has the Hudson Valley become the “new Brooklyn” yet?
In the endlessly diverting media game of finding the next Brooklyn, the Hudson River Valley gets referenced a lot. I suppose there’s good reason, since it’s not so much that this region rivals the urban upgrading and cultural attention associated with the New York City borough some 100 miles to the south, but that the...
a video playlist of Pulp and other Sheffield music
In preparation for the Musical Urbanism course readings on Sheffield, England, we’ve put together this playlist of music documentaries and promo videos to get you further acquainted with the city, its music scene, and our point of departure, the band Pulp. PULP VIDEOS When reading Owen Hatherley’s book Uncommon: An Essay on Pulp, it...
I survived the grunge era: introduction to a screening of “Hype!”
Welcome to the first of a series of “lab sessions” this semester in conjunction with the Musical Urbanism seminar. Tonight we’re screening Hype!, a 1996 documentary that’s currently out of print. This means the version you’re watching was torrented by your professors. Although as we heard it’s also available on YouTube, I promised our students...
art worlds and music scenes
An interesting thing happens when you intersect two texts, Howard Becker’s essay on “Art Worlds and Collective Activity” (1982) and David Byrne’s essay on “How to Make a Scene” (2012), with each other. Somewhat anachronistically, the former enlists the latter into its thesis. To begin, Becker’s text is not especially directed toward the contemporary interest...
syllabus for 2015 Musical Urbanism seminar
I’m excited to announce that I’m teaching an undergraduate seminar in Musical Urbanism at Vassar College again this semester, with my colleague Hua Hsu. This is a multidisciplinary course housed in the Urban Studies Program, taught by an urban sociologist (myself) and literature professor/critic (Hsu). We revised the syllabus significantly from the last time we...
favorite music of 2014
Jane Weaver – The Silver Globe I’m rapidly reaching obsessive levels of play with this adventurous album. Space rock meets 60s British melancholia: if you puzzle over which element is retro and which is futuristic, then this is the record for you. Weaver’s voice is mysterious and spellbinding — just one more reason why she...
putting the Hudson Valley on the musical map: Basilica Soundscape and O+ Festival
Over the last month I’ve been writing for Sound It Out, a new music blog that covers adventurous new music from a snark-free, consumer-friendly point of view. “The music may be evil, but we’ll try not to be” is the motto. Most of my writings there are basic reviews and previews, but I’ve also contributed...
a Toronto/Martha & the Muffins annotated bibliography
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’...
Paul Robeson and the Peekskill riots: with essay by Dick Flacks
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...
appearances at the 2014 American Sociological Association meetings
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 greatest reinventions in pop-music careers, #10-1
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...
the greatest reinventions in pop-music careers, #20-11
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...