That #Selfie Song–how it sounds, and a few thoughts on human capital

The Chainsmokers’ song “Selfie” is the new novelty song that everyone (or, almost everyone) loves to hate. In this Fact Magazine critics roundup, the song is called everything from “a low point…even for EDM,” to the one thing worse than…

More on Daft Punk: canonizing a history of EDM

This past week I got to talk about Daft Punk with Jason and Cassie at ABC’s The List. We had a great time talking, so much so that there was a lot that we discussed that couldn’t be fit into…

Ludacris’s “Rest of My Life” and Neoliberalism

On 11/11/12, Ludacris (feat. Usher & David Guetta) posted a video for his single “Rest of My life” to YouTube. Interestingly, and awesomely, this video all but explicitly posits the main claim of my article on EDM and neoliberalism in…

Neoliberalism and Contemporary Pop Music: An Overview

I’ve been thinking and writing a lot about the logic of biopolitical neoliberalism as it manifests in contemporary pop music (and a little bit in 20th c avant-garde art music). In the same way that classical liberalism and tonal harmony…

My Life Would Suck Without You/Where Have You Been All My Life: Tension-and-Release Structures In Tonal Rock and Non-Tonal EDM-Pop

In this post, I contrast the formal elements in the song and video for Kelly Clarkson’s “My Life Would Suck Without You” with the formal elements in the song and video for Rihanna’s “Where Have You Been All My Life.”…