Albums: What a Concept!
Long-playing records ushered in the era of the soundtrack, but they also made room for something else—the concept album.
Musical Myth-Busting: Teaching Music History with JSTOR Daily
Harnessing the power of quirk to engage students and inspire research in an online learning environment.
How Wattstax Ushered in a New Era of Black Art
Organized in the aftermath of the 1965 Watts uprising, the music festival showed that something powerful was happening in the Black community.
The Scholars Charting Black Music’s Timeline: Earl Stewart and Michael Veal
Earl Stewart and Michael Veal explore African American music from the Civil War and the evolving sounds of the Black Atlantic.
Every Good Bird Does Fine
Is birdsong music, speech, or something else altogether? The question has raged for millennia, drawing in everyone from St. Augustine to Virginia Woolf.
Start a Riot (and a Zine), Grrrl
With roots in the small press and fanzine communities, the girl zine movement relied on pen, paper, and copy machines to fight structural oppression.
Don’t Dress Your Whale in Galoshes
Free to Be... You and Me was meant to help rear a generation free of sexist stereotypes. Fifty years on, some of its well-intentioned messages are worn around the edges.
Liberation on the Dance Floor
Motown’s foray into gay liberation music may have been short-lived, but it made an outsized impact on queer culture.
Race, Rock, and Breaking Barriers
The rock music industry brought more than a little racism to the radio, but a few artists pushed beyond the boundaries imposed by white audiences.
The Los Angeles Renaissance
Black composers Bruce Forsythe and Claudius Wilson transcended barriers to create concert and classical music during this West Coast art movement.