steve reich <=> beyonce
Compare: (1) Reich’s “Clapping Music” (one of the phasing pieces) to (2) Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” (sorry, no embed for this one) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mVEGfH4s5g I’m teaching a course this summer on the philosophical, aesthetic, and compositional relationship that tie mid-20th c avant-garde…
Republicans and the one-drop rule, or “He’s too moderate!”
So, scholars of social identity and oppression have long known that the boundaries of and membership in privileged groups is incredibly tightly controlled. Gay men aren’t fully or properly masculine, just as those with even one drop of non-white blood…
Flo-Riding the New Wave? or, Postmillennial Black Hipness
So, Kanye West is pretty commonly recognized as mainstream hip hop’s acolyte of the New Wave (Gary Numan references, what?), but Flo-Rida’s last two singles are totally obvious remixes/reworkings of iconic New Wave tracks. First, there’s “Right Round,” the somewhat…
“Single Ladies” = robots
Beyoncé is an amazingly talented artist who plays around in very subtle and nuanced ways with “serious ideas” – all while singing some damn catchy hooks. It’s REALLY HARD to make delectable pop that also problematizes ideas in ways that…
its her factory
“in a man’s world, b/c they’re not men…” This is a blog about philosophy, feminist and critical race theory, and popular music/pop culture…or, more or less, this is a blog about my research and things related to it. I chose…
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