Bay Area Renaissance Festival in Tampa Florida, 2011

Reasons for Re-Enacting at the Renaissance Faire

Why do we love donning period costumes and re-enacting our history through mock battles, pioneer villages, and Renaissance Faires?
Beale Street, Memphis

Memphis: The Roots of Rock in the Land of the Mississippians

Rising on the lands of an ancient agricultural system, Memphis has a long history of negotiating social conflict and change while singing the blues.
ACM Lifting Lives Music Camper sings to and with Recording Artist Wynonna Judd as part of ACM Lifting Lives Music Camp Karaoke with WYNONNA JUDD at Winner's Bar on June 28, 2011 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Carry On, Karaoke

Karaoke became a global phenomenon after its invention in the 1970s, the wide embrace of it exemplifying transnational flows and hybridization.
Elvis Presley singing on stage with Bill Block, circa 1950s.

How Pentecostalism Shaped Rock ’n’ Roll

Early rock and roll performers, including Little Richard and Elvis, were influenced by the sounds and tropes of Pentecostal worship services.
Derek not so Smalls performs during the 2008 Cuervo Black US Air Guitar Championships at The Regency Grand Ballroom in San Francisco, California

Like, It’s a History of Air Guitar, Dudes!

With roots in the motions and biases of vaudeville, burlesque, mesmerism, and minstrelsy, “air playing” with imaginary instruments long predates rock music.
A Catalogue of the Severall Sects and Opinions in England and other Nations: With a briefe Rehearsall of their false and dangerous Tenents.

The Bawdy House Riots of 1668

Though so-called bawdy house riots were common in seventeenth-century London, the disorder of 1668 revealed the city’s deep political and religious resentments.
Edwin Gonzalez, Iris Alomar, and Ray Gerdes, the three winners in the inaugural hamburger eating contest, at the Police Athletic League youth center on West 79th Street in New York City, New York, circa 1955.

The Curious History of Competitive Eating

The annals of competitive eating contests are full of more than just hot dogs.
Bangsawan, Malay opera Penang, circa 1895

Gonna Make You a (Bangsawan) Star

The bangsawan theater in early twentieth-century Malaya offered women a chance to build a public identity beyond marriage and motherhood.
Burlesque dancer Mary Mack reclining on a chaise longue, circa 1950.

Burlesque Beginnings

From its nineteenth-century origins, burlesque developed into a self-aware performance art that celebrates the female form and challenges social norms.
Man listening with headphones on a blue sine wave background

In the Mood for “Fake” Music?

In 2017, it was reported that Spotify was promoting fake artists on its platform. But this type of approach to “content creation” wasn’t new.