The series returns, with a new day and time for events, Mondays at 5pm ET. As always, we’re a collaboration between the Pop Conference, IASPM-US, and Journal of Popular Music Studies, with series programming co-organized by Kimberly Mack (University of Toledo), Eric Weisbard (University of Alabama), and Carl Wilson (Slate). Our previous sessions, from 2020-2021, can be found on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiArt-iq8lLPQ79blC6xqHRMbq70v0Yrd. We encourage you to tell people about the series: they can email Eric.Weisbard@gmail.com to be added to the weekly mailing list.
Schedule
Already done:
Sept 20–Joshua Clover, Roadrunner (Duke University Press, Singles series), in conversation with Elizabeth Nelson and Eric Weisbard
Sept 27—Software Studies and Music Production:Catherine Provenzano, in progress, Emotional Signals: Digital Tuning Software and the Work of Pop Music Voices; Mike D’Errico, Push: Software Design and the Cultural Politics of Music Production (Oxford University Press)
Forthcoming:
Oct 4— Lyrical Laureates of Hip-Hop: Miles Marshall Lewis, Promise That You Will Sing About Me: The Power and Poetry of Kendrick Lamar (St. Martin’s); S.H. Fernando, Jr., From the Streets of Shaolin: The Wu-Tang Saga (Hachette)
Oct 11— Kelefa Sanneh, Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres (Penguin), in conversation with Carl Wilson
Oct 18— Music for Middlebrows: Jack Dubowsky, Easy Listening and Film Scoring 1948-1978 (Routledge); John Howland, Hearing Luxe Pop: Glorification, Glamour, and the Middlebrow in American Popular Music (University of California Press).
Oct 25 – French Jazz: Siv B. Lie, Django Generations: Hearing Ethnorace, Citizenship, and Jazz Manouche (University of Chicago Press); Celeste Day Moore, Soundscapes of Liberation: African American Music in Postwar France (Duke University Press)
Nov 1– Displaced Genres: Jake Johnson, Lying in the Middle: Musical Theater and Belief at the Heart of America (University of Illinois Press) and Nadine Hubbs, in progress Country Mexicans: Sounding Mexican American Life, Love, and Belonging in Country Music
Nov 8—Little Girls, Big Voices: Alexandra Apolloni (Freedom Girls: Voicing Femininity in 1960s British Pop, Oxford University Press) and Jacqueline Warwick (Child’s Play: Musical Prodigies and the Performance of Childhood, in progress, Oxford University Press)
Nov 15– Alim Braxton (aka RRome Alone) and Mark Katz, in progress, Rap and Redemption on Death Row (University of North Carolina Press)
Nov 22—Best of the ‘80s: Alexander Reed, Laurie Anderson’s Big Science (Oxford University Press, Keynotes series) and Craig Seymour, Control: The Life and Art of Janet Jackson (self-published)
Nov 29—33 1/3 Expands: Derrais Carter, in progress, Marvin Gaye’s I Want You (33 1/3); Ginger Dellenbaugh, Maria Callas’s Lyric and Coloratura Arias (33 1/3); Richard Elliott, Various Artists’ DJs do Guetto (33 1/3 Europe); Daniel B. Sharp, Naná Vasconcelos’s Saudades (33 1/3)
Dec 6—Superconnected: The 2000s Canadian Invasion: Michael Barclay, Hearts on Fire: Six Years That Changed Canadian Music 2000-05 (ECW Press); Melody Lau, Modern Heartthrobs (Invisible Publishing’s Bibliophonic book series). Moderated by Jessica Hopper
Dec 13—Indie Labels: Jessica Lipsky, It Ain’t Retro: Daptone Records & The 21st-Century Soul Revolution (Jawbone); Bill Kopp, Disturbing the Pace: 415 Records and the Rise of New Wave (HoZac)
Jan 10—Country Reinventions: Marissa Moss, Where Have All The Cowgirls Gone: How the Women of Country Music Reinvented Themselves and the Industry to Become the Success Story They Were Never Supposed to Be (Henry Holt); Steacy Easton, Why Tammy Wynette Matters (University of Texas Press; Shana Goldin-Perschbacher, Queer Country (University of Illinois Press)
Jan 18 (Tuesday, to observe MLK Day)—Mainstreams and Commodification: Liz Przybylski, Sonic Sovereignty: G/local Hip Hop and the Shifting Popular Music Mainstream (New York University Press); Alyxandra Vesey,in progress, Becoming X: Collaborative Merchandise and the Gender Politics of Self-Commodification
Jan 24, (Free) Jazz (Now): Phil Freeman, Ugly Beauty: Jazz in the 21st Century (Zero Books); Jeff Schwartz, in progress, Free Jazz (SUNY Press Introductions to Popular Music Styles)
Jan 31– Danyel Smith, Shine Bright: A Personal History of Black Women in Pop (Roc Lit 101)