popular culture 
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SOURCE: The Atlantic
2/2/2023
The Case for Blondie as the Sound of the 70s
by Kevin Dettmar
While the decade's pop scene was undeniably eclectic, there's an argument to be made that the New York group was at the center of the most lasting trends of the 1970s.
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SOURCE: WTTW
1/27/2023
Prof. Hasan Kwame Jeffries on Consulting for Hip Hop at 50 Documentary
The Ohio State professor served as a consultant for the four hour documentary produced by Public Enemy's Chuck D, which begins January 31.
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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: Wall Street Journal
1/19/2023
11 Movies and Shows that Document the March of Technology
From the office-sized computer to the landline, plot points that hinge on obsolete technology are a fun way to track how technologies structure our lives and our anxieties.
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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: Vanity Fair
10/11/2022
Lizzo Talks About the Flute
The pop superstar touches on numerous subjects, including making history belong to everyone and the historical relationship of racist and sexist stereotyping of Black women's performances looking back to Josephine Baker.
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SOURCE: The Bulwark
10/4/2022
What Lizzo Can Teach the Right about History
Commentator Mona Charen writes that Lizzo's embrace of an artifact of the founding generation should be welcomed by conservatives, who claim to stand for a history shared by all Americans without regard for identity.
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SOURCE: Religion Dispatches
9/15/2022
"I'm Not Racist, I'm Just Mad Amazon is Destroying Tolkien's Middle Earth with Black Hobbits"
by Mary Rambaran-Olm
Viewer complaints that Amazon Prime has defiled the author's fantasy vision with "wokeness" ignore the historical diversity of the medieval society on which Tolkien based his works.
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SOURCE: The New Yorker
9/16/2022
How True is the History in "The Woman King"?
"'The Woman King' chooses to make resistance to slavery its moral compass, then misrepresents a kingdom that trafficked tens of thousands as a vanguard in the struggle against it."
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9/11/2022
Songs for Sale: Tin Pan Alley (Excerpt)
by Bob Stanley
American popular music didn't start with Elvis. It emerged when musical fads onstage converged with a new mass market for in-home record players to make song publishing big business.
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SOURCE: The New Republic
9/7/2022
"Rings of Power" Speaks to a War-Hungry Audience
by Daniel Bessner
Inspired by Tolkien's experiences in the Great War, his fantasy books have been taken as allegories for the fight against Nazism, the Cold War, and the War on Terror. The new series reflects the anxieties of an American empire with neither a clear enemy nor the imagination to abandon militarism.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
9/7/2022
Stories of Women's Comeuppance Expose Cruelty at Heart of Modern Society
by Sarah Horowitz
Like Anna Delvey and Elizabeth Holmes today, the 1909 trial of Marguerite Steinheil in Paris focused on an ambitious woman as a villain, but revealed a wider climate of impunity and self-dealing among elite men.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
9/4/2022
The Real Medieval Civil War that Inspires "House of the Dragon"
by Gillian Brockell
The Anarchy, an English war of succession that lasted from 1138 to 1153, is part of the narrative inspiration for the new fantasy series.
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SOURCE: CNN
8/29/2022
Fantasy Series Take a Selective Approach to Historical Accuracy as an Excuse for Sexual Violence
Medievalist Eleanor Janega wonders whether the creators of the "Game of Thrones" universe use historical accuracy as a justification to show graphic violence; their insistence on verisimilitude flags in other areas.
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SOURCE: The Atlantic
8/10/2022
Eve Babitz's Archive Reveals the Person Behind the Persona
by Kevin Dettmar
"What could the personal documents of a writer who was so public about her private world teach us about her work? How much of that persona was a performance and how much a reflection of her real anxieties and ambitions?"
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SOURCE: Perspectives on History
8/9/2022
"Bridgerton" and Its Blind Spot for Colonialist History
by Trishula Patel
In nodding to contemporary British diversity by casting actors of color in roles originally written as "white," the program misses the bigger opportunity to examine the histories of colonialism that brought people of Indian and African descent to Britain during the Regency period.
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8/14/2022
Despite the Cultural Differences, There's Common Ground Between Boomers and Zoomers
by Joseph Preston Baratta
Despite the differences in their cultural touchstones, Gen Z faces the yet-incomplete challenge of the Baby Boom generation: uniting the world in novel ways to solve global problems.
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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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