Another repost from the always insightful History is Made at Night blog. Promised Land Last week in Iowa, Michele Bachmann launched her bid to become the Republican candidate in the next US presidential election. On the Tea Party far right of American politics, she has a long, lamentable history of anti-gay and anti-abortion activism not to [...]
Short Takes: “Jackie Wilson’s Melisma – 20 notes for the word ‘for’” (from History is Made at Night)
Final repost (for now) from the always insightful History is Made at Night blog. Jackie Wilson’s Melisma – 20 notes for the word ‘for’ ‘The extent to which the music is integrated with the literal meaning in soul is apparent in some of its basic stylistic conventions, the call and response structure, for instance, where a [...]
Sissy Bounce — an anomaly or just another transgendered musical tradition
Unexpectedly, when I was doing research on the history of a former blues nightclub district in North Richmond, California, I stumbled upon a facet of that history I had not anticipated: the participant of cross-gendered performers and club-goers. And, in mainstream venues. It flew in the face of all my presumptions of the role of [...]
Musical careers launched in Second Life
“If I could get some bubbles, I’d be forever indebted,” singer Craig Lyons tells the packed house at his Monday night gig. The crowd promptly complies, filling the room with bubbles while Lyons plays his tune “Under Water.” Two nights earlier, the audience made it snow as he strummed the chords to his song “Winter.” [...]
Exploring the Boundary between Sound & Music 1:3 [Soundwave ((4)) green sound debuts in San Francisco June 6, 2010]
When I teach classes that look at music in cross-cultural settings, I always begin by having the class come up with a working definition of music . The goal is to arrive at a definition that is broad enough to apply to all forms of experience thought of as music but precise enough to distinguish [...]
Conference on Change and Continuity in the art of record production (reposted from IASPM)
Change and Continuity: transformations, innovations and tensions in the art of record production April 15th, 2010 · ARP 2010 Call For Papers The Sixth Annual Art of Record Production Conference will be hosted by Bob Davis and Justin Morey at Leeds Metropolitan University on December 3rd – 5th 2010 The theme of the conference is [...]
Body Maps – Cross Genre Performances (@ N.Y. Times)
Boundaries Shift in Mixing and Matching of Artists and Images By STEVE SMITH Published: April 4, 2010 The program handed out to those arriving for “Body Maps” at Galapagos Art Space in Dumbo, Brooklyn, on Friday night succinctly stated the event’s premise, “an evening of music and film featuring artists who have crossed oceans.” That [...]
Rock ‘n’ Roll & Ritual (’80s Peter Gabriel)
From the back of the concert hall, the five-person ensemble, four dressed in simple black clothing and one in simple white, proceeds through the crowd, playing drums. As they reach the stage, the synthesizer takes up the same rhythm and the band members pick up their instruments and don headsets. The singer, dressed in white, [...]
