Dog-Whistling Dixie and Racial Politics in 1960s Country Music
Trump’s recent co-option of Lee Greenwood and his song “God Bless the U.S.A.” isn’t the first time the far right has used country music for its purposes.
music feature
Patti Smith’s “Piss Factory” and “Hey Joe” Remain Prophetic 50 Years On
Patti Smith’s “Hey Joe” and “Piss Factory” expresses her unremitting fight for freedom: when she went from a factory girl to a poète maudit.
Summer 2024 European Music Festivals Light Up Major Cities
Sure, Glastonbury and Rock Werchter dazzle with pastoral grandeur, but if you’re more of a city-dweller, check out the best European music festivals this summer.
The Dark Beauty of Alice In Chains’ ‘Jar of Flies’
Unplanned and unprepared, when Alice in Chains recorded Jar of Flies‘ catchy songs on the fly, they created some of their career’s darkest yet warmest music of their career.
Kathleen Hanna, Riot Grrrl, and Punk
Riot Grrrl’s activism and grass-roots activity showed the movement was more concerned with breaking the rules and conventions than breaking through in punk.
Dark-Pop Queen CXLOE and Her ‘Shiny New Thing’
CXLOE’s Shiny New Thing is hook-forward pop music, an unrelenting collection of emoto-bangers, and an arch response to a clueless music executive.
What Wilco’s ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’ Got Right About Music Streaming
Wilco’s net-streaming experiment with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was part of the utopian promise for technology’s future, and it worked.
What Taylor Swift, BTS, and Stromae Can Teach Us About Mental Health
Taylor Swift, BTS, and Stromae are at the frontlines of de-stigmatizing mental health challenges as something so relatable that they can make a hit song about it.
K-Pop: Who Gets Canceled and Why
You can tell what bedevils a society by whom its members try to forcibly remove from the spotlight. In K-Pop, here’s who gets canceled and why.
For the Love of the Crappy Cassette Tape
The peculiar technology of the lo-fi, crappy cassette tape exemplifies the inherent contradictions of popular music better than any other medium.
Immersed in America: The Creation of Elvis Presley
We know how Elvis Presley’s story reflects on American history, its music and mythology, but how did America help to create Elvis?
Madonna’s Celebration Tour: A Forward-Thinking Retrospective
As much as Madonna’s Celebration Tour is a meditation on her mortality, it is also a love letter to her core LGBTQIA+ audience whose loyalty has never wavered.