The DNC Misses a Beat: A Political History of Migration through Latinx Pop Songs
What should we understand as the connection between politics, people, and places? Can Latinx pop songs be trusted to represent us?
Culture
Language Is a Virus, and People Could Die
The COVID pandemic seemed to accelerate the spread of new viral media, but viruses mutate, pop culture replicates, and everything’s a cover song.
Listen Up Gen Xers: Satan Ain’t (Taylor) Swift
I first heard about Slayer in a church in Mississippi. The sermon warned of metal’s Satanic influence. Now we old head-banging Gen Xers are afraid of Taylor Swift?
The US Military’s Secret War on Comic Books
During wartime past, even war-themed comic books designed to help the US military’s reputation were the victims of friendly fire. Ominously, that has changed.
Blaxploitation Movies and Music Are the Story of the 1970s
Blaxploitation signaled the moment ghetto culture and the Black vernacular hit the American mainstream, paving the way for rap, hip-hop, disco, and modern sports.
Godzilla the Union Buster
There’s a bitter irony in how Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One, produced by a notorious union-busting production company, is celebrated for its message of collective strength.
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The Art of Psychological Warfare
From marketing manipulation to all-out psychological warfare, Stories Are Weapons clarifies how our world – and worldview – is seldom our own.
How Rap’s Civil War Was Shaped by AI
The recent “Rap Civil War” accelerated the use of AI in rap music and, as with digital sampling, creatives will use it regardless of the implications.
Dualism in Photographer John Divola’s LAX NAZ Series
Photographer John Divola’s LAX NAZ series exterior and interior views ooze with useful, fun, and satiating dualism. However, dualism gets messy.
A Freewheeling Questlove Drops a New Hit with ‘Hip-Hop Is History’
With its deft layering of words, its samples, and how it articulates sound, Questlove’s Hip-Hop Is History is like De La Soul’s excellent album 3 Feet High and Rising.
Tommy Orange Testifies to the Power of Cultural Reclamation
In Wandering Stars masterful storyteller Tommy Orange shifts our lens from historically imposed assimilation to contemporary cultural reclamation.
This Lesbian Fashion History Is a Perfectly Tailored Fit
With Unsuitable, lesbian fashion historian Eleanor Medhurst stitches fashion, gender, and sexuality into a perfectly tailored, comprehensive and inclusive book.