New Books Network

Music August 3, 2022

DIY Music and the Politics of Social Media

Ellis Jones

Hosted by Gummo Clare

Since the 1970s, there has been a rich, global lineage of broadly guitar-based music scenes which have enacted a political critique of the commercial music industries under the banner of …

Music August 1, 2022

Following the Drums

African American Fife and Drum Music in Tennessee

John M. Shaw

Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen

Following the Drums: African American Fife and Drum Music in Tennessee (University Press of Mississippi, 2022) is an epic history of a little-known African American instrumental music form. Carefully documenting the …

Music August 1, 2022

Blackstar Theory

The Last Works of David Bowie

Leah Kardos

Hosted by Bradley Morgan

Blackstar Theory: The Last Works of David Bowie (Bloomsbury, 2022) takes a close look at David Bowie's ambitious last works: his surprise 'comeback' project The Next Day (2013), the off-Broadway …

Music August 1, 2022

Sight Readings

Photographers and American Jazz, 1900-1960

Alan John Ainsworth

Hosted by Adam Bobeck

Alan John Ainsworth's book Sight Readings: Photographers and American Jazz, 1900-1960 (Intellect, 2022) explores the work of a wide range of American photographers attracted to jazz during the period 1900–60. It …

General History July 28, 2022

Culture from the Slums

Punk Rock in East and West Germany

Jeff Hayton

Hosted by Ran Zwigenberg

Jeff Hayton's book Culture from the Slums: Punk Rock in East and West Germany (Oxford UP, 2022) is a cultural history of punk in Germany. The manuscript tracks “the advent and …

Middle Eastern Studies July 27, 2022

Unknown Past

Layla Murad, the Jewish-Muslim Star of Egypt

Hanan Hammad

Hosted by Roberto Mazza

Layla Murad (1918-1995) was once the highest-paid star in Egypt, and her movies were among the top-grossing in the box office. She starred in 28 films, nearly all now classics …

American South July 19, 2022

The Tacky South

Katharine A. Burnett and Monica Carol Miller

Hosted by Carrie Helms Tippen

As a way to comment on a person’s style or taste, the word “tacky” has distinctly southern origins, with its roots tracing back to the so-called “tackies” who tacked horses …

Popular Culture July 19, 2022

Why Patti Smith Matters

Caryn Rose

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan

Patti Smith arrived in New York City at the end of the Age of Aquarius in search of work and purpose. What she found—what she fostered—was a cultural revolution. Through …

Grinnell College: Authors and Artists July 15, 2022

Signs of the Spirit

Music and the Experience of Meaning in Ndau Ceremonial Life

Tony Perman

Hosted by Marshall Poe

In 2005, Tony Perman attended a ceremony alongside the living and the dead. His visit to a Zimbabwe farm brought him into contact with the madhlozi, outsider spirits that Ndau people …

Asian Review of Books July 14, 2022

Beethoven in Beijing

Stories from the Philadelphia Orchestra's Historic Journey to China

Jennifer Lin

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

In 1973, the Philadelphia Orchestra boarded a Pan Am 707 plane in Philadelphia for a once-in-a-lifetime journey: a multi-city tour of Maoist China, months after Nixon’s history-making visit. There was …

Music July 11, 2022

Freedom Girls

Voicing Femininity in 1960s British Pop

Alexandra Apolloni

Hosted by Kristen Turner

Freedom Girls: Voicing Femininity in 1960s British Pop (Oxford University Press, 2021) by Alexandra M. Apolloni is about how the vocal performances of girl singers in 1960s Britain defined—and sometimes …

Gender Studies July 6, 2022

Black Masculinity and Hip-Hop Music

Black Gay Men Who Rap

Xinling Li

Hosted by Zalman Newfield

In Black Masculinity and Hip-Hop Music: Black Gay Men Who Rap (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), XinLing Li offers an interdisciplinary study of hip-hop music written and performed by rappers who are …

Music July 5, 2022

It Ain't Retro

Daptone Records and the 21st-Century Soul Revolution

Jessica Lipsky

Hosted by Bradley Morgan

Soul is the most powerful expression of American music--a distinct combination of roots, migration, race, culture, and politics packaged together for your dancing pleasure. But if you thought the sounds …

Art July 5, 2022

Social Dissonance

Mattin

Hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez

We are not what we think we are. Our self-image as natural individuated subjects is determined behind our backs: historically by political forces, cognitively by the language we use, and …

Jewish Studies July 4, 2022

Recording History

Jews, Muslims, and Music Across Twentieth-Century North Africa

Christopher Silver

Hosted by Avery Weinman

Recording History: Jews, Muslims, and Music Across Twentieth-Century North Africa (Stanford UP, 2022) offers a new history of twentieth-century North Africa, one that gives voice to the musicians who defined …

Performing Arts June 22, 2022

Silences So Deep

Music, Solitude, Alaska

John Luther Adams

Hosted by Andy Boyd

John Luther Adams's Silences So Deep: Music, Solitude, Alaska (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020) is a profound, funny, and enlightening memoir from one of our greatest contemporary composers. Adams describes the process of …

Music June 21, 2022

Singing Like Germans

Black Musicians in the Land of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms

Kira Thurman

Hosted by Kristen Turner

Singing Like Germans: Black Musicians in the Land of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms by Kira Thurman (Cornell University Press, 2021) is a truly interdisciplinary study. Dr. Thurman’s work sits at …

Middle Eastern Studies June 16, 2022

Media of the Masses

Cassette Culture in Modern Egypt

Andrew Simon

Hosted by Avery Weinman

Media of the Masses: Cassette Culture in Modern Egypt (Stanford UP, 2022) investigates the social life of an everyday technology—the cassette tape—to offer a multisensory history of modern Egypt. Over …

African American Studies June 10, 2022

Black Ephemera

The Crisis and Challenge of the Musical Archive

Mark Anthony Neal

Hosted by Gummo Clare

We are living in an era of unprecedented access to popular culture: contemporary digital infrastructure provides anyone with an internet connection access to a dizzying array of cultural objects past …

Music June 10, 2022

Sound and Affect

Voice, Music, World

Judith Lochhead, Eduardo Mendieta, and Stephen Decatur Smith

Hosted by Frances Sacks

Sound and Affect: Voice, Music, World (U Chicago Press, 2021) maps a new territory for inquiry at the intersection of music, philosophy, affect theory, and sound studies. The essays in …