Pop Conference 2007

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CALL FOR PAPERS:
Waking Up From History: Music, Time, and Place

The 2007 Pop Conference at Experience Music Project
April 19-22, 2007
Seattle , Washington

Music happens, then it ripples. What is the relationship between the circumstances that produce music and our swirling notions of pop's past, future, and zeitgeist? How do the times affect the notes? What factors literally and figuratively change the beat of a city? Some decry postmodern "pastiche," while others defend pop concoctions as multiculturalism in action or intoxicating aesthetics. But what are the power relationships at work when music stops time and lets us dance in place?

For this year's Pop Conference, we invite presentations on music, time, and place. This might include:
*Reading time and place into musical innovation. The breakbeat as a refunking of sonic structure and origin myth; or the social history of changing time signatures.
* The racial, class, and gender components that constitute a pop place or time's "we"; the mutating New Orleans of the hip-hop, funk, R&B, and jazz eras, for example.
*Evolving notions of musical revivalism: retro culture, questions of periodization in music, and the validity of the concept of youth culture as a sign of the times.
*Geographies of sound, or how place is incorporated sonically. Lise Waxer called Cali , Colombia , an unlikely bastion of salsa revivalism, a "city of musical memory."
*The dematerialization of the album into the celestial jukebox and other new media. Does the Chicken Noodle Soup dance live on 119 and Lex or on Youtube?
*How dichotomies of nearness/experience and farness/history affect music fanship, music writing, and music making.
*The "place" of pop now, culturally, professionally, and certainly politically.

Proposals should be sent to Eric Weisbard at [email protected] by December 15, 2006. For individual presentations, please keep proposals to roughly 250 words and attach a brief (75 word) bio. Full panel proposals and more unusual approaches are also welcome. For further guidance, contact the organizer or program committee members: Jalylah Burrell (New York University), Jon Caramanica (Vibe), Daphne Carr (series editor, Da Capo Best Music Writing), Jeff Chang (author, Can't Stop Won't Stop), Michelle Habell-Pallán (University of Washington), Josh Kun (University of Southern California) Eric Lott (University of Virginia), Ann Powers (Los Angeles Times), Simon Reynolds (author, Rip it Up and Start Again), Bob Santelli (author, The Big Book of Blues), and Judy Tsou (University of Washington). We are excited to announce that presentations from this year's conference will be considered for a future issue of The Believer.

The Pop Conference connect academics, critics, musicians, and other writers passionate about talking music. Our second anthology, Listen Again: A Momentary History of Pop Music, will be published by Duke in 2007. The conference is sponsored by the Seattle Partnership for American Popular Music (Experience Music Project, the University of Washington School of Music, and radio station KEXP 90.7 FM), through a grant from the Allen Foundation for Music. For more information, go to http://www.emplive.org/education/index.asp and click on "Pop Conference."

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 17:17 (nineteen years ago)

Oooooh.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 17:27 (nineteen years ago)

I predict at least three submissions about Sharon Jones

― nate p. (natepatrin), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 17:28 (nineteen years ago)

See everyone there, in any event. Or a chunk of people at least.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 17:33 (nineteen years ago)

This does look like it's going to be an interesting panel (semi-self-effacing jokes aside) and I'm starting to get all sorts of crazy ideas, so yeah, I'm pretty geeked.

― nate p. (natepatrin), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 17:42 (nineteen years ago)

What is the relationship between the circumstances that produce music and our swirling notions of pop's past, future, and zeitgeist? How do the times affect the notes? What factors literally and figuratively change the beat of a city?

These questions are so general that I have to wonder why they are being asked.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 17:56 (nineteen years ago)

hey, maybe i would go to this. yay for place.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 18:01 (nineteen years ago)

Really going to try & make it this year. Kind of wish it was called "Waking Up Blind with the House on Fire" but oh well.

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 18:14 (nineteen years ago)

It's frustrating for me because I see this as, I guess, the main conference for *my field*. I studied ethnomusicology in grad school and there are a lot of popular music studies done under that rubric but - I don't know - maybe I see EMP as involving people who are a little more engaged with the music (or whose work reflects a larger engagement with the music - maybe). But it's frustrating because I don't understand the inspiration for the establishment of this subject matter as the conference's theme. I don't understand what the underlying topical interests are that inspired this theme.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 18:29 (nineteen years ago)

These questions are so general that I have to wonder why they are being asked.

Presumably they're being asked so that people can give their interpretation of an answer. That might be crazy talk, though.

― Young Fresh Danny D (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 18:44 (nineteen years ago)

Well smartypants then I will give you my own personal "interpretations of answers":

What is the relationship between the circumstances that produce music and our swirling notions of pop's past, future, and zeitgeist?

Ten million different things.

How do the times affect the notes?

Ten million different ways.

What factors literally and figuratively change the beat of a city?

Tons of different factors.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 18:50 (nineteen years ago)

SEE YOU PICK ONE AND THEN TALK ABOUT IT

― boo berry (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 18:52 (nineteen years ago)

PERHAPS INSTEAD OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY IT SHOULDA BEEN ROCKET SCIENCE

― boo berry (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 18:52 (nineteen years ago)

I know, but what inspired these THEMES?

x-post: hey

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 18:54 (nineteen years ago)

BUT THERE'S ONLY ONE RIGHT ANSWER TO EVERYTHING

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 18:54 (nineteen years ago)

x-post: blogs

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 18:54 (nineteen years ago)

THERE'S ONLY ONE RIGHT ANSWER TO EVERYTHING

That's got nuttin' to do with nuttin'.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 18:57 (nineteen years ago)

Tim, I don't think you should do a paper for this; you seem to lack focus.

― Young Fresh Danny D (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 18:59 (nineteen years ago)

I'm not sure why anybody would *need* to know the "underlying topical interests" "that inspired this theme" in order understand what the conference is about -- are you saying the conference is imcomprehensible without an agenda?

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 19:00 (nineteen years ago)

inspiration for theme: to be consistent w/the big-tent ideas of every other year's theme.

underlying topical interests that inspired theme: interest in big-tent ideas.

not really so hard actually

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 19:08 (nineteen years ago)

No, certainly not looking for an agenda. And no, of course I don't think anyone needs to know why the topics were chosen to write on one of the themes. I'm just asking why the themes might have been chosen. What is the nature of people's interest in pop music that he/she/they choose to frame a conference around these topics?

x-post: matos you can't just say "interest in big-tent ideas" in general. obviously, these topics were chosen for reasons.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 19:13 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.mathsisfun.com/images/obtuseangles.gif

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 19:15 (nineteen years ago)

DAMN YOU DADDINO

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 19:15 (nineteen years ago)

Tim, why don't you just email Eric and ask him already? And do report back, we're all dying here.

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 19:15 (nineteen years ago)

http://static.flickr.com/40/106378820_e7d4c69657_m.jpg

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 19:17 (nineteen years ago)

What is the nature of people's interest in pop music that he/she/they choose to frame a conference around these topics?

That sounds like an idea for the 2007 meta-conference, actually!

― Young Fresh Danny D (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 19:18 (nineteen years ago)

Well, I'm asking the questions rhetorically. I'm not really asking people to speculate on why the themes were chosen. I'm just expressing disappointment at some of the very general and perhaps kind of banal topics ("the place of pop now," "reading time and place into musical innovation," etc.).

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 19:22 (nineteen years ago)

*slow clap*

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 19:26 (nineteen years ago)

i'm waaaaayy behind on my memes.

― grady (grady), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 19:26 (nineteen years ago)

sorry to rain on your fricking parade

x-post

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 19:27 (nineteen years ago)

Wow Tim you can always find something to bitch about can't you?

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 19:33 (nineteen years ago)

NO I LIKE STUFF

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 19:38 (nineteen years ago)

What do you mean by "STUFF"? What was the reasoning that caused you to write that?

― Young Fresh Danny D (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 19:41 (nineteen years ago)

witty

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 19:42 (nineteen years ago)

it is!

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 19:43 (nineteen years ago)

Tim, could you expand on that? What were some of the "witty" lines of reasoning you used to come up with "NO I LIKE STUFF"?

― Young Fresh Danny D (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 19:43 (nineteen years ago)

i give up on you guyz

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 19:45 (nineteen years ago)

:-(

― Young Fresh Danny D (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 19:46 (nineteen years ago)

sorry we don't like elevated discourse, duder

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 19:47 (nineteen years ago)

we are all warriors together in the end

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 19:49 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.phan.org/psfc/pics/cover02.jpg

― Shootin' Out The Walls Of Heartache (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 19:50 (nineteen years ago)

bang bang

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 19:53 (nineteen years ago)

tearing down the ethnomusicology of heartache

― nate p. (natepatrin), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 20:03 (nineteen years ago)

(To go back to the topic, I am going to be interested in seeing what people come up with as discussion topics off of this theme, primarily because of its breadth and first-glance banality.)

― Young Fresh Danny D (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 20:09 (nineteen years ago)

Isn't this a trick that plenty of academic conferences pull, in plenty of other disciplines? Invite papers in such a vague, meaningless way that you can pretty submit on anything, and if it's half-decent, it'll be accepted. It seems simply a convoluted way of saying "hey, let's all get together and talk about pop music, and let's pretend we have an agenda here". I'm not saying this tactic is good or bad, but I'm pretty sure that's what's going on.

― meritocracy (spencerman), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 20:23 (nineteen years ago)

i'd say last year's topic was pretty specific. this one does seem a little more amorphous than usual.

― boo berry (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 20:29 (nineteen years ago)

oooh babeeee i'm salivating at getting to re-polish and twist my "Blondie's The Hunter is the most relevant album of 1982" essay...

two words: "SLAM" "DUNK"

― 0xDOX0RNUTX0RX0RSDABITFIELDXOR^0xDEADBEEFDEADBEEF00001 (donut), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 21:50 (nineteen years ago)

"Time keeps on slipping slipping slipping into the future: discuss"

― Sadly, he will be the next Alexis Petridish. (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 21:52 (nineteen years ago)

*Geographies of sound, or how place is incorporated sonically. Lise Waxer called Cali, Colombia, an unlikely bastion of salsa revivalism, a "city of musical memory."

Cali Cali Cali
Cali Cali Cali

I did a double take at the name "Lise Waxer." I found her book salsa in Cali quite inhteresting. (Unfortunately she died rather young.)

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 21:57 (nineteen years ago)

make sure you dont give a paper the same time as greil marcus or bob christgau. that way you stand a chance of having an audience.

― mts (theoreticalgirl), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 22:13 (nineteen years ago)

[ie: thanks to the people who came out to see my panel.]

― mts (theoreticalgirl), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 22:14 (nineteen years ago)

I want to meet Simon Reynolds.

― youn (youn), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 23:29 (nineteen years ago)

What if you just want to be an attendee, not a presenter? Truly, the timing couldn't be better. Do you need to be a music journalist to attend? Can you just be a fan and not particularly musical?

― youn (youn), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 23:32 (nineteen years ago)

No, you don't need any credentials of any kind to attend. Just some money and your curious self.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 00:22 (nineteen years ago)

Yup, entrance fee is cheap and it's all good fun.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 00:35 (nineteen years ago)

If this thread is a microcosm of the Pop Conference itself, then .........*shudders*

― harvey (harvey1), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 01:39 (nineteen years ago)

harvey, you wuss. the babies in the hors d'oevres were already dead in the womb.

― 0xDOX0RNUTX0RX0RSDABITFIELDXOR^0xDEADBEEFDEADBEEF00001 (donut), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 02:26 (nineteen years ago)

But oh, the glaze.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 02:29 (nineteen years ago)

I personally saw David Thomas eat about 10 of the things. After spilling his beer on 'em.

― nate p. (natepatrin), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 02:31 (nineteen years ago)

For that special zest.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 02:41 (nineteen years ago)

unfortunately i dont know if i can fly cross country just for karaoke again... that emergency landing on the return flight home still has me shook.

― mts (theoreticalgirl), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 02:43 (nineteen years ago)

I'll have to see if I can make one of those drunken karaoke sessions of legend this time. But I was just so *tired* after each day. Like all the mental energy and attention turned me to mulch.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 02:44 (nineteen years ago)

If I come will everyone be all sarcastic and jump all over my case?

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 03:09 (nineteen years ago)

Live by the sword, y'know.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 03:11 (nineteen years ago)

Tim there will only be trouble if you go around sniffing "This topic is arbitrary!" (because, y'know, ALL topics are arbitrary) or "What's the deal with these 33 1/3 books anyway?" (because most of the authors will be there!). Other than that, you should be just fine.

(NB: I have been too chicken to submit a presentation in the past, and now that I'm not anymore my secret project raises its beautiful head and decides to coincide with the EMP, oh well.)

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 03:15 (nineteen years ago)

Too chicken! Aw man, next time at least, you gotta pitch.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 03:18 (nineteen years ago)

"All topics are arbitrary" - what do you mean by this?

And look, I WAS, actually, civil in, originally, merely expressing disappointment in the themes of the conference and attempting to express why, thinking that maybe I wouldn't be the ONLY PERSON in the world who would think such a thing and that a thread started about the conference and its themes suggested openness to dialogue about those themes.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 03:33 (nineteen years ago)

Two posts in, however, it would seem that the peanut gallery took over.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 03:35 (nineteen years ago)

fwiw my impression (from reading past calls-for-papers and then the list of subjects covered in the sessions) is that if you have something interesting you wanna submit, you've got a decent shot at getting it in. the themes seem to be purposefully broad so as not to discourage submissions. make a gesture or two toward something in the themes in yr. proposal and you're fine. (but i've never gone to the thing, so people who have would know better.)

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 03:45 (nineteen years ago)

No, gypsy's got it quite right. 'Guilt' was rather slipperily applied last time around in many cases.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 03:50 (nineteen years ago)

Tim, what I meant by this is that if you've ever been to a convention of any kind, they always have a 'theme' and the 'theme' is never really all that important, because people who want to come always end up coming no matter what the theme is. It's always pretty much just something the organizers pull out of their asses to arbitrarily 'define', or limit, the discussion. It is really no more complicated than giving a title to a music thread.

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 04:01 (nineteen years ago)

It's a conference. The notion is to make the topic sufficiently vague and general that you can take whatever-it-was-you-were-already-working-on, slap together an abstract that nods to the topic, and be on your merry way. PUNK RAWK!

(xpost)

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 04:02 (nineteen years ago)

What factors literally and figuratively change the beat of a city?

methinks someone needs to revisit the dictionary entry for "literal"

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 04:09 (nineteen years ago)

these days "literally" seems to mean either

(a) figuratively
(b) a little less figurative than figuratively

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 04:10 (nineteen years ago)

but yes this looks like fun. a lot of conference topics are so broad as to be practically nonexistent. it's kind of annoying watching people pull those verbal gymnastics trying to assert a theme without excluding any possible interpretation of said theme, but it doesn't mean the conferences don't turn out well.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 04:11 (nineteen years ago)

What factors, like, totally and ginormously change the beat of, y'know, the city?

― 0xDOX0RNUTX0RX0RSDABITFIELDXOR^0xDEADBEEFDEADBEEF00001 (donut), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 04:12 (nineteen years ago)

But you belong in the city.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 04:20 (nineteen years ago)

WE BUILT THIS CITY ON ROCK AND ROLL -- LITERALLY!

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 04:21 (nineteen years ago)

Knee deep in the hoopla

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 04:22 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.nutbrothers.com/Pictures/Products/PEANUTS.JPG

When life gives you many peanut galleries, make peanut butter

http://dnr.state.il.us/lands/education/images/birdfood/peanut_butter.JPG

― 0xDOX0RNUTX0RX0RSDABITFIELDXOR^0xDEADBEEFDEADBEEF00001 (donut), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 04:29 (nineteen years ago)

that's what i did, yo

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 04:30 (nineteen years ago)

This always seems like fun, but a lot of work. Writing a paper is like homework, doodz.

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 04:36 (nineteen years ago)

make sure you dont give a paper the same time as greil marcus or bob christgau. that way you stand a chance of having an audience.

http://www.catholicpressphoto.com/servizi/2006-01-18-udienza/images/thumbs/2006-01-18%20BXVI%20audience%2001.jpg

― joe rat singer (lovebug starski), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 09:05 (nineteen years ago)

once again I've fallen short of making sense w/a cryptic gif post. just tryna inject a note of levity to the proceedings...

― insomnia dot org (lovebug starski), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 10:08 (nineteen years ago)

Waking Up From History

an allusion to Saul Bellow? "He said that history was a nightmare during which he was trying to get a good night's sleep"

or more likely EMMFF: "Watching the world wake up from history"

either way, I read the title and thought the call would be for papers shaking off the influence of the past on current pop.

interesting.

― I didn't start the fire (lovebug starski), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 10:20 (nineteen years ago)

Also Ulysses: History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 10:25 (nineteen years ago)

ha! now I get it, Bellow's character was alluding to Ulysses!

the dangers of being half-educated. and I bailed on an English major because I couldn't write proper papers, so...

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 11:05 (nineteen years ago)

(Also ahem "watching the world wake up from history" is actually Jesus Jones.)

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 11:23 (nineteen years ago)

jesus (jones) christ I even reviewed their album!

alternate topic: "Rock Critics & The Art of Pretend Forgetting"

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 11:47 (nineteen years ago)

I was gonna say, M. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 13:05 (nineteen years ago)

Tim is my favorite person on ILM lately.

― Eppy (Eppy), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 18:59 (nineteen years ago)

I'm excited about this already - I have something in mind. (Are we posting ideas here? I don't want to look like I'm staking a claim to a territory.)

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Saturday, 30 September 2006 02:21 (nineteen years ago)

three months pass...

Okay, acceptance and rejection notes are going out! (I'm in the latter group -- ah well but I like being able to just concentrate on enjoying the conference without worrying about my own presentation!) What's the word from others?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 15 January 2007 21:22 (nineteen years ago)

My proposal for a panel was rejected, which I'm okay with.

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Monday, 15 January 2007 21:45 (nineteen years ago)

I've been wanting to attend this thing for years, but I've never got the travel money when the time comes. Someday, EMP! Someday!

― Hoosteen (Hoosteen), Monday, 15 January 2007 21:57 (nineteen years ago)

mine was accepted. now wtf am I going to do???

― Dominique (dleone), Monday, 15 January 2007 22:00 (nineteen years ago)

write it?

― acid waffle house (dubplatestyle), Monday, 15 January 2007 22:01 (nineteen years ago)

wing it

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Monday, 15 January 2007 22:06 (nineteen years ago)

all terrifying

― Dominique (dleone), Monday, 15 January 2007 22:06 (nineteen years ago)

past instances in which people have appeared to be winging it or written it the night before = don't do this, for your own sake

― acid waffle house (dubplatestyle), Monday, 15 January 2007 22:08 (nineteen years ago)

I'm in!

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 15 January 2007 22:19 (nineteen years ago)

Topic: the National Review and its evolving attitudes towards rock music.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 15 January 2007 22:21 (nineteen years ago)

yay!

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 15 January 2007 22:22 (nineteen years ago)

(Mr. S. was a very big help in framing certain issues, btw.)

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 15 January 2007 22:23 (nineteen years ago)

(my response will be at work i guess)

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 15 January 2007 22:23 (nineteen years ago)

Mark S invades Seattle? Dare I dream?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 15 January 2007 22:26 (nineteen years ago)

I'm bummed I can't go this year; have fun everybody!

Xpost- looking at Tim's questions upthread I think maybe the motivation behind the "change the beat of a city" phrase is Katrina's effect on New Orleans. Just an educated guess . . .

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Monday, 15 January 2007 22:29 (nineteen years ago)

fingahs x-ed!

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 15 January 2007 22:31 (nineteen years ago)

Topic: the National Review and its evolving attitudes towards rock music

Reading comments posted on The Corner have been a revelation. As ever.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Monday, 15 January 2007 22:36 (nineteen years ago)

I was accepted. I'm planning to interview dorm-dwelling college students about their Bob Marley posters.

― Make a Beck Song #1 (M Matos), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 01:14 (nineteen years ago)

I also specifically requested to speak on 4/20.

― Make a Beck Song #1 (M Matos), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 01:15 (nineteen years ago)

As long as you bring the college students with you.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 01:19 (nineteen years ago)

Are you mad? The defumigation costs alone.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 01:35 (nineteen years ago)

it's a big place, Ned. they can handle it.

― Make a Beck Song #1 (M Matos), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 01:36 (nineteen years ago)

Not to mention the cost of buying all those Will Ferrell movies.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 01:37 (nineteen years ago)

We could lock them in the venue mockup.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 01:37 (nineteen years ago)

we just rent from Scarecrow, dude

― Make a Beck Song #1 (M Matos), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 01:38 (nineteen years ago)

I'm in. Another '70s R&B-centered presentation, this time about how the Wu-Tang used it and what it means to hear their sources in light of their recontextualization and stuff like that.

― rock and roll for the rock and roll soul (nate_patrin), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 01:41 (nineteen years ago)

So how many of you, like Ned, are attending? I'm studying my finances at present.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 01:42 (nineteen years ago)

I'm going!

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 01:45 (nineteen years ago)

:-D A visitor from the Azores!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 01:46 (nineteen years ago)

I submitted a proposal! But no go. I was going to write on "the celestial jukebox" (mentioned in Eric's call for papers)- music and spirit and the aether and lack of corporeality in digital technology and cheapness and this scene near the end of Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf. Might have been too tangential.

― Tim Ellison = NUMBER ONE ADVOCATE OF YOU-KNOW-WHAT ON NU-ILX!!! (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 01:57 (nineteen years ago)

I was rejected. BUT I cleaned my apartment, in case anyone needs a place to crash!

― Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 03:44 (nineteen years ago)

So does everybody just go and read a bunch of papers for three days?

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 05:02 (nineteen years ago)

Yes, in monotone drones. Then we all avoid talking to each other and die of boredom.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 05:33 (nineteen years ago)

i'm in!

note to self: now think of stuff to say

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 11:35 (nineteen years ago)

Hurrah. I like to think my nagging contributed in some small way.

― Jeff W (zebedee), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 11:41 (nineteen years ago)

yes blame jeff if i am rubbish

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 11:42 (nineteen years ago)

:-D A visitor from the Azores!

Haha, good lord Ned, how do you even remember all this stuff? (your info is, however, out of date)

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:33 (nineteen years ago)

my god...might i finally get to meet...sinker??

― acid waffle house (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 13:52 (nineteen years ago)

(your info is, however, out of date)

Bring all kinds of good Portuguese food and drink with you plz. (I'm actually serious!)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 15:01 (nineteen years ago)

Got accepted. I'm gonna talk about (Little) Clydie King, the most widely heard classic rock singer nobody has ever heard of.

― Douglas (Douglas), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 15:36 (nineteen years ago)

Nice! This time around I'm going to have to keep a proper list of all the new stuff I hear about. (Did the Kim Fowley album ever get reissued, I wonder.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 15:41 (nineteen years ago)

(I really have to work on that Kim Fowley vs. Sondra Prill mash-up.)

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 18:01 (nineteen years ago)

TBH, I'm a little bugged by this. Last year, I offered to do an actual piece of musicology I'd done in grad school directly related to theme of the conference. It was on postmodernism and the new wave revival. I could have actually shown the transcriptions I did of the Rapture and Beautiful Skin and the corresponding transcriptions of Joy Divison and Wire and how the rip-offs worked. I don't think it would have been over people's heads and I think they would have enjoyed it. I made all sorts of points in the paper about postmodernism, vacuity, and lack of meaning in the music. It talked about Gogogoairheart and Satisfact as well.

The response I got was "Well, you're going to update it, right?" This was because it had been written a few years earlier - but, I mean, I'm going to update it? No. It was an actual piece of musicology and it stood on its own terms. It didn't need an "update." This year, I proposed that whole thing I mentioned earlier about "the celestial jukebox" - I won't go into it again.

People can accuse me of being a whiner or whatever if they want to - I actually just kind of felt like fighting back about it a little bit. I understand that there were lots of proposals. But my basic feeling is still that if this is going to be the same clique-ish crowd with the typical content every year then, you know, fuck this conference.

― Tim Ellison = NUMBER ONE ADVOCATE OF YOU-KNOW-WHAT ON NU-ILX!!! (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:13 (nineteen years ago)

there are new people who haven't presented before almost every year.

― acid waffle house (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:16 (nineteen years ago)

for instance mr. sinker this year. or daddino and maura last year.

― acid waffle house (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:16 (nineteen years ago)

I understand that.

― Tim Ellison = NUMBER ONE ADVOCATE OF YOU-KNOW-WHAT ON NU-ILX!!! (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:16 (nineteen years ago)

i just don't think it's got anything to do with clique-ishness. i mean OF COURSE there's clique-ishness involved, as there is in every field, but plenty of people i've never heard of show up every year.

― acid waffle house (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:17 (nineteen years ago)

And thank god for that.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:19 (nineteen years ago)

what is the "typical content every year"?

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:21 (nineteen years ago)

I wouldn't try to summarize it other than to say that my interests wouldn't seem to be a part of it.

What is the feeling supposed to be when you've earned degrees in music, you've been involved with music writing for a decade and a half, you feel like you've presented genuinely substantial proposals that didn't get accepted, and then you read people on here saying, "I got accepted - now I gotta figure out what I'm going to say?"

― Tim Ellison = NUMBER ONE ADVOCATE OF YOU-KNOW-WHAT ON NU-ILX!!! (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:24 (nineteen years ago)

Tim I think people actually wrote proposals, they're just being nervous about the actual writing and the presentations themselves.

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:26 (nineteen years ago)

haha the fellow in question would be in fact be me -- curse me and my impish sense of timing

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:28 (nineteen years ago)

tim if your interests wouldn't be a part of it, why did you want to submit a proposal? just to broaden the conference's scope?

― acid waffle house (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:29 (nineteen years ago)

if you send me yr pomo paper tim i cd read that out: win-win!

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:29 (nineteen years ago)

xxxxpost:

http://www.fotosearch.com/comp/BCP/BCP135/BCP035-39.jpg

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:29 (nineteen years ago)

Jess, no - I mean, I submitted proposals on topics related to pop music. I didn't know how they would be seen (though I suppose I wasn't surprised).

― Tim Ellison = NUMBER ONE ADVOCATE OF YOU-KNOW-WHAT ON NU-ILX!!! (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:34 (nineteen years ago)

Tim, it's ok. Come anyway. If I'm there we can sing the entirety of George Harrison's Dark Horse.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:41 (nineteen years ago)

anyway i didn't mean to make an enemy of tim e. when i made my joke, i spent most of last year fielding rejection slips and plain old rude silence in re various projects, so i know that feeling :(

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:46 (nineteen years ago)

People can accuse me of being a whiner or whatever if they want to

[raises hand]

― Make a Beck Song #1 (M Matos), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 21:34 (nineteen years ago)

Whatever, hack. Have fun figuring out what you're going to say in your paper.

― Tim Ellison = NUMBER ONE ADVOCATE OF YOU-KNOW-WHAT ON NU-ILX!!! (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 21:57 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.tulipfestival.org/

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 21:59 (nineteen years ago)

my paper is entirely research-based so I really don't know what I'll be saying in it until I do the work. but thanks for the encouragement, inspired genius!

― Make a Beck Song #1 (M Matos), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 22:10 (nineteen years ago)

ladies, you're both pretty.

― acid waffle house (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 22:10 (nineteen years ago)

I would have conference with all these authors?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 22:19 (nineteen years ago)

not all of them

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 22:20 (nineteen years ago)

You try hard to state something without it being personal and without starting a flame war. I appreciate the people who were at least willing to engage with the idea that there might have been some substance to what I had to say.

― Tim Ellison = NUMBER ONE ADVOCATE OF YOU-KNOW-WHAT ON NU-ILX!!! (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 22:24 (nineteen years ago)

There might have been some substance to it, Tim, but I'm not talking about the proposal. I'm talking about your sulky but-my-paper-was-FINISHED-maaan thing. I mean, of course lots of people are wondering how they're going to flesh out their ideas, because as with most writing assignments they're usually ideas until someone accepts them. This is pretty normal, be it a conference or a novel or a newspaper assignment. The Pop Conference has accepted previously-written/presented ideas before (like the "Planet Rock" paper from a couple years ago) but the emphasis tends to be on newer material, and I think that's a valid enough prejudice. (As far as the idea itself, an update seems like a perfectly valid request considering that post-post-punk has kept going since you did your paper; it might have been illuminating to hear about some more recent stuff.)

― Make a Beck Song #1 (M Matos), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 22:31 (nineteen years ago)

The paper I proposed this year was not written. And I never made any insinuation that my proposal from the previous year should have been considered more favorably because it was already written.

The reason for my response to the suggestion that my paper should be "updated" in the latter case was because the paper was not about following the trend. It was a specific piece of musicology dealing with specific recordings. But it was seemingly determined to be out of date because it was about recordings that were four years old (while, naturally, people were giving talks about music that was thirty years old, eighty years old, etc.). The paper hadn't been published, I hadn't given it anywhere, and I felt like as far as my own "hand," as it were, of what I would have been able to contribute to that year's conference went, it was like my big card (esp. given that it coincidentally happened to match the subject matter of the conference exactly!).

So I'm not sure why it was "a valid enough prejudice" in that case.

― Tim Ellison = NUMBER ONE ADVOCATE OF YOU-KNOW-WHAT ON NU-ILX!!! (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 22:50 (nineteen years ago)

Forgive me for reading "it was a specific piece of musicology" as "I already did the work," meaning "the paper is written." Though now I'm confused: you say you had turned in this proposal last year; how exactly did your paper line up with the topic, which was guilt and shame?

― Make a Beck Song #1 (M Matos), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 23:00 (nineteen years ago)

dude i'm really sorry my joke riled you so much but yr response really did read like you were taking shots at me for not bothering to do a paper properly -- hence i ramped the teasing up back at you a bit

i appreciate yr pissed off abt this -- esp.as i've been thru an annoying bunch of work rejection recently -- but i sort of don't appreciate being singled out as the posterboy for why this entire thing must be a hollow cliquey charade, which is how yr response to my actually-sincere question abt "typical content" reads

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 23:00 (nineteen years ago)

no, no mark - i actually didn't know it was you who had said something about "have to figure out what i'm going to say" upthread! i wasn't responding to you directly.

― Tim Ellison = NUMBER ONE ADVOCATE OF YOU-KNOW-WHAT ON NU-ILX!!! (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 23:03 (nineteen years ago)

i mean i was answering your question but my answer had nothing to do with you personally.

― Tim Ellison = NUMBER ONE ADVOCATE OF YOU-KNOW-WHAT ON NU-ILX!!! (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 23:04 (nineteen years ago)

Matos, you're right - I proposed that paper for the 2005 conference.

― Tim Ellison = NUMBER ONE ADVOCATE OF YOU-KNOW-WHAT ON NU-ILX!!! (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 23:07 (nineteen years ago)

OK, that clarifies things. Thanks.

― Make a Beck Song #1 (M Matos), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 23:07 (nineteen years ago)

(because, um, I was on the programming committee for 2006 and I swore I didn't see your proposal.)

― Make a Beck Song #1 (M Matos), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 23:08 (nineteen years ago)

haha ok tim

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 23:09 (nineteen years ago)

actually, maybe it was me Tim had a problem with -- and to that I can only say I reserve the right to be really nervous about presenting anything at all

― Dominique (dleone), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 23:31 (nineteen years ago)

no, dom - i didn't "have a problem" with anyone in particular. was just commenting on my experience.

― Tim Ellison = NUMBER ONE ADVOCATE OF YOU-KNOW-WHAT ON NU-ILX!!! (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 23:48 (nineteen years ago)

I'll be there! I'm presenting a paper on techno fandom and the detroit/chicago/new york dance-music mythos

― geeta (geeta), Friday, 19 January 2007 21:43 (nineteen years ago)

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