Two upcoming livestreamed talks by me
I’m giving a number of talks this November, and two of them are going to be streamed over the internet. The first one is this coming Friday November 8. It’s part of the Biopower at 50 conference at Rowan University…
“No, you can’t take that away from me!”: Wounded Entitlement, 90s alt rock, and financialized media industries
This is my paper for the 2024 American Musicological Society. I’m on the Alt Rock to Alt Right panel with the eminent Theo Cateforis & Alex Reed. Some Sunday in 1992 or 1993 high school freshman Robin confused the heck…
What Is The Modern Rock 500?
This is the text of my talk September 19th at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Free tickets are available here. Hope to see some of you there! For those who can’t make it, a recording will be posted…
Introduction to Good Vibes Only
I have finally finished the full first draft of my fifth book, Good Vibes Only: Phenomenology, Algorithms, & the Politics of Legitimation (under contract w Duke). That means I’m deep in revisions for at least the remainder of 2024, possibly…
I’m giving a talk at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 9/19/24 on “What Is The Modern Rock 500?”
The American Musicological Society sponsors an annual series of talks at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and this September 19 at 7pm I’ll be speaking on “What Is The Modern Rock 500?”. It is of course about WOXY…
Antonoffied pop vs brat & the stakes of elite musical taste in pop’s girlboss era
It’s been a while since I’ve been able to post, as I’ve been spending the summer finishing up bigger projects like the first draft of Good Vibes Only and the proposal for the second edition of Resilience & Melancholy. Another…
Some thoughts on James Chance & No Wave
No Wave legend James Chance passed away this week after a long illness. You can read up on his career in the many obits, such as this one from Pitchfork. Musically he was like a combination of Ornette Coleman and…
Intro to chapter 5 of GOOD VIBES ONLY
I’m working on finishing the first draft of my book GOOD VIBES ONLY: PHENOMENOLOGY, ALGORITHMS, AND BIOPOLITICS and I’ve finished a first draft of the final chapter. This is the chapter that’s explicitly about phenomenology, and it draws together a…
Rodrigo’s “get him back!,” Funky Drummer, & gendered resilience
The “train beat” is a drum riff typically located in country music (Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” is a commonly-cited example), but it’s found across the blues-rock spectrum. My personal favorite example of it is Ministry feat. Gibby Haynes’s “Jesus Built…
97X’s Final FM Broadcast Was 20 Years Ago Today
Many of you know that I wrote a book about “the last great independent” modern rock radio station, 97X WOXY/woxy.com. Today, May 13, 2024, is the twentieth anniversary of the first time the station went off the air after the…
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