From the International Journal of Zizek Studies, a special issue on Zizek and music. The founder of Christian rock music would've hated what it’s become. What does it mean to have “good taste” in music? Skye Cleary interviews Micah Tillman on philosophy and pop music. As reggaeton goes pop, never forget the genre’s black roots. Linda Shaver-Gleason on the morality of musical men: From Victorian propriety to the era of #MeToo. Here’s why you don’t like new music any more. Not a riot grrrl band: Kitty Lindsay interviews Michelle Cruz Gonzales, author of The Spitboy Rule: Tales of a Xicana in a Female Punk Band.
Yetta Howard (SDSU): The Queerness of Industrial Music. Nicholas Carr (Amsterdam): “They Have Their Music and We Have Ours”: The Political Woody Guthrie. John Lingan on why country music needs more politics, not less. Can music still save your mortal soul? Rhett Miller on the loneliness of the long distance rocker. James Wolcott reviews Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine by Joe Hagan. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. led directly to hip-hop, an era of black American culture, politics, and art that is often contrasted with his legacy. Amanda Petrusich on the lofty optimism of Spotify and the influence of the streaming revolution.
Steve Torrance (Sussex) and Frank Schumann (Edinburgh): The Spur of the Moment: What Jazz Improvisation Tells Cognitive Science. Cherie Hu on how music generated by artificial intelligence is reshaping — not destroying — the industry. Annabelle Timsit on the case for teaching every kid to play a musical instrument — for free. Emily Bartlett Hines on politics and the American trucker song. Rock is dead, thank God: It’s time to face the reality that rock has been eclipsed by pop, hip-hop, and EDM, and accept that it might actually be a positive thing for the genre. Steve Knopper on the end of owning music: How CDs and downloads died. Latin lessons: Arwa Haider how reggaeton seduced the pop mainstream.
Emine Hande Tuna (Brown): Why Didn’t Kant Think Highly of Music? Timothy McFarlin (La Verne): Did Chuck Berry Have a Co-Writer? Todd Gitlin on the missing music of the Left. Can you measure how good a song is? Paul Grimstad reviews Music by the Numbers: From Pythagoras to Schoenberg by Eli Maor (and more). How a Cuban song became a football favourite: Originally written in the 1920s, “Guantanamera” has been adopted by fans the world over. Is drill the most controversial genre of music? Counting between measures: Elizabeth Newton on the next big thing in music theory. Rap is art — so why do some academics still feel as if they have to defend it?
Adam D. Henze and Ted Hall (Indiana): Dying of Thirst: Kendrick Lamar and the Call for a “New School” Hip-Hop Pedagogy. Why songs of the summer sound the same. How music has responded to a decade of economic inequality: Popular music has always delivered social critique — but it’s struggled to grapple with the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Paul W. Gleason reviews The Devil’s Music: How Christians Inspired, Condemned, and Embraced Rock ’n’ Roll by Randall J. Stephens. Anna North on the political and cultural impact of Aretha Franklin’s “Respect”, explained. The political power of Aretha Franklin: She was America’s voice, but her blackness and womanhood made her songs transcend music.
