Lana Del Rey’s “Love” in the Era of Trump
"Love" makes me wonder if we've misheard Del Rey's use of nostalgia, mistaking it for the rose-colored (and heart-shaped) variety when instead it produces a fog.
Robert Loss
Robert Loss is an assistant professor in the Writing, Literature, and Philosophy department at Columbus College of Art and Design (CCAD) in Columbus, Ohio. He is the author of Nothing Has Been Done Before: Seeking the New in 21st Century American Popular Music (Bloomsbury Academic, 2017). His music criticism and journalism have been published in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Public Books, and Ghettoblaster. Visit him at www.nothinghasbeendonebefore.com.
Fade Into the Machine: Bon Iver’s ’22, A Million’
Bon Iver's 22, A Million may be the first album that, truly, should be dedicated to Big Digital if not artificial intelligence.
Privilege Corrupts: Donald Trump and “The Devil in His Youth”
How a song by Protomartyr keeps taking on new meaning in the age of Donald Trump.
Fantastic Negrito’s “Working Poor” Is the Soundtrack to Summer of 2016
America’s working poor exist in a shadow cast by the harsh light of prosperity. Fantastic Negrito’s “Working Poor” speaks from those shadows, creates light within that space, and insists on being heard.
Flea-Market Music: On the Glorious Cacophony of The Felice Brothers
Their style is loose, but not without form; cluttered, though sometimes spare; common, but not ordinary; discounted, but not cheap; public, but out-of-the-way; historical, but liable to disappear at any moment.
Prince: Never Stop Arguing
Prince's life is over but his music is not, and that music was never just about him, and it was never just about me, and it was never just about you.
Time of Absence: Documenting Kanye West’s ‘Life of Pablo’
The Life of Pablo is an ideological attack against the pop institutions that continually try to mystify art and control the artist's identity for profit.
Tomorrow Belongs to Me: “Freedom’s Call”, Donald Trump and Propaganda
When you see and hear a group of children in star-spangled cheerleader outfits lip-syncing the words “Cowardice! Are you serious?” to an EDM reworking of the 1917 patriotic song “Over There”, that is the moment you should wake up.
When Is Art Beautiful? When Is It Just Boring?
To paraphrase art critic Peter Schjeldahl, beauty is a kind of action and reaction between the work and the viewer, or the listener, or the reader. Beauty happens.
Bruce Springsteen, ‘The Ties That Bind’, the Working Class, and Authenticity
As we use the term today, authenticity allows no truth from art, only from artists. It visits art the way one visits a subway station or an airport: to get to somewhere else.
John Lennon’s ‘Working Class Hero’: Boundaries, Mobility, and Honesty
The working class song has to speak of boundaries and ambition, but it also has to say where the performer stands among the people, among the classes—or where he thinks he stands, or wants to stand.
Bruce Springsteen: The Ties That Bind: The River Collection
The Ties That Bind: The River Collection shows Springsteen and the band writing their second act, the one where they figured out how to grow up without losing touch with the energy and freedom of rock 'n' roll.