Interesting and/or Important Songs in 2015

When I teach pop music classes, I want my students to learn to separate aesthetic judgments (whether a song is good or bad, whether they love it or hate it) from scholarly arguments about significance (what’s important and/or interesting about…

The bros go ‘full Janet’ while Janet thinks she shoulda known better

Joseph Gordon-Levitt made a splash on with some hardcore Janet drag. Performing an edit of Rhythm Nation 1814, he dressed up like Janet from the video, complete with ponytail. The most impressive part was his execution of the video’s (and…

Why is there no music analysis in feminist theory?

This MTO call for “Feminist Music Theory” got me thinking….   Feminist Theory is a body of theoretical, philosophical work that crosses women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, literature, film and media studies, art history, cultural studies, ethnic studies, theology and…

BBHMM, Gender, Property, & Sound: part 1, the video

So, here it is, my extra-freezing-cold-take on Rihanna’s BBHMM. I’ve broken it down into three parts, which I’ll publish over the next three days. It’s long and unedited — one of those ‘ima barf out my ideas here for refining…

BBHMM, Gender, Property, & Sound: part 2, bizarro pornotroping

This is part 2 of a too-longread piece on Rihanna’s BBHMM.   Pornotroping & Property   This destabilization of cisbinary gender in general, and her character’s “sonic” gender identity is one of the main techniques BBHMM uses to reroute the…

BBHMM, Gender, Property, & Sound: part 3, who cares?

This is the final part in a too-longread piece on Rihanna’s BBHMM. In order to redirect the typical flow of property, Rihanna’s character has to turn and deviate the practices of racialized sexual violence that produce post-feminist subjects and bare…

Academic negging

“Negging” is a tactic pickup artists use to get women’s attention. It’s basically the opposite of a compliment: you tell someone something negative about them, comment on a less-than-ideal quality, etc. The idea is that it undermines the recipient’s confidence…

Feelin Themselves

In my 2014 Noisey article on Meghan Trainor & Nicki Minaj, I said that  in pop music (and beyond) white feminist aesthetics tend to focus on representations of the body (body image, objectification), whereas black feminist aesthetics tend to focus…

Bieber Jacked Ellie Goulding’s Vocal Style

Justin Bieber’s new trio of Dance-Anthems-with-Greg-James friendly comeback singles draw on the latest trends in British dance pop. This makes him sound, especially to US pop audiences, as really fresh, forward, and trendsetting. He totally bros it up with Diplo…

A Playlist for Teaching With Halberstam’s “What’s That Smell?”

I’m teaching the last chapter of Halberstam’s In A Queer Time And Place, the chapter on queer music subcultures. I’m more interested in the music part than the subculture parts (the sounds more than the ethnography or critical geography or…