Eric Weisbard

To put this another way . . . Derek Scott

Or use PopConference.org!

PopCon | 2026 PopCon is the premier music writing and popular music studies conference.

The Pop Conference deadline is less than three weeks away: October 22. Please, join me in spreading the word today. PopCon thrives on its ties to both lifelong presenters and dynamic new presenters. Got something good to speak to our Mayhem? Send in a proposal! www.popconference.org

Email, please

Popular Music Books in Process returns September 10! If you have not been added to the mailing list, please send me a note. iaspm-us.wildapricot.org/Popular-Musi...

PopCon | 2026 PopCon is the premier music writing and popular music studies conference.

psst: new Pop Conference call. Repost please. www.popconference.org

I should probably avoid much comment on that New Yorker piece; have to prep for my Rock, Soul, Hip-Hop, and Country course, where this week we are reading the first chapter of the textbook, Major Labels, by one K. Sanneh.

Streaming and awesome

Thanks! Streaming it now, will spread the word.

The 1970s genre, cocaine? Yes, interesting and boring.

I hope this registers. Reviews matter, even if less clicked on. They’re the active interpretive work of reception. Preserve them!

Agreed, with more to say on Facebook!

Quick reminder that if you want to be part of our music book series, there is about a week to send in a proposal. Go for it! iaspm-us.wildapricot.org/Calls-and-An...

I mean, Martha Wainwright, "B.M.F.A." and Wire, "Mannequin" are gold standard (and why the Feelies left their version of the latter off the new one is beyond me).

Popular Music Books in Process series, 2025-2026 Call for Proposals Since 2020, the Popular Music Books in Process series has held online events for music writers and scholars to showcase recent books or works in progress for an engaged audience. The series is a collaboration between the Journal of Popular Music Studies, the Pop Conference, and IASPM-US. There have been more than 140 Zoom events so far, almost all preserved on YouTube. We generally run biweekly from fall through spring. We look forward to another round of presentations. If you are publishing a book in the next year, or have ongoing work to showcase, please let us know. All kinds of formats are welcome, from readings and dialogues to roundtables, always including a generous Q&A. Some authors have even incorporated live music. We ask you to make your event conversational on some level and avoid longer solo presentations. If you need ideas for interlocutors or co-presenters, we can suggest some. Our YouTube page shows the variety of strategies presenters have used. We may group authors with kindred approaches, too. Whatever the format, our focus remains books, whether early in gestation or after publication. We want to showcase popular music writing of many kinds, keeping our communities connected, and welcoming in new participants. Presenters are asked to do their best to attend several other sessions through the season. Please feel free to share this call with others you think might want to join in.

For anyone writing a book about music, you might find this invitation to present of interest! I participated in the @iaspm-us.bsky.social "Popular Music Books in Process Series" a couple of years ago, and it was a wonderful experience. 🎶

The Journal of Popular Music Studies, which I co-edit with Dr. Alisha Lola Jones, has openings for three positions -- an associate book reviews editor, an associate editor of the "field notes" section, and a web editor.

Details at the link, spread the word:

iaspm-us.wildapricot.org/JPMScallsfor...

Our popular music books series has a new call out for this coming school year, details here: iaspm-us.wildapricot.org/Calls-and-An... Consider taking part and please let others know, too!

YouTube video by Eric Weisbard Joshua Clover on Modern Lovers' "Roadrunner" w/ Elizabeth Nelson, Eric Weisbard, PMBiP, 09/20/21

By the way, if you are curious about what the hell I and others are going on about as we mourn, Joshua's music book series appearance, our most watched ever, lives in the link attached here. Rock and roll in a nutshell. youtu.be/d6qc8EqN_XI

Sometimes, he made me feel a bit feeble, but that was okay, too, I just valued the time I got to spend with him. And when I followed him in the Duke Single Series he started, he tagged his comments on the working file Jane Dark. I will miss him so much.

A spark that made New York editors want to fan his flame, Kim Stanley Robinson pigeonhole him into Ministry for the Future. An email would become a 100 Gecs party. As you'd expect from Mr. Critical Karaoke, he had thoughts about everything: could go on about freaking Khris Middleton.

That will be explained, in so many ways, in the days to come. Poet, pop critic, Marxist, blowhard cracking himself up so you forgave.

We have lost Joshua Clover -- my friend from the first phone call to Indiana, when "Jane Dark" was writing for me at the Voice, to a Zoom call last September, sipping red wine in a Free Gaza shirt. He was a lot.

A perfect database for Bananafish (and many other lost pubs, from zines to academe).

Some days I struggle to see myself as an academic. Others – like today when I got really excited about a new magazine repository – reaffirm that I am indeed a massive nerd. Check this out: rilm.org/rapmm. Launching May 27!

I am not a subscriber, so maybe it's in the original post, but I reviewed them in their moment and the singer himself rewrote the chorus to sing "fucking shitty, fucking shitty"

. . . Chanel Beads, Julia Holter, Sun Ra Arkestra, Lankum, Ahmed, clipping., Ann with Joe Boyd, Lonnie Holley, Tindersticks, and Mabe Fratti.

Final Big Ears list: Alan Sparhawk, Beth Gibbons, Philip Glass Ensemble, Cassandra Jenkins, Jeff Parker ETA IVtet, Jessica Pratt, Swamp Dogg, Michael Hurley, Squanderers, 101 Audio Odyssey, Ambrose Akinmusire, Eiko Ishibashi . . .

Times are what they are, but creative passion is always a boon. I'll anchor a roundtable with Oxford Handbook of Pop Music contributors and present a version of my SweMix Fulbright talk for a panel on Export Music.

My thanks to all who have kept the event I helped found going into what is now Pop Con year 24: madison moore and Andrew Mall for co-organizing the merged event so effectively, USC host Jason King, and IASPM-US prexy Kwame Harrison for pursuing the collaboration in the first place.

Pop Conference 2025 Schedule Check out the schedule for Pop Conference 2025

Next week the Pop Conference returns to USC -- in conjunction with IASPM-US as well. Even if you are not able to attend, run your eyes through the schedule: popcon2025.sched.com/list/simple. You'll learn about something new, guaranteed! And if you are in the LA area, I hope you'll swing by.