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Today guest blogger Robert Loss writes about the multifaceted notion of “American-ness” and how it unfolds across genres of popular music. Whether they mean to or not, every American artist tells his or her version of the American story. The “American” descriptor in the book’s subtitle (“Seeking the New in 21st-Century American Popular Music”) winds […]

We continue with guest blogger and author Robert Loss, whose new book Nothing Has Been Done Before explores the idea of newness in popular music. Today, read about how he wrote his Bob Dylan chapter and how Dylan’s Nobel Prize win changed the course of his writing. Plus, a Dylan playlist. The situation is always changing. The

Even though Nothing Has Been Done Before centers on music made since 2000, it is, at times, intensely historical, tracing stories and ideas that reach back to more than a century ago. Author Robert Loss explores some of the defining moments in pop music history on that extended timeline.   1859—Let’s start in the year

This week, we bring you posts from guest blogger Robert Loss, author of Nothing Has Been Done Before. Read on to learn what inspired him to write the book, why he thinks that there is room for newness in popular music, and how this newness can evade being defined by demands of consumerist culture in popular music.

Join us today in celebrating the 20th anniversary of Zaireeka by the Flaming Lips with Mark Richardson, author of The Flaming Lips’ Zaireeka, who explains the distinct listening experience that The Flaming Lips brought with this unique four-part album. Twenty years ago, the Flaming Lips album Zaireeka was released into a different world. We were rushing

There is a huge sea of Björk interviews, TV appearances and live shows out there on the internet to get wonderfully lost in. Whole days can go that way, easily. There’s also many a rare gem to be found, if you dig deep – and in the course of writing my 33 1/3, I definitely

This week, Michael Washburn, author of Tom Petty’s Southern Accents (coming Fall 2018!), reflects on Tom Petty’s impact on American culture, what Tom Petty’s Southern heritage meant to him, and how Petty approached the representations of Southern heritage in Southern Accents. Tom Petty’s death last week provoked a torrent of deserved, heartfelt tributes. The 66 year-old rock

To celebrate this week’s release of Bjork’s Homogenic, we’re pleased to bring you the fifth and final installment of Björk Week by author Emily Mackay! Six connections between Homogenic and Utopia. One of the main reasons I can’t stop obsessing over Homogenic so much is that I can always find paths from Björk’s more recent

To celebrate today’s release of Björk’s Homogenic, we’re pleased to share with you the fourth installment of Björk Week by author Emily Mackay! A whistle-stop tour of Iceland. Björk presents her music and personality as so much founded on her home country that soon enough, all smitten Björk fans will find themselves longing to take a trip

To celebrate this week’s release of Björk’s Homogenic, we’re pleased to bring you the third installment of Björk Week by author Emily Mackay! The pleasure is all mine: Björk and remixing. Björk’s love of collaboration is not, to her, a sideshow to the main ego feature; it’s a core part of her work. “That’s my biggest turn-on,” she