The mainstreaming of electronic dance music and the assimilation of non-Western music into hipster taste hierarchies owes more to biopolitics than beats

Channel Orange isn’t Frank Ocean’s coming out. It’s a tidal wave crashing down

For Muslim hip-hop artists, essentialization can become the price of success

Spotify claims to make music “social,” as if it hasn’t always been. In the meantime, it strips us of the sense of control that can come from listening

Asking “What is punk?” is the wrong question. The answer inevitably makes itself wrong

When political factions divided Jamaica, sound systems were caught in the cross-fire

When country musicians tried to protect the integrity of their genre in the 1970s against the likes of John Denver, it wasn’t merely aesthetic protest but an organized labor movement

LMFAO’s music provides an endless party with no real cause for celebration, turning fun into a forced march through the hyperreal