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.
What Will We Become? R.E.M.’s “Driver 8”

What Will We Become? R.E.M.’s “Driver 8”

In 2008 Michael Stipe introduced "Driver 8" as "a song that represents the dream of the United States of America and what it may become in the next three days." What did he mean, and has that dream come true?

Power Up: Janelle Monáe, Afrofuturism, and Plurality

The Mind-Numbing Conservatism of Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros

Good Intentions but No Imagination: The Schlock of ‘Accidental Racist’

Saturday Night, Sunday Morning: Gospel Music in a Secular World

I Read the News Today, Oh, Boy

Rocket to Nowhere: A Proto-Punk Dream

Music, Meaning and Money: The Special Ingredients of Media and Consumerism in Pop

Motel Beds – “Smoke Your Homework” (video) (PopMatters Premiere)

The Money I Owe: The National’s ‘Bloodbuzz Ohio’ in 2012

Fanboy Fury and Authoring ‘Before Watchmen’

Attack of the 50-Foot Women! From Nancy Archer to Rep. Lisa Brown