Unraveling Obsession: Inside the Haunting World of The March Xness Anthology
Reviewed by Brian Lee Knopp
In 2016, writers Ander Monson and Megan Campbell created a music-themed tournament in which sixty-four songs and their corresponding essays were pitted against each other in successive brackets until there was a single winner. They started with March Sadness (Sad 90s Indie Songs), generating the essays themselves at first, then inviting others to participate in the competition.
Year by year, the tournament roared through March Fadness (One Hit Wonders of the 90s), March Shredness (Hair Metal bands), March Vladness (the Goth Bracket), March Badness (Bad Hits of the 70s and 80s), March Plaidness (Grunge), March Faxness (Cover Tunes), March Fadness redux (One Hit Wonders of the 80’s) and March Danceness (Dance Hits of the 90s). What Monson and Campbell admittedly “started as a joke” quickly became such a wildly popular contest that a lottery had to be implemented to manage the throngs of wannabe competitors.
