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Critical Theory May 28, 2023

The Cultural Sociology of Art and Music

New Directions and New Discoveries

Lisa McCormick

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
How can sociology help us understand art and music? In The Cultural Sociology of Art and Music: New Directions and New Discoveries (Palgrave MacMillan, 2022), the editor Lisa McCormick, a …

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Interviews with musicians and scholars of music about their new books.

Popular Culture May 25, 2023

Rude Girls

Women in 2 Tone and One Step Beyond

Heather Augustyn

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In her latest book, Rude Girls: Women in 2 Tone and One Step Beyond (Sally Brown Publishing, 2023), Heather Augustyn explores the ska revival in the UK during the lates 1970s and 1980s …
MIT Press Podcast May 22, 2023

Muse, Odalisque, Handmaiden

A Girl's Life in the Incredible String Band

Rose Simpson

Hosted by MIT Press
Damon Kruskowski, author of Ways of Hearing and The New Analog, previously member of Galaxie 500 and currently a member of Damon & Naomi interviews Rose Simpson about her book …
Islamic Studies May 19, 2023

We'll Play Till We Die

Journeys Across a Decade of Revolutionary Music in the Muslim World

Mark LeVine

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
In We'll Play till We Die: Journeys across a Decade of Revolutionary Music in the Muslim World (University of California Press, 2022), Mark LeVine, Professor at University of California, Irvine, dives …
South Asian Studies May 14, 2023

Choral Voices

Ethnographic Imaginations of Sound and Sacrality

Sebanti Chatterjee

Hosted by Tiatemsu Longkumer
Sebanti Chatterjee's book Choral Voices: Ethnographic Imaginations of Sound and Sacrality (Bloomsbury, 2023) is about sacred and secular choirs in Goa and Shillong across churches, seminaries, schools, auditoriums, classrooms, reality TV …
Music May 12, 2023

Breaks in the Air

The Birth of Rap Radio in New York City

John Klaess

Hosted by Bradley Morgan
In Breaks in the Air: The Birth of Rap Radio in New York City (Duke UP, 2022), John Klaess tells the story of rap's emergence on New York City's airwaves …
Popular Culture May 12, 2023

Gathering of the Tribe

A Companion to Occult Music on Vinyl

Mark Goodall

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In his new series, Gathering of the Tribe (Headpress, 2022) Mark Goodall explores the mysterious power of sound and tone. Each book in the series is devoted to reviewing records …
Music May 3, 2023

On Music Theory, and Making Music More Welcoming for Everyone

Philip Ewell

Hosted by Kristen Turner
On Music Theory and Making Music More Welcoming for Everyone (University of Michigan Press, 2023) by Philip Ewell is an unflinching look at white supremacy and the academy, specifically in the …
Music April 30, 2023

Lady Gaga

Applause

Annie Zaleski

Hosted by Bradley Morgan
As one of the world's best-selling musicians, Lady Gaga has set the musical bar high. Since her debut album, The Fame (2008), she has sold more than 124 million records …
Art April 29, 2023

Uncommon Sense

Aesthetics after Marcuse

Craig Leonard

Hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez
In Uncommon Sense: Aesthetics after Marcuse (MIT Press, 2022), Craig Leonard argues for the contemporary relevance of the aesthetic theory of Herbert Marcuse, an original member of the Frankfurt School and …
Popular Culture April 25, 2023

Who Cares Anyway

Post-Punk San Francisco and the End of the Analog Age

Will York

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In Who Cares Anyway: Post-Punk San Francisco and the End of the Analog Age (Headpress, 2023), Will York draws on over 100 interviews with musicians, artists, and scene participants as well as …
French Studies April 22, 2023

At Home in Our Sounds

Music, Race, and Cultural Politics in Interwar Paris

Rachel Anne Gillett

Hosted by Roxanne Panchasi
Rachel Gillett's At Home in Our Sounds: Music, Race, and Cultural Politics in Interwar Paris (Oxford University Press, 2021) explores the world of the French "Jazz Age" in the years after the First World …
MIT Press Podcast April 15, 2023

The Making of "Ways of Hearing"

A Discussion with Damon Krukowski et al.

Hosted by MIT Press
A behind-the-scenes conversation with the creators of Ways of Hearing, the podcast and book. Hosted by author Damon Krukowski, with Radiotopia and Showcase executive producer Julie Shapiro, sound designer Ian …
French Studies April 10, 2023

Soundscapes of Liberation

African American Music in Postwar France

Celeste Day Moore

Hosted by Annie de Saussure
Celeste Day Moore is a historian of African American culture, media, and Black internationalism in the twentieth century. Her first book, Soundscapes of Liberation: African American Music in Postwar France …
Popular Culture April 8, 2023

Blank Canvas

Art School Creativity and the Development of Punk, Post Punk and New Wave Music

Simon Strange

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In Blank Canvas: Art School Creativity From Punk to New Wave (Intellect Publishing, 2022), Simon Strange explores the relationship between art and music within education in the United Kingdom. Strange examines the …
Biology and Evolution April 4, 2023

Whale Music

Thousand Mile Songs in a Sea of Sound

David Rothenberg

Hosted by Frances Sacks
Whale song is an astonishing world of sound whose existence no one suspected before the 1960s. Its discovery has forced us to confront the possibility of alien intelligence--not in outer …
Music March 30, 2023

DVS Mindz

The Twenty-Year Saga of the Greatest Rap Group to Almost Make It Outta Kansas

Geoff Harkness

Hosted by Alex Kuchma
99.9% of aspiring rappers never make it in the music industry. So why do we only hear the stories of the ones who do? DVS Mindz might be the greatest …
Music March 29, 2023

I Don't Belong Anywhere

Gyorgy Ligeti At 100

Wolfgang Marx

Hosted by David Kunsman
Wolfgang Marx's I Don't Belong Anywhere: Gyorgy Ligeti At 100 (Brepols Publishers, 2022) commemorates the centenary of Gyorgy Ligeti's birth. The volume consists of twelve contributions that consists of new investigations of many …
Buddhist Studies March 22, 2023

Until Nirvana's Time

Buddhist Songs from Cambodia

Trent Walker

Hosted by Jessica Zu
A unique Buddhist tradition, accessible in English for the first time—translations of forty-five Cambodian Dharma songs, with contextualizing essays and a link to audio of stunning vocal performances.  Trent Walker's …
Popular Culture March 20, 2023

Play Like a Man

My Life in Poster Children

Rose Marshack

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In Play Like a Man: My Life in Poster Children (University of Illinois Press, 2023), Poster Children bassist Rose Marshack details her life in the 80s and 90s as part of a …