For the Martha and the Muffins book project, the first task I’ve set for myself is to dive into the literature. Toronto is fairly terra incognito for me; to contextualize the geographic sensibilities embodied in the band’s music and career, an appreciation of its urban history and geography is in order. Also, Canadianness and ‘Canada’...
August 27 marks a chilling anniversary in the Hudson Valley’s musical geography: 65 years ago, Paul Robeson was to perform a concert in Peekskill that culminated in violence and effectively ended his career. I asked sociologist Dick Flacks, author of Playing for Change: Music and Musicians in the Service of Social Movements, to elaborate. Paul...
I’ll be in San Francisco this weekend at the annual ASA meetings, participating in two events. The first is a presentation of my research from the Poughkeepsie Plenty community food assessment, in a paper I’ve co-written with SUNY New Paltz colleagues Kathleen Tobin and Eve Waltermaurer: Regular Session. Consumers and Consumption 1 Sat, August 16,...
The top ten! These are the greatest second chapters, left turns and career reinventions in pop music history. Don’t forget to review how we came to this point… PREVIOUS: 50-41 40-31 30-21 20-11 10 T. Rex Glitter rock, the visual appearance of a gay aesthetic in pop music, and the first real ‘sound of the...
PREVIOUS: 50-41 40-31 30-21 20. Black Eyed Peas Hate to say it, but “I gotta feeling” (oof, sorry) that the Black Eyed Peas have shaped the sound and BPM of American pop music more than anyone else in the last five years. Such influence would have been unfathomable back in 1998, when their debut album...
Answering an invitation sent to me by postcard, I attended the first public “brief-ing” [get it?] on the Poughkeepsie Underwear Factory project by its developer, the nonprofit Hudson River Housing. This historic building is located on N. Cherry Street just north of Main Street in the City of Poughkeepsie. Ed Murphy, executive director of Hudson...
Part three of my response to the question, which performers made the most unexpected left turns with their careers? For the ground rules of eligibility, see the first post; for the big picture of why this is relevant to musical urbanism, click here. PREVIOUS: 50-41 40-31 30. U2 Regardless how you feel about the band’s...
Part two of my response to the question, which performers made the most unexpected left turns with their careers? For the ground rules of eligibility, click here; for the big picture of what this all means, click here. PREVIOUS: 50-41 40. Grace Jones A Jamaican-born model, Jones seemed born with a knack for commanding people’s...
Last month, I answered some questions for a UK media/marketing firm researching how UK rave circa 1989 evolved into the US youth phenomenon of electronic dance music (EDM) — a question I’ve asked before on this blog. The piece is lengthy and lies behind a paywall, but author Emmajo Read did a great job. By...
Last weekend I saw my nephew play drums in a David Bowie tribute concert at the School of Rock in Fort Washington (a suburb of Philadelphia). Unsurprisingly, I had a blast. I mean, how could any Bowie fan resist the prospect of watching a rotating ensemble of middle- and high school-aged kids performing a 2+...
Maggie Estep moved to New York in the 1980s to live the downtown life. Her calling appeared in a writing class she took for drug rehab. By the decade’s end, she was performing slam poetry regularly at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. A tiny girl with greasy hair and attitude for miles, Estep was instrumental in...
In urbanists’ excitement over music scenes and the desirability of “social and interactive street-level culture” (to invoke Richard Florida), it’s easy to lose sight of whether there’s any value to all of this besides promoting careers and urban economies. Does “enriching creative communities” actually involve extending the practice of creativity into people’s everyday lives? Or...
