#177: The Politics Of Refusal
The Politics Of Refusal
I’m Todd L. Burns, and welcome to Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. I highlight some of the best stuff I hear, read, and watch every week; publish news about the industry; and interview writers, scholars, and editors about their work. My goal is to share knowledge, celebrate great work, and expand the idea of what music journalism is—and where it happens. Questions, comments, concerns? You can reach me anytime at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com. And if you're not already subscribed to the newsletter, you can do so at musicjournalisminsider.com.
Today in the newsletter: Interviews with DJ scholar Lynnée Denise, TikToker Elsie Ahachi, and Iberian and Latin music expert Walter Aaron Clark. Plus! Reading and podcast recommendations! And more! But first…
A Heads-Up
No newsletter next week! I’ll be back on July 10th.
I’ve Got A Few I’d Like To Add!
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Reading List
- Jan Diehm & Dr. Jada Watson outline why you’ll never hear two women back-to-back on country radio
- Steve Albini bluntly reminds us why expertise matters
- Hannah Ewens ponders an empty bliss beyond this world
- Simon Reynolds explains why Brits were so good at rock & roll
- Molly O'Brien considers the intersection of music and the internet
- Will Pritchard uncovers how rap lyrics are being used to convict Black British men
- Brendan Menapace reports on what it’s like to tour in Alaska
- Will Hagle interviews legendary hip-hop figure Dante Ross
- Brynn Tannehill explores the science behind underwater listening
- Zadie Smith reflects on the film Tár
Lede Of The Week
During the first ten minutes of Tár, it is possible to feel that the critic Adam Gopnik is a better actor than Cate Blanchett. - Zadie Smith
Q&A: Lynnée Denise
Lynnée Denise is a global practitioner of sound, language, and Black Atlantic thought. She coined the term DJ Scholarship in 2013, which explores how knowledge is gathered, interpreted, and produced through a conceptual and theoretical framework, shifting the role of the DJ from a party purveyor to an archivist and cultural worker. She’s also the author of Why Willie Mae Thornton Matters. In this excerpt from our interview, I asked her how she did the research for the book.
The research process was rooted in DJ Scholarship. Elements of DJ Scholarship include 1) Chasing samples, which amounts to a close listening practice around Willie Mae’s discography; 2) Diggin’ through the crates, which meant discovering lost recordings, the recordings of contemporaries, and other relevant information that exist beneath the surface of readily available materials; and 3) Studying album cover art, which again, for Willie Mae was huge because her appearance was so much a part of her politics of refusal. But also, it was important for me to learn about the range of blues that existed through album cover art and the ways in which representation of the blues contributes to the political economy of Black music and that representation, as I came to learn, was often time rooted in gendered notions of what the blues was/is.
Did you have any mentors along the way? What did they teach you?
Greg Tate and bell hooks, who died during the process of writing the book, were mentors—both literally and figuratively. Their respective bibliographies and insights and the conversations I had with both of them provided a wealth of knowledge and insight into the book-writing process. It was impossible to know them and utter the words, "I can't write this book."
Read the full interview with Lynnée here.
A Cause Worth Supporting
From Lynnée Denise:
Not only do I support The Willie Mae Rock Camp because of its programming that centers on exposing "girls" to music, instruments, and music technology, but also because they are doing this incredible work in the name of Willie Mae Thornton. It's a bias that supports legacy and future-generation work.
Check out all of the causes highlighted by folks I’ve interviewed.
A True Moment
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Podcasts!
- Fiona Ross moderates an episode of The Buzz with jazz scholars Willard Jenkins, Aidan Levy and Michael Wolff
- Richard Morton Jack reflects on his Flashback Magazine and more on Rock’s Backpages
- Twenty Thousand Hertz traces music formats from cylinders to streaming
- Pop Culture with Chanté Joseph celebrates Caribbean culture’s impact on British music
- The Last Archive explores the AI implications of composer Raymond Scott’s work
Q&A: Elsie Ahachi
Elsie Ahachi is a music lover and enthusiast. Her TikTok currently has more than 280,000 followers. It’s a platform that, Elsie says, “has given me the opportunity to be able to work with my dream brands and connect with so many amazing artists.” In this excerpt from our interview, Elsie explains how she organizes her work.
My notes app is always working overtime, I’m constantly coming up with ideas, so it helps to have it on my phone and synced across all my devices. Canva is also such a great tool for video concepts, I like to play around with all the little details for every video I put out, down to even fonts and color schemes.
What would you like to see more of in music journalism right now?
I would love to see more meaningful conversations centered around the music artists put out. Nowadays a lot of music outlets are focused on gossip and an artist’s personal life, forgetting that a lot of fans would love to know more about the actual music and the creative process behind it.
Read the full interview with Elsie here.
Pivoting To Video
- Grady Smith tries to become a country star for 24 hours
- Alfo Media explores unexpected hip-hop samples
- Craig Seymour joins Minoritea for a chat
- TED-Ed explains the life and work of John Cage
- Bandsplaining looks back at a radio scandal
A Cause Worth Supporting
From Steacy Easton:
Transgender Education Network of Texas, The Knights & Orchids, or Just Us. Much of the work on my Tammy Wynette book is about gender in the south, and about gender in popular culture--i would argue that American culture originated in the performing of gender in the south, music especially. We cannot divide this from the lives of actual trans and gender non-conforming/queer people. The charities I have chosen help make their lives better, especially in the midst of state-sponsored violence and violence in general.
Check out all of the causes highlighted by folks I’ve interviewed.
Trivia Time
In July, it’ll be 30 years since the first issue of Magnet was published. Who was the first band featured on the cover?
Real Scenes
- Edwin Arnaudin on the Orange Peel in Asheville
- James Gui on the Taipei club scene
- Leor Galil on Chicago indie
- David Anthony on anarcho-punk
- Spencer Grady on dark folk
Bits, Bobs
- An interview with the go-to K-Pop designers about their work
- NTS has launched two new podcasts: Digging with Flo and Don’t Assume
- Chicago has named The Warehouse a landmark
The Freelance Life
Source
Q&A: Walter Aaron Clark
Dr. Walter Aaron Clark is Distinguished Professor of Musicology and director of the Center for Iberian and Latin American Music at University of California, Riverside. He also holds performance degrees in classical guitar. In this excerpt from our interview, Walter offers a tip for students getting into music scholarship right now.
Be aggressive! This is a helpful mantra, one that I acquired from a respected professor. His specialty was Beethoven, and I was taking a seminar with him during the first year of my doctoral studies at UCLA. One day after class, I asked him what it takes to succeed in the profession of musicology. I was already 34 years old and a little worried about eventually finding a job. What would it take to succeed in this “business”? He answered immediately and without hesitation: be aggressive! That was all he said. I thanked him and went home.
Those two words gave me a lot of food for thought. My understanding of them was this: be aggressive in pursuing every opportunity. It does not mean to harm others. If you are trying to keep other people from succeeding, then you are admitting your own weakness, that you can only make yourself taller by cutting off the heads of others. No, that’s not how I interpreted what he said. I determined that I would pass up no opportunity to advance my career, but never deliberately at the expense of someone else’s career.
Indeed, I have always tried to be aggressive in helping fellow scholars, because that reinforces a sense of confidence in myself. So, every time there was a possibility to publish something, to win an award, to read a paper at a conference, to study overseas, to teach a course, to gain any sort of distinction, I would take that opportunity. Yet, I noticed that many, even most, of my fellow graduate students were not aggressive. They did not do these things. And most of them never had careers in musicology. That Beethoven scholar was right. You have to be aggressive.
Read the full interview with Walter here.
A Cause Worth Supporting
From Walter Clark:
I donate every month to each of the following, and I encourage others to do likewise. They are readily available via Internet search, and I make the donations directly from my bank account:
Oxfam, Natural Resources Defense Council, Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders, Freedom From Religion Foundation, Planned Parenthood, Southern Poverty Law Center, Equality California, American Humanist Association.
Check out all of the causes highlighted by folks I’ve interviewed.
Academic Stuff
- New issue: Journal of Music Theory
- Call for Special Issues: Jazz and Culture [Due by July 15]
- Call for Proposals: British Forum for Ethnomusicology Autumn Conference [Proposals due July 21]
- Call for Chapters: Popular Music Songwriting as Cultural, Creative, and Economic Practice [Proposals due August 1]
- Call for Papers: American Music
The Closing Credits
Thanks for reading! In case you’ve missed any special features, I’ve published a number of them in the newsletter, including articles about music journalism history, what music journalism will be like in 2221, and much more. You can check out all of that here.
I also do a recurring column in the newsletter called Notes On Process. The premise is simple: I share a Google Doc with a music journalist where we go into depth on one of their pieces. It hopefully provides an insight into how music writers do their work. You can check out all editions of Notes On Process here.
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Trivia Time Answer
The first cover star of Magnet was Urge Overkill.
A Final Note
Thanks for reading! I make playlists every single week. Check them here! And full disclosure: my day job is at uDiscover Music, a branded content online magazine owned by Universal Music. This newsletter is not affiliated or sponsored in any way by Universal, and any links that relate to the work of my department will be clearly marked.
Feel free to reach out to me via email at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com. On Twitter, it’s @JournalismMusic. Until next time...