Here's my "Long Black Veil" short essay for the Hilobrow series, alongside the writerly equivalent of Nashville session players -- sentences for any occasion. www.hilobrow.com/2026/07/27/p...

Excellent point

Matthew Perpetua@fluxblog.bsky.social · 2mo ago

every week Spotify has new material in a rapidly emerging genre that's basically the equivalent of butt rock/post-grunge but instead of Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Alice In Chains, it's Folklore-era Taylor Swift and Phoebe Bridgers

I am happy to note that the Oxford Handbook of Pop Music is now published -- as an e-Book at least. It was a pleasure to work on this project with so many terrific writers and thinkers. Nudge your library for access, please, but nudge me if that is not an option. academic.oup.com/edited-volum...

The Oxford Handbook of Pop Music

Abstract. The Oxford Handbook of Pop Music is an attempt to uncover pop music studies within popular music studies, to attach enough of a framework to thes

academic.oup.com

I don't know how to post my albums and songs list without shattering the word limit here, but if you can follow this link and scroll you'll see. open.spotify.com/playlist/6Ok...

Eric Harvey on indie, via Chris DeVille's book. I'd add the jazz hipster (hot and cold) link, Village Voice (Mailer, Hentoff, and Crouch) into Pop Conference into now university scholarship on the bigger picture DeVille sacrifices for close coverage. But thank you! open.substack.com/pub/ericdhar...

To put this another way . . . Derek Scott

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

PopCon | 2026

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

popconference.org

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...

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

PopCon | 2026

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

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

Jeff Melnick@melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · last yr.

I don't know, you probably don't care, but thanks to an online friend I'm listening to a collection of devastatingly funky music made in Harare, Zimbabwe's townshps between 1975-1980. I know loads of 1980s Zimbabwe music--a top place and time--but this is mostly new to me.

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

@tnyfrontrow.bsky.social · last yr.

The Times's reassignment of four critics is one thing, but its downgrading of the so-called traditional review is altogether another: www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

Agreed, with more to say on Facebook!

Ann Powers@annkpowers.bsky.social · last yr.

I ♥️ MEKONS BEST SHOW EVER (since the last one)

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...

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!

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

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

YouTube video by Eric Weisbard

youtu.be

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).

de Lacey@delaceymusic.bsky.social · last yr.

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!

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!

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 . . .

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.

Pop Conference 2025 Schedule

Check out the schedule for Pop Conference 2025

popcon2025.sched.com

The best line in A Complete Unknown might be "excuse me, Odetta." Wordiest songwriter in human history and the biopic brings us back home to Nathaniel Mackey: "telling inarticulacy."

My 2024 faves: albums and songs. Shuffle away! open.spotify.com/playlist/6kx...

Best of 2024

Playlist · ericweisbard · 564 items

open.spotify.com

@robinjames.bsky.social got me thinking about this: It's comparing apples and oranges, but the Album of the Year critical list aggregate has Brat with more than twice as many votes as the runner up, a tie between Romance and Cowboy Carter. How unusual is this?

Did CBGB's regularly keep a big image of Eva Tanguay by the stage, as this photo would seem to indicate, or was that the Talking Heads' doing?

Cʜʀɪs Sᴛᴇɪɴ@chrisstein.bsky.social · 2y ago

Heads at CBGB's their freshman year

Agreed!

Jack Hamilton@jackhamilton.bsky.social · 2y ago

this is the best musical performance i've seen on a tv show in I don't even know how long www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggg4...

I woke early for a Thanksgiving plate of Transa, the massive new Red Hot collection, gleaning lyrics and production details from Genius, Bandcamp, Wiki, Insta. I have cherished spaces like this, of cover songs and collaboration, since the first Red Hot, from Kiki & Herb into the Big Ears Festival.

Thinking on my walk about commercial songs as not so much creating new needs as proving we have needs we can't or won't speak. Thinking about how I first heard Charli XCX inside an Icona Pop hit and didn't know it; wondering if some once heard Huey Smith inside a Frankie Ford hit and didn't know.