Dreams & Nightmares: The Music Industry, Media and Inequality
What were the racial and gendered stakes when Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards? How did the R. Kelly and Kesha sexual abuse cases go so underacknowledged and under-covered? What are the structures of the music industry that have enabled inequity throughout its history? These questions and more will be addressed in this course, which explores problematic hierarchies and structures of oppression within the global popular music industry. It situates musical case studies of identity-based discrimination within social, news and entertainment media environments and pays particular attention to the role of music journalism—from Rolling Stone to Pitchfork—in setting the terms of key debates.
Course Objectives
By the end of our time together, students should expect to:
Develop a robust understanding of the music industry, specifically as a media industry with messaging, internal politics, ideologies, and structuring logics
Think critically about areas where identity-based oppression occurs, specifically race, class, gender, and the postcolonial
Understand the role of media in telling stories and representing the industry
Build argumentative and analytical skills as writers
WEEKLY SCHEDULE OF READINGS
Week 1: Industrial Thinking
Read:
1. Simon Frith, “The Industrialization of Popular Music”
2. Roy Shuker, “‘Every 1’s a Winner: Music as a Cultural Industry,” from Understanding Popular Music Culture (Third Edition)
3. Matt Stahl, “Introduction,” Unfree Masters: Popular Music and the Politics of Work
4. Liz Pelly, “The Problem with Muzak: Spotify’s bid to remodel an industry,” The Baffler
5. David Turner, “Billie Eilish: The Exception That Proves the Rule,” Penny Fractions
6. OPTIONAL: Jacques Attali, “Chapter 1: Listening,” from Noise: The Political Economy of Music
Week 2: Anti-Blackness
Read:
1. Wesley Morris, “Why is everyone always stealing Black Music?” from The New York Times 1619 Project
2. Karl Hagstrom Miller, “Introduction,” from Segregating Sound Inventing Folk and Pop Music in the Age of Jim Crow,
3. David Hesmondhalgh and Anamik Saha, “Race, Ethnicity, and Cultural Production,” from Popular Communication
4. Greg Tate, “Hiphop Turns 30,” from The Village Voice
5. John Vilanova, “’Imma Let You Finish...But…’: Kanye West, Taylor Swift, Beyoncé Knowles and the Myths of Memory at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards”
Optional Supplemental Watch:
1. 20 Feet from Stardom (Netflix Documentary)
Week 3: Gender Trouble
Content Warning/Trigger Warning: This unit contains depictions of sexual assault.
1. John Vilanova and Kyle Cassidy, “’I’m Not the Drummer’s Girlfriend’ Merch Girls, Tour’s Misogynist Mythos, and the Gendered Dynamics of Live Music’s Backline Labor,’ from Journal of Popular Music Studies
2. Jim DeRogatis and Abdon Pallasch, “R.Kelly Accused of Sex with Teenage Girls” from the Chicago Sun-Times
3. Jessica Hopper, “Read the ‘Stomach-Churning’ Sexual Assault Accusations Against R. Kelly in Full,” The Village Voice
4. Constance Grady, “Jim DeRogatis broke the R. Kelly story in 2000. Now he’s compiled a damning case against Kelly,” Vox
5. Taffy Brodesser-Akner, “Kesha, Interrupted,” The New York Times
6. Liz Pelly, “Discover Weakly: Sexism on Spotify,” The Baffler
7. Jenn Pelly, “Reckoning with Pinegrove,” Pitchfork
Optional Supplemental Watch (as much as you have time for):
1. Surviving R.Kelly on Netflix
Week 4: Colonialism
1. Lester Bangs, "Innocents In Babylon: A Search For Jamaica Featuring Bob Marley And A Cast Of Thousands" Creem
2. Lloyd Stanbury, “Introduction,” from Reggae Roadblocks: A Music Business Development Perspective
3. Michael Denning, “From Port to Port: How Colonialism Shaped Music As We Know It,” Foreign Affairs
4. Abby Aguirre, “REGGAE REVIVAL Meet the Millennial Musicians Behind Jamaica’s New Movement,” Vogue
5. Richard Letts, “The Protection and Promotion of Musical Diversity” UNESCO
Week 5: The GRAMMY Awards
1. Selections from John Vilanova, “Not Simply the Best: The GRAMMY Awards, Blackness, and the Music Industry”