Ella Jenkins’ Biography Sings Her Song
Gayle F. Wald’s Ella Jenkins’ biography sings Jenkins’ commitment to social justice and her important multicultural and participatory approach to teaching children music.
music history
When Feminist Anthems Were Volume-Controlled
From an era when protest music rang out across every other frontier, we have only seven feminist songs where the lyrics spoke explicitly to women’s liberation.
Culture/All Things Reconsidered/Feature Sub Head/Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/Music/Music Features
Louisville Punk’s Defiance of Violent Conformity
Punk’s rooted, regional, and defiantly local identities made scenes like Louisville punk essential and life-affirming during the violently conformist Reagan years.
Kate Bush Taught Pop How to Dream with ‘Hounds of Love’
If Kate Bush’s The Dreaming is a hellscape of bizarre fragmentation and nightmarish beauty, Hounds of Love teaches pop how to dream and capture those contradictions in sound.
‘Such Great Heights’ Views Indie Rock from a High Vantage Point
Chris DeVille’s cultural commentary about the indie rock explosion, Such Great Heights, covers new ground and proves to be an entertaining read from a credible source.
How the Remarkable Tom Wilson Shaped Jazz and Rock
With his taste and track record, music producer Tom Wilson deserves the kind of fame afforded to his contemporaries Phil Spector and George Martin.
A Supreme Disappointment: When the Supremes Met the Beatles
When Detroit’s top-of-the charts the Supremes met Liverpool’s top-of-the-world the Beatles in 1965, the awkward silence was deafening.
How Nirvana Destroyed Rock’s Toxic Masculinity
Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain despised rock music’s posturing machismo, mocked its fundamental assumptions, and then utterly destroyed the genre.
Guns N’ Roses’ Dragged High Art Through Primal Sleaze for ‘Appetite for Destruction’
The coiled intelligence and emotional impact of Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction insists that humanity’s ugly reality is better than hypocrisy or quiescence.
What’s Behind Country Music’s Powerful Enduring Appeal
When you consider that country music is derived from a people who were fiercely independent, clan-like, and distrustful of authority, you begin to understand the genre at its core.
Hallelujah for Bruce Springsteen’s Definitive “Hail Mary” Album
Bruce Springsteen wrote his Hail Mary album while in purgatory – unwilling to return to tavern gigs yet unsure how to take the next step toward the promised land.
The Best Books of 2024
PopMatters Best Books of 2024 include a broad range of nonfiction, many books on music, short fiction, a novel that turns a Mark Twain classic inside out, and much more.