New music video for Malcolm Jamar
My cousin Malcolm Jamar, a hip hop artist, came to California and will soon be returning back to Indianapolis. As a souvenir, I directed and co-produced a music…
Tag: music
An Interview with Curator and American Music Specialist Levon Williams
Levon Williams will return to Indiana University in the fall of 2016 to pursue a MA degree in Non-Profit Management in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs.…
“Turn Down for What?”
A Brazilian Remix One of the first things I noticed about Kendrick Lamar’s recent performance at the 2016 Grammys was the noise. Fans and critics have written about…
An Interview with Dorothy J. Berry, Metadata Specialist and Project Manager for Umbra, an Initiative of the Givens Collection of African American Literature, University of Minnesota Libraries
While a graduate student at Indiana University, Dorothy J. Berry concurrently earned an MA degree in ethnomusicology from the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology and a MLS degree…
Is music dead? (more evidence)
Here is Rich Cohen on Charlie Rose last night discussing his new book The Sun and the Moon and The Rolling Stones (with Jeff Glor sitting in for Mr. Rose.)…
Doing fieldwork with kids: Part I
Recently I started a new research project looking at the social impacts of three Sistema-inspired orchestral music education programmes operating in low decile schools in the Wellington region,…
Shopping is Civil War (with videos)
Here from the NoOrient site is my commentary on some recent shopping trips… Filed under: commodity, music, trinketization
Unsettling Gender Normativities through Dance and Music
The annual Istanbul LGBT Pride Week will kick off at the end of June in Turkey. For the 24th consecutive year, the event will incorporate the traditional parade which will…
Sounding Home
Syrian Musicians in Istanbul How might music produce of a sense of home for displaced Syrians in Turkey? What is the role of displaced Syrians in the preservation…
Dancing “My Humps” in Rural China
Every evening in Anshan Town, a rural village in China’s Shandong province, around 25 middle-aged women gather in the small public square to dance to the Black Eyed…
Why abstinence-only drug education doesn’t work—in fact, it backfires spectacularly.
I talked to a lot of middle-class recreational drug users for my research. None of them had any idea when they were younger that they’d end up dropping…
The intangible narcotic: What does ‘vibe’ mean, really?
There’s a term that comes up pretty frequently when talking about electronic music events. A search within my interviews (excepts from which are quoted here) and field notes…
Feelings into words: Harvest Festival Part 2
Describing, in words, what it’s like to be at a rave is one of the most difficult things I’ve had to do for my research. How can one…
Structurele nostalgie of gewoon pret? De 78-toeren plaat
door Freek Colombijn De Nederlandse muziekindustrie schijnt het goed gedaan te hebben in 2015, maar de trend van fysieke muziekdragers als CDs is een gestaag dalende verkoop. De…
Luanda Taxi – a #fieldwork playlist
Conducting ethnographic fieldwork in a hectic, chaotic, and sprawling multimillion metropolis like Luanda presents logistical and epistemological challenges. If one is not focusing on a clearly defi…
Freddy’s Hair
Freddy Lim Campaign Photo A week before historic elections which swept Taiwan’s ruling Nationalist Party (KMT) out of power, KMT candidate Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) asked voters not vote…
“We Are With You” – Musicians and the 2016 general elections in Uganda, by Nanna Schneidermann
In Uganda, the campaigns for the 2016 elections are on. On the 16th of October president Yoweri K. Museveni was the guest of honor at a dinner party…
The press conference as performative (political) space #Performance
In this short piece, I would like to consider a performative site that is often overlooked: that of the press conference. In particular, I want to think about…
Constructing and Consuming Gender through Media: Call for Papers
Constructing and Consuming Gender through Media Call for Papers CyberOrient: Online Journal of the Virtual Middle East Editor-in-Chief: Daniel Martin Varisco Guest Editor: Mona Abdel-Fadil Submission …
time to csángó
Time to Csángó, a creative short documentary by Hadas Bar, Ian Cook, Anette Dujisin, explores the popularity of the táncház (dance house) movement in Budapest, Hungary, especially csángó…
Dying For The Revolution: Special Journal Issue
“Death lies at the beginning of the Arab uprisings and continues to haunt them.” So writes Amira Mittermeier in the introduction to a special collection of articles in…
A state of trance: Inner peace rising from chaos
The experience of getting inside Sound Academy for Armin van Buuren was the low point of the night. After an evening of rain and dancing at the electronic…
A happy ending for 30,000 mollyed-out kids running around Toronto.
My heart dropped into my stomach when I first saw the announcement. Fireworks and junk during Zedd’s finale. “You’re welcome for this 3-second photo op,” thought the cleanup…
It’s A Revolution! The Resurgence of Vinyl and Being Present
I was raised on great music. Music we listened to in our “den” – usually on vinyl or cassette (once my older brother became a teenager and got…