top eight? Gosh, the haze that I look back on these years with. I'm just trying to

remember who my MySpace friends were. I'm trying to remember what my MySpace looked like,

but I know that it meant something to me at the time, as it meant a lot to a lot of people, as you have discovered through the course of your interviews for the book, I know that Tom was, of course, one of my friends.

Everyone's first friend. Tom truly was a friend to everyone. Basically all senses of the word.

My impression from reading your book is that it turns out that Tom is a friend to everyone. And basically all senses of the word.

My impression from reading your book is that it turns out that Tom is a pretty nice guy.

Yeah.

And it's like I say in the book, is there a scenario in which Tom Anderson held on to MySpace and is one day dragged before Congress to testify for weaking American security

or helping create or helping to

revitalize the white service movement. Sure, but that didn't happen. Tom did do that. Mark

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