Essays

These essays migrated from the previous iterations of the site.

Listening for Foremothers in Rosalía’s Lux

By Sarah Finley

From polemical reworkings of flamenco idioms and the 13th-century Occitan romance Flamenca in El mal querer (2018) to feminine interventions in the Caribbean-flavored musical eclecticism of Motomami (2022), Catalan-born Rosalía Vila Tobella knows how to make a splash. Her fourth studio album, Lux,… Read More

Out of the Lab

By HPrizm

Editor’s note: The author, a noted hip hop artist, intellectual, and mystic, resituates the actors of hip hop, electroacoustic music, musique concrète, and musique électronique as points of egress, rather than progress, in a historical study of… Read More

“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

Mediating the Summer Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies

By Destiny Meadows

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 and… Read More

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

By Dan DiPiero

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, it’s… Read More