the view from suburbia: Dead Kennedys, Washington DC, 6-5-83
It’s been said 14 is the influential age in the development of our musical tastes. That was the case for me: I find I regularly return to the music that I explored and embraced as my own back around 1983. It wasn’t just what I heard that has shaped my ideas about ‘good’ music, though,...
recent publications
Some writings that first appeared on this blog have been published recently. First, the latest print issue of Burning Ambulance comes out today with my essay on Tito Larriva (from the Plugz, Cruzados, Tito & Tarantula, and Robert Rodriguez’s Mexican exploitation films) in it. Burning Ambulance specializes in extended pieces covering musical artists “who deserve...
what could be cooler than Brooklyn? latest findings from Census data
[Update 12 hours after originally publishing this essay: Well, this is interesting… and a little bit embarrassing: I seem to have misread the Census Flows Mapper data entirely incorrectly. So much for the “test drive”; it’s like I pulled out of the car lot and onto the highway with the emergency brake on the whole...
cherchez la femme: Tommy Mottola and Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band
I’m fairly immune to the musical charms of the many recording artists whose careers were launched into stratosphere by Tommy Mottola, “one of the most powerful, visionary, and successful executives in the history of the music industry.” Mariah Carey, Daryl Hall & John Oates, Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan, New Kids on the Block, Shakira, Jennifer...
lecture at Queens College
I haven’t posted anything on the blog in awhile because I’m in the middle of a number of non-music projects. One of these is a talk I’ll be giving at Queens College, which anyone is welcome to attend: Pursuing Quality of Life: Happiness, Creativity and Place in These (Still) Neoliberal Times a lecture at...
musical suburbanism, pt. 1: Kidz Bop and the commodification of kids’ listening
Last summer I took a family roadtrip and was driven slightly insane by the heavy rotation of Kidz Bop CDs on the car stereo. In a rare moment of solitude carved out of a frenzied week, I sent out these missives via Twitter: 1. if one promise of musical urbanism is Simmel’s vision of...
my favorite music of 2012
I call this list my favorite music of the year, not the best of, because I haven’t heard more than a third of all the music that people have been talking up in their end-of-year lists. Who am I to say what’s best? (Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d. city is probably the best, but I’m...
corriendo la voz: some recent Musical Urbanism appearances in Spanish
Through really no effort on my own part, some of my Musical Urbanism writings have appeared in Spanish lately. An essay I posted here back in June, “The Dull Ubiquity of Placeless Music Festivals,” has been translated for publication in Bifurcaciones, an online journal of urban cultural studies published out of Chile. Thanks to...
the misanthropy of solo metal
In some regards, the development of heavy metal over the last 40 years can be understood to chart key phases in pop-music consumption under late capitalism: from mass culture to subculture to individualized culture. This arc can be seen, first and most obviously, from the vantage point of heavy metal fandom. As Will Straw has...
studying the college music scene and beyond
Remember the bands that formed in college? You heard them at dorm parties, frat parties, apartment parties, the campus bar, battle-of-the-bands competitions, and impromptu outdoor settings. They practiced in dorm rooms, dorm basements, conservatory and theater rooms, backyard sheds, and laundry rooms, amusing/irritating neighbors and passers-by. Many college rockers and rappers dreamed of making it...
announcement for “‘Lifestyle’, Community and Place” conference session
Please join me this Sunday, 8:30 am, at the annual American Sociological Association meetings in Denver, where I’ll be the discussant on a section that should excite anyone interested in urban cultural analysis. Co-organized by Amin Ghaziani and myself, the session is entitled “Lifestyle,” Community and Place. The scare quotes around “lifestyle” are a little pretentious,...
the day before the Brooklynites come: Basilica Music Festival in Hudson, NY
Hudson NY: the day before Basilica Music Festival, a set on Flickr. For best results, view this set as a slideshow with captions on (click “Show Info”). One of the more interesting new festivals to launch this year is the Basilica Music Festival. Running three days starting tomorrow in the Hudson Valley city of Hudson, in...