Joe Lynch (he/him) is the executive digital director, east coast, at Billboard. Since joining the Billboard staff in 2014, he’s provided on-the-ground coverage of live concerts, festivals, industry events and award shows, while also profiling living legends, rising stars, behind-the-scenes players and underappreciated musical pioneers in pop, classic rock, dance, hip-hop, indie, punk and film/TV music. He’s appeared in documentaries about Madonna, Cher, Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin and Trixie Mattel and has been happy to be of service to Billboard Pride since its inception, helping to boost Billboard’s coverage of LGBTQ+ musical talent. He has appeared as a pop culture expert on TODAY, Good Morning America, NBC and Nightline.
A passionate student of music history, Lynch frequently peruses the back pages of Billboard to pull together archival deep dives analyzing the brand’s historical coverage of everything from Prince’s commercial peak to country music in the 1920s to hip-hop in the ‘70s to music videos in the ‘80s to girl groups in the ‘90s to vinyl’s creation, near-death industry experience and eventual resurgence. He has also written cover stories on Nine Inch Nails, Halsey and St. Vincent.