Songs in Conversation: Prince & Peter Gabriel Making It Big

Putting two songs on aspirational success released a decade apart into conversation 26 years later.

“I Didn’t Mean to Turn You Kong” – Seeking out #MeToo in Pop Music

Listening to Cherrelle’s “I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On” in the #MeToo moment.

The (re)Collection Agency #4: A Conversation with Brian Cremins

The latest in our conversations with comics scholars: this time Dr. Brian Cremins talks comics and nostalgia as pitfall and strategy in (re)constructing personal and historical narratives.

Imagining What Silence Looks Like: Prince & Queering the Popular Love Song

The dark sound and minimalist instrumentation on “If I Was Your Girlfriend” demonstrates Prince’s willingness to bend and distort expectations with a lyrical and sonic playfulness that challenges the listener to think beyond the obvious gender stereotypes inherent in most popular love songs.

1999: Radical Possibilities of Apocalypse

1999’s appeal emerges from a sense of danger, from the scandalous possibilities of a morality unbound by the coming apocalypse, disguised as synth-heavy dance pop

Cracking the Prototype: Serial Monogamy and the Pop Love Song

Songs that explore the more complex reality inherent in the tension between the intensity of romantic feelings and the experience of serialized monogamy.