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Published in Rock n’Heavy

·May 16

Hippie Music : What It Is

The implication of the word “hippie” was originally, like many slang terms, derogatory. In the Jazz confines of some place like New York City it was applied to wanna-bes, those neophytes who tried a little too hard to make the scene. …

Hippie Music

16 min read

Hippie Music : What It Is
Hippie Music : What It Is

Published in Rock n’Heavy

·Mar 5

The First Time I Met the Blues: foot stomping spinning the cosmos

The Blues, rather than some ink-inscribed parchment, might be the solid foundation that the U.S. of A. rests upon, depends upon, falls back upon; starting with the premise (the presumption, if you will) that all recorded and popular musical styles in the Americas (as a whole) derive from The Blues…

The Blues

6 min read

The First Time I Met the Blues: foot stomping spinning the cosmos
The First Time I Met the Blues: foot stomping spinning the cosmos

Jan 13

Analog Ephemera and the banged up 78rpm

The GIF that you see above was made using a Hadda Brooks Trio 78rpm from Modern Music, a Los Angeles based label known for releasing R&B in the mid-1940s and 1950s. The label distributed recordings by such luminaries as Etta James and John Lee Hooker. Putting aside the lustrous recording…

78 Rpm

6 min read

Analog Ephemera and the banged up 78rpm
Analog Ephemera and the banged up 78rpm

Published in Rock n’Heavy

·Jan 9

Music on the TV: a memoir

Pop music doesn’t only come out of a speaker. It’s also an image. It might even be a TV show, the camera trained on the stage, occasionally swivelling to the audience. An audience dressed for the occasion. One of the longest running TV shows in history, weathering the shifts in…

TV

8 min read

Music on the TV: a memoir
Music on the TV: a memoir

Dec 28, 2021

Pop Fame and How It Uses You: Mick, Kanye, and the rest of us

The casual observer, the type who may indeed be unable (or unwilling) to identify the product, to put a name to the face, is yet prey to the side-effects of any particular pop-icon’s off-track ramblings. When the pop star inserts him/herself into the wider spheres of opinion, or feels obliged…

Fame

6 min read

Pop Fame and How It Uses You: Mick, Kanye, and the rest of us
Pop Fame and How It Uses You: Mick, Kanye, and the rest of us

Published in Rock n’Heavy

·Dec 9, 2021

What is Punk and How Vivien Goldman Tells It

Revenge of the She-Punks: A Feminist Music History from Poly Styrene to Pussy Riot by Vivien Goldman (University of Texas Press 2019) This necessary book, which may have “feminist” in the subtitle, should otherwise be ranked alongside any tome that runs down musical history, filling in the blanks, rectifying the…

Revenge Of The She Punks

6 min read

What is Punk and How Vivien Goldman Tells It
What is Punk and How Vivien Goldman Tells It

Oct 7, 2021

The Daunting Task of Covering Marvin Gaye or the Songs Marvin Gaye Covered

Marvin Gaye was an integral, one might say crucial, member of the Motown team, a brand that certainly lent itself to the cover version; even within its stable, one song might be tried out multiple times by ensemble or solo Motown artists as well as whoever, outside of Motown, could…

Marvin Gaye

7 min read

The Daunting Task of Covering Marvin Gaye or the Songs Marvin Gaye Covered
The Daunting Task of Covering Marvin Gaye or the Songs Marvin Gaye Covered

Published in Festival Peak

·Sep 22, 2021

The 1970s Pop Jag and the “Disco Sucks” Conundrum

When we talk about the Top Ten, that dubious arbiter of “quality,” as if piles of cash equate with inherent value, let’s all remember that that marketplace marker only represents a fraction of the actual musical output of any given year. But given the “sales record” of certain songs, and…

1970 S

11 min read

The 1970s Pop Jag and the “Disco Sucks” Conundrum
The 1970s Pop Jag and the “Disco Sucks” Conundrum

Sep 6, 2021

The Perfect Pop Song: Part 2 (“If I Could Be With You One Hour Tonight”)

The term “pop” as applied to “pop music” originated somewhere around 1926. “Pop” as a diminutive of popular, would seem to be the most contemporary up-to-date category, perfect for someone like Brittany Spears (who is already, paradoxically, “old”) or (to bring it right up to the newest now) Olivia Rodrigo…

If I Could Be With You

5 min read

The Perfect Pop Song: Part 2 (“If I Could Be With You One Hour Tonight”)
The Perfect Pop Song: Part 2 (“If I Could Be With You One Hour Tonight”)

Sep 4, 2021

Songs No One Cares About Pt. 2: Ewe Fatuma and Africa’s Top Ten

Welcome to the “Songs No One Cares About” series that proves its premise by accruing the lowest “views” and zero “reads” of any other post on this humble Medium account; that ranking would be the first in the series, “Songs No One Cares About Pt. 1: Italian pseudo-psychedelia —…

Africa

4 min read

Songs No One Cares About Pt. 2: Ewe Fatuma and Africa’s Top Ten
Songs No One Cares About Pt. 2: Ewe Fatuma and Africa’s Top Ten
Pitch Yr Culture

Pitch Yr Culture

Musical music, historical and cultural connections

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