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Still from a video game animation of a Black cowboy aiming a pistol at another.

‘Old Town Road’ and the History of Black Cowboys in America

A songwriter-historian weighs in on the controversy over Lil Nas X’s country-trap hit.
by Dom Flemons, Jonathan Bernstein via Rolling Stone on April 5, 2019

The Drummer Hal Blaine Provided the Beat for American Music

Blaine was never as recognizable as Elvis or Sinatra. Still, he was key to the creation of some of rock n' roll's biggest hits.
by Amanda Petrusich via The New Yorker on March 13, 2019
Josepine Baker vaudeville cartoon

Josephine Baker: Dancer. Icon. Spy.

The Vaudeville star was at the height of her fame in Europe when WWII struck, and used her status for the allies.
by Bianca Xunise via The Nib on February 23, 2019

The Surprisingly Sad True Story Behind 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'

Copywriter Robert L. May dreamed up Rudolph during a particularly difficult time in his life.
by Olivia B. Waxman via TIME on December 20, 2018
Two posters of the "We Can Do It!" posters with Rosie the Riveter hang on a wall.

Rosie the Riveter Isn’t Who You Think She Is

While the female factory worker is a pop icon now, the “We Can Do It!” poster was unknown to the American public in the 1940s.
by Erick Trickey via Retropolis on September 3, 2018
Woman playing a guitar, and the cover of the book 'Country Music USA.'

‘Country Music … Was Anything BUT Pure’

On the music’s African-American tributaries, its unpredictable politics, country radio’s woman problem, and working on Ken Burns’ forthcoming doc.
by Bill C. Malone, Will Hermes, Tracey Laird via Longreads on August 1, 2018

Why Did American Music Festivals Almost Disappear in the 1970s and ’80s?

In a few short years, American festivals went from cultural phenomena to endangered species.
by Tyler Clark via Consequence of Sound on July 18, 2018
Elvis Presley performing to a crowd of fans reaching toward him

How Christianity Created Rock ’n’ Roll

Rock music owes much of its claim to coolness to the Christian faith.
by David Hajdu via Public Books on June 21, 2018

The Beautiful, Genuine Artistry of Retro Video Games

Amidst so much politics and tribalism, they can provide portals into thoughtfully rendered alternate worlds.
by Addison Del Mastro via The American Conservative on May 18, 2018

Agriculture Wars

On country music as a lens through which to trace the corporatization of American farming.
by Nick Murray via Viewpoint Magazine on March 12, 2018

A Garage Sale Find of Rare Beatles Photos Took a Collector on a Magical Mystery Tour

In search of the photographer who captured the Beatles' final concert on film.
by Ben Marks via Collectors Weekly on March 8, 2018
Still from Dirty Dancing.

In the Dark All Katz Are Grey: Notes on Jewish Nostalgia

Searching for where I belong, I find myself cobbling together a mongrel Judaism—half-remembered and contradictory and all mine.
by Samuel Ashworth via Hazlitt on February 23, 2018

The Strange Story of the Forever 1980s

Why the makers of today's popular culture are still so obsessed with the Reagan era.
by Jarrett Ruminski via That Devil History on October 29, 2017
Smiling man in front of a microphone

Fats Domino: Rock'n'Roll’s Quiet Rebel Who Defied US Segregation

The groundbreaking musician who inspired Elvis and The Beatles.
by Brian Ward via The Conversation on October 26, 2017

How Country Music Went Conservative

Country music is assumed to be the soundtrack of the Republican Party. But it wasn't always that way.
by On The Media via WNYC on October 6, 2017

Patriotism, Partisanship, and “The Star-Spangled Banner”: A View from the Early Republic

Music continues to hold an allure for elites seeking to politicize patriotism in support of their privilege.
by Michael D. Hattem, Billy Coleman via The Junto on September 28, 2017
Title card for Burns and Novick's Vietnam War documentary.

‘The Vietnam War’: Past All Reason

The new series by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick is mesmerizing. But it doesn’t answer key questions about the Vietnam War.
by Andrew J. Bacevich via The Nation on September 19, 2017
Cover of sheet music for Miss Brown's Cake Walk, featuring a drawing of minstrel dancers in fancy attire.

Blackface Minstrelsy in Modern America

A primary source set and teaching guide created by educators.
by Lakisha Odlum via Digital Public Library of America on September 18, 2017
Otis Redding

Five Magnificent Years

A recent Otis Redding biography examines what was and what could have been, 50 years after tragedy struck.
by Geoffrey O'Brien via New York Review of Books on September 10, 2017
Illustration of Elvis Presley and Big Mama Thornton

The Question of Cultural Appropriation

It’s more helpful to think about exploitation and disrespect than to define cultural “ownership.”
by Briahna Joy Gray via Current Affairs on September 6, 2017

The Long Summer of Love

Historians get hip to the lasting influences of ’60s counterculture
by Zoe Corbyn via The Chronicle of Higher Education on September 3, 2017
Billy McComiskey (right) performing Irish music at the Library of Congress with his sons Mikey McComiskey (left) and Patrick McComiskey (center) in 2016. Library of Congress photo by Shawn Miller.

A Few Examples of Dads’ Traditions

Stephanie Hall provides examples of folklore and storytelling within a fathers' relationship to music.
by Stephanie Hall via Library of Congress on June 16, 2017
Painting of "Big Mama Thornton" wearing a suit and cowboy hat, singing on stage.

The Thinning of Big Mama

"Big Mama" does what all blues greats do: she telegraphs endurance and force to whomever out there in TV land might need it. This is blues perfection.
by Cynthia Shearer via Oxford American on February 15, 2017
A New Orleans parade, with confetti falling on the heads of men dancing in suits.

Sundays in the Streets

The long history of benevolence, self-help, and parades in New Orleans.
by Leslie Parr via Southern Cultures on December 16, 2016
Book cover with the title "Baby Boy Born Birthplace Blues" superimposed on a photo of a man lying down with his cheek on the ground.

Baby Boy Born Birthplace Blues

"The blues was born on a riverboat between Louisville and New Albany, along those docks, in the 1890s. I mean, the blues was born nowhere, of course. Or it was born many places."
by John Jeremiah Sullivan via Oxford American on December 6, 2016

Twenty-First Century Victorians

The nineteenth-century bourgeoisie used morality to assert class dominance — something elites still do today.
by Jason Tebbe via Jacobin on October 31, 2016
Photograph of Redd Velvet (born Crystal Tucker) who started her career as a classically trained singer.

Keeping The Blues Alive

Is blues music a thing of the past? A festival in Memphis featuring musicians of all ages and nationalities shouts an upbeat answer.
by Touré via Smithsonian on August 26, 2016
Kids and adults free dancing.

Camille A. Brown: A Visual History of Social Dance in 25 Moves

Why do we dance? African-American social dances started as a way for enslaved Africans to keep cultural traditions alive and retain a sense of inner freedom.
by Camille A. Brown via TED on June 1, 2016
Thirty Minutes Behind the Walls’ cast member A.B. Johnson plays the harmonica.

A Peek at the Golden Age of Prison Radio

"Texas Jailhouse Music" explores a time when Texas prisons promoted rehabilitation through a wildly successful radio show.
by Maurice Chammah via The Marshall Project on May 16, 2016

Who Tells America's Story? 'Hamilton,' Hip-Hop, and Me

How the hit musical allows those who have been left out of the story to claim the narrative of America as their own.
by Marcella White Campbell via Baker Street Blues on March 15, 2016
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