Essays

These essays migrated from the previous iterations of the site.

“We Are Charlie Kirk” and the Gospel According to AI

By Chase Castle

The rapid fame of an AI-generated gospel tribute song titled “We Are Charlie Kirk” highlights strange new connections between American evangelicalism, political identity, and social media culture. Gospel here refers to both biblical-inflected language and a varied set of musical idioms that have circulated across Read More

“A Hungry Sonic Color Line: Toward a Musicology of Settler Listening in Canada”

By Duncan McCallum

https://doi.org/10.63473/AQRH9404 I believe there is a productive space between two neologisms from the past decade of musicology and sound studies—“hungry listening” and the “sonic color line”—that suggests a framework for understanding the politics of listening in Canada, and perhaps beyond. The term “hungry listening,” which I draw on from… Read More

Mediating the Summer Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies

By Destiny Meadows

https://doi.org/10.63473/WXDQ5690 Every four years, the Summer Olympic Games brings together over 200 countries to celebrate the highest levels of athleticism on the world stage. Throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, viewers have turned on televisions (or, as of recently, logged onto streaming platforms) to see athletic feats, individual… Read More

Queer Affects and Big Feelings: On The I Saw the TV Glow Soundtrack

By Dan DiPiero

https://doi.org/10.63473/MNNX1074 Big Feelings and Critical NostalgiaReleased in January 2024, I Saw the TV Glow (ISTTVG) caused an improbable sensation for an arthouse film that never quite coheres into a recognizable genre. Though horrifying, it can’t be called a horror movie; at the same time, though highly stylized and full of teenaged existentialism,… Read More

“We Are What They Grow Beyond”: Visions (and Sounds) of a Transnational Star Wars

By Stefan Greenfield-Casas, James Denis Mc Glynn

https://doi.org/10.63473/DIMW5020 Relatively recently, in a galaxy quite close to home, literary scholar Gerry Canavan vividly captured the ambiguity that shrouded the release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016). The second Star Wars feature film to be produced after Disney’s well-publicized acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012, Rogue One… Read More

Ukraine’s Avantgarde: A Short History of a Long Tradition

By Leah Batstone

https://doi.org/10.63473/XAAC7604 The international attention Ukraine has received in the 270 days since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its sovereign neighbor is unprecedented. The world has never before shown such support for and interest in Ukrainian culture, including the world of the performing arts. Countless benefit concerts have been organized by… Read More