Colonialistic Diversity: Decentering Eurocentric Orchestras and Normalizing *all* Composition

As I get into the second month of #NotBeethoven tweet thread, you may have noticed a couple things. First is that I occasionally feature composers outside of the Western Art Music (WAM) tradition(s). Second, the natural consequence of this is I have to highlight Composers of Color and Non-Eurocentric Instruments and Ensembles.1 A couple of …

When are too many bands a thing?

Six years ago, I wrote a post called the perils of having too many bands... and at the time I thought I was coming to an upper limit, but little did I understand our capacity to reorganize time when pressed. The image above is a collage of many of the groups I've had the pleasure …

What’s it like playing Pop Music when you’re not a Pop Superstar?

Some time ago one of my friends and one of the owners of a local record shop/venue, Modern Cult Records, posed a question (friends only post, unfortunately) on Facebook: Why do so many bands tour directly around Louisville? How can we change this frustrating f**king trend? Do I need to open my own damn venue? …

Musical Thoughts, Reflections, Questions, and other Ephemera…

As most of you know, I've not been blogging nearly as much as in the past--I go through periods like this. This doesn't mean I haven't been writing/thinking/analyzing things. I was just looking at all the recent drafts I've been working on and decided rather than trying to finish one I'll just post some of …

Pop Music Attrition

One of the long term research projects I've been working on is the attrition rates of local bands. Over the years I've had many discussions with local musicians about how often bands fold, or how a singer-songwriter will drop off the face of the earth, or how a musician decides to go back to school …