let the children use it: the School of Rock presents David Bowie
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+...
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...