Mental Hospitals at the Movies
The horror films of the 1970s captured a cultural shift from fears of institutional abuse to anxieties about psychiatric patients living freely.
The Photographer Who Preserved Everyday Architecture
Frances Benjamin Johnston looked beyond grand estates to document the ordinary buildings that defined American life.
Why King Arthur Still Shapes Pop Culture
Eight centuries after the legends took shape, Arthur's world continues to inspire filmmakers, musicians, advertisers, and ideologues.
How Cambodian Pop Music Survived the Khmer Rouge
After genocide decimated the country’s musicians, old recordings helped a new generation reconnect with Cambodia’s musical past.
What’s Queer About The Legend of Zelda?
Link may look like a classic video game hero, but his adventures complicate the heteronormative conventions of the genre.
The Hidden Grief of American Musicals
Musicology professor Jake Johnson argues that beneath the bright songs and happy endings of midcentury musicals lay the grief and anxieties of postwar America.
Why Does Music in Science Fiction Sound Like That?
Imagining the sound of other worlds has a long past—and persistent creative limits.
Malibu in Matchbooks: Clues to a Lost Coast
A collection of matchbooks from Southern California maps a vanished mid-century commercial corridor, long displaced by fire and time.
Why Lacan Loved Harpo Marx
A surprising encounter between high theory and Hollywood farce reshapes how we think about laughter and desire.
In the Film Death in Venice, Music Is the Narrator
A haunting score shapes the rise and fall of a writer consumed by infatuation.