Hi there IASPMites,
Just a few things to run by you from the world of Journal of Popular Music Studies as we kick off 2021. Our book series resumes tomorrow with Daphne Brooks, in conversation with Farah Jasmine Griffin and Gayle Wald, talking about her Liner Notes for the Revolution: The Intellectual Life of Black Feminist Sound, coming out next month on Harvard Press. We have a jampacked set of offerings: look for the schedule here:
http://iaspm-us.net/journal-of-popular-music-studies/books-in-process-series/
and email me if you want to get our weekly info packets and Zoom link.
–Meanwhile, we are looking for a new web editor! The info is here: http://iaspm-us.net/jpms-seeking-new-web-editor/ Please let us know if you might be interested.
–The current issue, rounding out 2020, is described here: http://iaspm-us.net/jpms-vol-32-no-4/, including: A conversation on Paul Robeson, Woody Guthrie, and artist biographies between Gustavus Stadler and Shana Redmond; Jason King for the Pop Conference with Tavia N’yongo and many others remembering Little Richard from a contemporary black perspective; Alyxandra Vesey on St. Vincent in a marketing campaign targeting girls to buy and play guitars; Nicholas Laudadio and Meghan Sweeney delighting in the 1960s Way Out Record for Children; Robin James investigating #MeToo disgust as neoliberal wallpapering and Rihanna’s “Love on the Brain”; Christine Capetola on Janet Jackson’s Control and the politics of what she calls “hyperaurality”; and much more.
–Finally, we are looking for some fun, short essays on the LP to celebrate our forthcoming issue 33.3! Here is some info: look to the IASPM-US site in the next couple of weeks for a formal link for sending in pitches.
The Journal of Popular Music Studies invites pitches for our upcoming issue, number 33.3. This number is nearly identical, of course, to the RPM speed for long-playing records, that vinyl format that transformed recorded music around the middle of the last century and whose resonances continue to resound through our audio archive. To mark this auspicious occasion, we’re putting together a special front-of-book section of brief keyword-style pieces. Please send us your pitches on any topic related to the idea of 33 1/3. Most of these pieces will run at 800–1200 words, but we’ll leave space for a few longer ones, on those topics that would benefit from more space.
Possible keywords include (but certainly are not limited to):
time, vinyl, album, 12”, record player, LP, groove, spiral, analog, stereo, hi-fi, warp, skip, track sequencing, locked groove, RPM, BPM, pressing, record, crate digging, 45, 78, revolution, platter, DJ, mixing, beat-matching, scratching, test-pressing, needle, schizophonia, Cold War, concept albums, Bloomsbury book series, magnetic recording, liner notes, cover art, nostalgia, obsolescence, “transform the most recent sound of old feelings into an archaic text of knowledge to come,” etc.
Possible questions for consideration: To what extent did the advent of the LP mark a sonic, cultural, and economic shift? How did the medium of the LP affect the formation and commoditization of individual genres of popular music, or the development of particular musicians’ output? Did the LP contribute to the formation of a postcolonial “structure of feeling”? How did the LP invite other art forms (e.g., writing, visual art) into the space of popular music?
Please send in initial statements of interest/pitches by February 28, 2021. Final contributions will be due by April 2, 2020.
That’s it for now! Best, Eric