I am very much looking forward to reading Robin James' phenomological analysis of vibes and their material structures. The introduction is now freely available via the following link.

Robin James@robinjames.bsky.social · 3h ago

The introduction to the vibes book is live and free on the publisher’s website! dukeupress.edu/good-vibes-o...

The introduction to the vibes book is live and free on the publisher’s website! dukeupress.edu/good-vibes-o...

Good Vibes Only: Phenomenology and the Biopolitics of Algorithmic Legitimation

dukeupress.edu

Lassiez les chien temps roulez

Saw a post on another platform critiquing scholarly publishing for being ‘gatekeepy’ and ‘for elites’ and I hate to break it to you but specialized peer reviewed research for highly-trained experts is…quality assured material for a narrow professional audience

5 3 Vegetarian since 96, eww gross no thanks

B_Rye989@brye989.bsky.social · 2d ago

3 5 4

Both GOOD VIBES ONLY and RESILIENCE & MELANCHOLY (expanded 2nd edition) are available for pre-order! I'd like to start scheduling dual book launch events for early 2027. Def want to do something in NYC and Chicago, Cincy/Dayton if I can swing it, and Boston & Philly.

I’m going to wake up in 5.5 hours and the flooding in the basement is either going to be so minor it’s no big deal that I get on my plane for a work trip or it’s going to be an all around clusterfuck

I too wrote about the new Charli and Strokes albums: www.its-her-factory.com/2026/08/rock...

To add to this, part of why I have been able to publish my own books as an independent scholar is I have as much institutional support to do so now as I did when I was in a tenured faculty role, which is zero

Rebecca Colesworthy@rcolesworthy.bsky.social · 3d ago

not unique to me! see also assoc profs waylaid by teaching and/or service. above all it’s interesting to think about parallel—though different—emphases on the “first book” with its assumption of a second and third and and and when there isn’t infrastructure to support that at scale.

Join me NOW on Inhailer.com for some new and classic indie. What piece of music writing or journalism will I recommend this week?

Inhailer Radio | Cincinnati | Independent Radio | Indie Music

Inhailer Radio is Cincinnati independent radio. Founded in 2017 to fill the void left by beloved radio station WNKU.

inhailer.com

I mean it's the home of the Underground Railroad Museum for a reason, people been fleeing the south for Cincy for over a century

Harvey J. Miller@mobileharv.bsky.social · 3d ago

Cincinnati has developed a Climate Migration Readiness Plan to absorb as many as 525,000 newcomers by 2050. It calls for building much denser housing, expanding public transit and decreasing the city’s reliance on fossil fuels.

Nepo baby slop songs are the 2026 reactionary centrist update on 90s corporate grunge/Creed/Durst

Robin James@robinjames.bsky.social · 3d ago

The post also low hey mentions that the pop charts are fully in the era of nepo baby slop doom, people who rant about poptimism these day are doing so not as a way to reflect reality but as misogynist grievance

(thinking about putting together a BISR-style virtual seminar on aesthetic taste 1700-today. 4 weeks, $200 for video lecture, discord, weekly zoom; $175 for video lecture & discord...maybe run this in October?)

Since it's Lolla weekend, his behavior on Lolla 94 was legendarily bad consequence.net/2025/04/flam...

Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne: Billy Corgan was a "raging asshole" at Lollapalooza

Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan's behavior is detailed in a book about Lollapalooza, with the harshest criticism coming from Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne.

consequence.net

Emily, a Two-Shoes-Gooder@rebelmusicteach.bsky.social · 4d ago

Billy Corgan is aiming for that Gen Alpha nostalgia & the good will that Olivia Rodrigo is bringing to SO many artists (including Corgan’s pal, Robert Smith) but unfortunately this will all be ruined by Billy Corgan opening his mouth.

"Girl *knows* how to be an outsider in a way that doesn’t come with praise, and she uses her comfort in that role as a way to take creative risks. That’s what makes her cool" this is helping me process her set last night, because that part was very much foregrounded

Robin James@robinjames.bsky.social · 4d ago

I too wrote about the new Charli and Strokes albums: www.its-her-factory.com/2026/08/rock...

"Charli is updating cool to work in the era of platform capital, where it’s a profile (or vibe!) that can be applied to any content...“Going Shopping” as franchising the “You Can Call Me Al” IP positions them as men whose elite status comes from their position in a patriarchal property lineage"

Robin James@robinjames.bsky.social · 4d ago

I too wrote about the new Charli and Strokes albums: www.its-her-factory.com/2026/08/rock...

I too wrote about the new Charli and Strokes albums: www.its-her-factory.com/2026/08/rock...

Technocratic omnivorousness as mastery of knowledge & difference as the neoliberal side of a zeitgeist when the reactionaries celebrate bad taste www.its-her-factory.com/2025/09/1996...

Pop Base@popbase.tv · 6d ago

Barack Obama shares his 2026 Summer playlist.

Get in, girls, we (in 2026) are retconning grunge and to some extent stomp-clap, post-punk is back at the center of not just "indie" but pop as well

lil miss big boy@lighter.bsky.social · 5d ago

Post your hottest music take. Mine is New Order is better than Joy Division.

Is early December a bad time to do a book launch event in NYC, and if not is a bookstore or just a party at like a bar preferable?

Women

Sophia_Nyx 🏳️‍⚧️@sophianyx.bsky.social · 5d ago

Name a villain who was actually right.

So The Strokes referencing “You Can Call Me Al” today as they do in the “Going Shopping” video is like 90s references to swing

This is the British (read: more polite) version of the American alt-right’s love for corporate grunge (Creed, Limp Bizkit) There was a systemic and industry wide selling of 90s alternative to men and thus butching it up as much as possible by leaning into misogyny, anti-PC backlash etc etc

Duncan Robinson@duncanrobinson.bsky.social · 5d ago

www.economist.com/britain/2026... Wrote about our indie music loving elite and how Burnham is...just another 50-something bloke interested in the exactly same thing as others of his generation

Film you’ve watched more than six times with a GIF. Hard mode: no Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR, Marvel, Disney, or Ghibli.

Aretha Franklin Scolds Blues Brothers: Don't Blaspheme!

ALT: Aretha Franklin Scolds Blues Brothers: Don't Blaspheme!

static.klipy.com

Wes Flinn (now with new trombones!)@wesflinn.bsky.social · 6d ago

Film you’ve watched more than six times with a GIF. Hard mode: no Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR, Marvel, Disney, or Ghibli.

As a xennial I grew up with so many narratives of white male boomer midlife crisis as “everything I have striven for is a lie!” (American Beauty what) Trying to figure out what it means that I’m not quite 50 and have ticked off my professional bucket list? I’m cool, so now what?

Updated my It’s Her Factory Apple Music playlist of the songs I play on Inhailer music.apple.com/us/playlist/...

It’s Her Factory by Robin James on Apple Music

Playlist · 61 Songs

music.apple.com

I'm kind of happy that as a popular music scholar I can kind of ignore the "can poems be films" discourse as extremely not my lane lol

my personal strokes take is that in 2001, Wes, the cool grad student, was playing This Is It in the grad office and while many were enthralled by his implicit endorsement of the record's coolness, I thought "meh, not as interesting as most of what you hear on WOXY"

My editorial advice to scholarly book authors re: titles is to, uh, do as I do as an author. Follow the formula: "What the book is about: keyword, keyword, keyword" It's clearest and optimized for SEO, which even library search engines use

My paternal grandmother was a public school teacher with a SWEET pension and bennies, wouldn't mind that tbh she was an immigrant who put herself through college after getting divorced and raising 2 kids on her own and I am OLD so she's silent generation, lived thru ww1 and spanish flu etc

Revan@revan.eurosky.social · 7d ago

Enough “what would you do on the commune questions” If you got sent back 100 years and were given your grandparent’s job, what are you doing?