music 
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SOURCE: Oxford American
1/24/2023
Who Gets to Sing About Revenge in Pop Music?
by Jewel Wicker
Do the racial politics of musical genre explain why songs about revenge are celebrated in country music and turned into evidence for the prosecution against hip hop artists (even when the songs in question are fiction)?
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SOURCE: Pop Matters
1/11/2023
The Unlikely Story of the 1960s Revival of Delta Blues Giant Son House
After shifts in African American musical styles, the Great Depression and the Great Migration consigned him to obscurity, Son House recorded live music in the 1960s.
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SOURCE: Oxford American
12/13/2022
Exiting/In
by Francesca T. Royster
A family and community history in Black Nashville puts the rise of "Music Row" in the context of urban renewal projects that destroyed African American communities and institutions, and the unacknowledged Black presence in country music.
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SOURCE: NPR
12/12/2022
Protege of Gospel Blues Great Reverend Gary Davis Seeks to Preserve Legacy
Stefan Grossman started studying Davis's fingerpicked style after the older man had settled in the Bronx in the 1960s.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
12/6/2022
Stax Records Co-Founder Jim Stewart Dies at 92
Stewart's label in its heyday trailed only Motown Records as a purveyor of soul music, and the label's house bands created a distinctive and enduring style associated with Memphis.
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SOURCE: UnHerd
10/28/2022
At 40, Springsteen's "Nebraska" Holds Up as a Harbinger of Rural Despair
"It sold poorly and due to its troubling themes, Springsteen did not take it on tour. Nebraska was left to speak for itself. Today, exactly 40 years after its release, that voice is no less disquieting."
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SOURCE: New York Times
10/27/2022
Stevie Wonder's "Talking Book" at 50
Musical collaborators and artists later influenced by Stevie Wonder's declaration of musical independence explain the album's creation and impact.
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SOURCE: WBUR
10/21/2022
Steve Waksman on the History of Live Music in America
Waksman's new book explains how a live performance depends on the confluence of art and business.
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SOURCE: New York Times
10/4/2022
Loretta Lynn, Country Music Star Who Voiced Rural Resilience, Dies at 90
The singer expressed the endurance of hardship but also performed subversive and humorous takes on the changing mores reaching rural America in the 1960s and 1970s.
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10/2/2022
Dangerous Rhythms: Jazz and the Criminal Underworld
by James Thornton Harris
T.J. English examines the relationship between jazz and organized crime in Prohibition America, and how the music moved on from the mob.
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9/11/2022
Arena Rockin' The Vote?
by George Case
Dismissed, derided, or even deplored by critics, and out of step with the trends, arena rock acts still pack them in in much of America. Is it the sonic key to understanding Trumpism?
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SOURCE: NPR
8/9/2022
Lamont Dozier, Part of Legendary Motown Songwriting Team, Dies at 81
With Brian and Eddie Holland, Dozier formed the formidable "HDH" songwriting partnership that turned out many of the biggest hits of the 1960s for The Supremes and The Four Tops among other Motown acts.
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SOURCE: Texas Standard
7/22/2022
Texas State Prof. Launches Harry Styles History Course
Louis Dean Valencia realized during the pandemic that icebreaking conversations with students about pop music opened up many avenues for discussing historical subjects including the politics of celebrity.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
7/20/2022
Is a 23 Year-Old Named Kingfish Bridging the Past and Future of the Blues?
by Carlo Rotella
Although he came on the scene as a guitar hotshot, Christone "Kingfish" Ingram's artistic ambitions go beyond the bombastic soloing of the blues-rock genre and incorporate more of the traditional breadth of the blues as African American music.
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SOURCE: London Review of Books
6/9/2022
The Enduring Appeal of the BBC's "Desert Island Discs" – the Longest Running Interview Show
The famous and would-be famous have faced the dilemma of telling the world about themselves by listing the records (and luxury items) they'd want with them on a desert island; post-1951 episodes are now available as podcasts.
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
5/19/2022
Ukraine's Eurovision Victory Not the First Time Politics Has Been on Stage
by Tess Megginson
Since its beginnings in 1956, the Eurovision Song Contest has been a stage for statements about the politics of the continent, from the Cold War to the growth of the EU to the invasion of Ukraine.
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SOURCE: Vanity Fair
4/21/2022
Previewing Tulsa's New Bob Dylan Center
by Douglas Brinkley
"The center—a high-tech vessel holding the man’s oeuvre and an overview of the man—will be the spiritual home of Dylan, a relentless performer who is forever on the road."
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SOURCE: Washington Post
4/18/2022
Can the Roots of Greatness be Found in Bob Dylan's Minnesota Hometown?
If Dylan himself has always been ambivalent about his Iron Range roots, there is still much to learn about the artist and the nation from a visit.
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SOURCE: Ms.
3/29/2022
Hip Hop’s ‘Hidden Figures’: The Feminist Herstory and Future of Hip Hop
"In every facet of hip hop music and culture, women have been innovating and setting new precedents, yet most connoisseurs of hip hop remain unaware of how women have actively shaped its culture and music from inception."
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SOURCE: The Metropole
3/23/2022
Planning For The People Y Qué? From Advocacy Planners To Hardcore Punks
by Mike Amezcua
"Punk fliers are planning documents. Not the official kind produced by city planning departments, of course, nor the grassroots plans by neighborhood activists resisting investment capital and gentrification. But these fliers contain a planning schema all the same."
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