EMP Pop Conference 2009

The initial call for proposals went out during the down time:

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2009 Pop Conference at EMP|SFM

Call for Proposals: 2009 Pop Conference at EMP|SFM
Dance Music Sex Romance: Pop and the Body Politic
April 16-19, 2009, Seattle, WA

Though Prince seems to have bowdlerized "D.M.S.R." in his concerts since becoming a Jehovah's Witness, the relationship of pop music to sex, love, physical movement, and the body rarely stays hidden very long. For this year's Pop Conference we invite presentations, addressing any period or style of music, that bring erotic and sensual issues to the forefront and connect them to political and aesthetic concerns. Rock and roll has long congratulated itself on riding the Big Beat over all sanctimonious opposition, but can we take our sense of these archetypal struggles somewhere beyond, say, Footloose?

Topics might include, but are not limited to:

* Languages of desire and union in pop: the relationship of ballads, tenderness, and couplehood to carnality and the commerce of bodies.
* Dancing and dance crazes as forces in pop history and the dancefloor as a particularly charged space of friction, play, and unsettling possibility.
* Pop passion as a conduit for capitalism, modernization, and transnational flows, but also local scenes, community formation, and religion.
* How the pop body is marked by, and marks out, race, gender, nationality, class, and region; music as a means for bodies sharing space.
* Music and the negotiation of sexual norms: sonic fetishism, erotics of pain and disorder, representations of beauty and ugliness.
* Social media and D.M.S.R. A YouTube answer video as a kind of love letter; the libidinal economy of music-sharing communities and Web 2.0 culture.
* Scandal and excess: the pop urge to take it to the limit; celebrity culture and indie puritanism; humor and hyperbole.
* Voice, gesture, and other modalities of embodiment and disembodiment.
* The diva figure, with all the complexity/trouble/pleasure that term carries.
* The many musical iterations of what a German Jewish immigrant, arrived at the dawn of modern pop, called "Makin' Whoopee."

Send proposals of up to 250 words and a 50 word bio to Eric Weisbard at EricW @ empsfm .org and Eric .Weisbard @ gmail .com by December 16, 2008. Panel proposals (short collective statement and full individual proposals/bios) and roundtable proposals (full collective statement, bios for all panelists) are welcome. Lively writing and unorthodox approaches are particularly welcome. For questions, contact the organizer or program committee members: Garnette Cadogan, Kyra Gaunt (Baruch College), David Grubbs (Brooklyn College), Margie Maynard (EMP|SFM), Michele Myers (KEXP), Diane Pecknold (University of Louisville), Ann Powers (Los Angeles Times), Sonnet Retman (University of Washington), Carlo Rotella (Boston College), Alexandra Vazquez (Princeton University), and Carl Wilson (The Globe and Mail).

I may take a look at "pegging" through the lens of Andy Kim's "Rock Me Gently" and Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds' "Don't Pull Your Love (Out)."

Thining about trying to go this year.

Yeah, come on out. It's usually fairly nice here by April.

Indeed! It'll be worth the trip.

Go Roxy!

Never been west of the Mississippi by the way.

West of the Mississippi is pretty awesome

i shall be exploring it next year!

An American Tale: Roxy Goes West

About time there was a sequel to that thing.

Or a sequel to the sequel or whatever. (Oops?)

"an american fail"

Did anyone else submit a proposal? I sent in one re Millie Jackson's Caught Up album.

Yup, Alfred and I submitted a joint one on Bernard Sumner.

Hurray!

neworder_pr0n.ppt

Initial word going out (alas, Alfred and I did not make the cut). Anyone get in?

I am in. I'm doing something on this:

hahaha I had no idea YouTubes were embedded on here now!

Part of the joy. And congratulations!

Yeah, congrats! I look forward to seeing it.

I'm happy/relieved to say that I am in, talking about The Meatmen's "Tooling for Anus" and queer punk minstrelsy.

Oh, and I'm on a panel about sampling too. Double trouble!

I got in! It'll be about Babylon songs--watch for Faster Pussycat, WASP, the Dolls, Steely Dan, maybe some Jeremiah Wright...

Um, Max Romeo, maybe?

Congrats, Matos and NPS.

Not much reggae in this one. That'd be a presentation all its own.

Congrats MM, NPS and Dr. Phil! I didn't make the cut, but I'll be attending.

Already got my ticket -- will be arriving a day before the conference so if anyone wants to do a dinner get-together before it all kicks in...

I'm in! I'm presenting a survey of songs about "The Last Dance."

Oh yes? Including Disco Inferno's song?

Neil Young?

(I've been crying hysterically for hours)

I'd love to use the Disco Inferno, Ned. Could I persuade you to burn me a CD? The Neil Young's a bit of an outlier I think, but I'll include it if I can figure out how the title relates to the lyrics.

Bummed the Sumner isn't happening, I was really looking forward to that and I hope you guys will find a way to present it in some other form.

well, if I can go we can always improvise after a few drinks.

That would be worth the trip in itself. You could also treat it like Slamdance vs Sundance, bring a boombox and present a counter-conference in the hallway.

I'm out, and can't afford to go, but I'll be emailing you guys for papers!

You'll be doing George Clinton's "Last Dance," right? Most Underrated Solo Single from him I think, hilarious too.

Naturally!

I would expect no less.

You could also treat it like Slamdance vs Sundance, bring a boombox and present a counter-conference in the hallway.

Good lord. (But this could happen.)

And yeah, you *really really* want the Disco Inferno song, dad a, trust me -- Tom Ewing's naming of it as the second best single of the 1990s back in '99 is one of his best pieces, and explains why you'll want to include it:

http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/1999/12/2-disco-inferno-the-last-dance/

You had me at "Including Disco Inferno's song?" Of course I need that one.

Clarity. E-mail me for arrangements.

Thanks, will do!

Great -- uh, can you send me a followup with your e-mail address too?

Oops. Will do.

I'm in offering a concise history of just how you get from Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon singing "My Daddy Rocks Me With One Steady Roll" to Katy Perry singing "I Kissed a Girl." I call it "Gay for Play: the love that dares not speak its name certainly does sell records."

Hahaha, nice.

Thanks.

TSK

Conquer Baltimore and rename it after yourself.

Someone PLEASE record EVERY MOMENT of that Chic talk!!!!!!

roxy wtf! <2

Roxy, are you going to kick it with neotropical pygmy squirrel and some dude?

his name is martin!!! how rude

Haha, I actually thought that after I submitted.

During the Conference, on the same grounds: Laser Daft Punk
http://www.seattlelaserdome.com/

Have fun, guys!

Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

SEATTLE ILMers - Pop Conference & Video

I hope Carl's gotten enough people to videotape the sessions for youtube

One day to go!

I hope they video everything, it would take care of the four-great-panels-at-once problem. Looking forward to meeting you all!

Finishing up my paper tonight . . . stoked to see my ilx dawgs . . . it's been too long!

I have no idea what to expect from the Diane Warren keynote.

Flames and Satan (like at every keynote).

Isn't there gonna be an interview with Nona Hendryx (or maybe she's doing a presentation too)? I should just look it up. I'll be looking on youtube for 'em as I am once again missing this unfortunately.

Flames and Satan (like at every keynote).

Curiosity and stomach growling (like at every keynote)

Keynote very great, my report on it up at http://nedraggett.wordpress.com

Is anything on youtube I wonder. I guess I should go look

I don't see anything yet.

I've been reading Ned's blog posts.

This one sounded like fun:

Josh Kun's “If I Embarrass You, Tell Your Friends: Bawdy Jewish Broads of the 1960s and the Space of the Risque” — starts with a tribute to Eve Sedgwick, Josh’s teacher as an undergrad. Pearl Williams! Little known about the night in Florida in 1961 where her American Jewish audience heard her blue routine as she appeared in all her finery. Clip is played — sass! Brass! Miss Pearlie! “She is a mother, honey!” 47 at the time, her first recorded effort, after honing her chops doing things like opening for Louis Prima. Cheating husbands, frustrated wives, battling her audience, Yiddish as a punchline and use of Jewish tunes in her act, “a big Jewish girl with a big Jewish mouth” with her predecessors and contemporaries, but Pearl wasn’t ‘aDORable!’ Williams had done Borscht Belt but it was too quaint. Belle Barth as most immediate forebear as Lenny Bruce agreed, noting older Jewish female influences. Barth as corrupter of morals! A clip is played, oh my — “Great group, the Four Skins!” Her own Borscht Belt cycle and the “dreck circuit” (mostly piano bars in hotels), initially a singer, a clip of a routine played. Great stuff! She can belt it out. Nightclubs were their performances, a place where Jewish women could claim a space for their observations and reactions, “unable to confine themselves to their proper place.” African American culture and clubs provided the model less so than Jewish culture, Josh notes connections via music, performances and routines. “A combined Jewishness and blackness” that limited their national profile in the fifties while the Jewish pop culture in the sixties limited it further. “Other than white, too Jewish, too black.” Barth bought her own club, a space of control and manipulating the audience, “messing with the men who paid to see her.” Women as going against all the stereotypes of hags and whores, being bags who loved whore jokes, “power in embarrassment.” A question of affect, expectations — not just talking about sex but rethinking it. Barth clip played, talk of mother(fucker) figures on album covers, not Fanny Brice but Mrs Straykosh, though her character was actually wrong in Funny Girl — the risqué and grotesque was a way forward

Carl Wilson said they'd be posting video at ITunesU also. But I don't see anything there yet either

lies. all lies.

Maybe after the event, they're gonna post video. It does not seem like it would have been that difficult to get some college kids to videotape things.

http://blog.kexp.org/blog/2009/04/18/showing-how-a-little-woman-can-whip-a-great-big-man-the-first-full-day-of-the-emp-pop-con/

Nice blog posting here also

Okay, just some quick overall links:

http://tinyurl.com/empnona
http://tinyurl.com/popconf09friday
http://tinyurl.com/popconf09diane
http://tinyurl.com/popconf09saturday
http://tinyurl.com/popconf09sunday

Oh and:

http://tinyurl.com/popconf09sunsettavern

The Mathis-Chic presentation sounds fabulous.

friday, diane, saturday, sunday

Just that kind of thing.

Ned, you're a madman- that coverage of the conference is so thorough, and really cool of you to construct.

Hey thanks man! Yeah it's a little crazed but it's a public service. :-)

Yep, good job. You and KEXP both did a nice job...

http://soul-sides.com/2009/04/top-of-pop-conference-that-is.html

Great post, especially since it covers a lot of presentations I missed! (Oliver's own should have been included in his list but there ya go.))

I wonder how this was:
from Wayne Marshall's wayne and wax site
Friday, April 17, 2009:
2:00 - 3:45
>> iReggaetón! Perreo and Beyond
Venue: JBL Theater

Reggaetón and especially perreo, the genre’s doggystyle dance, has been accused of facilitating corruption. This discussion, keyed to a new book, links sympathetic and critical observers from the humanities and social sciences, visual artists and genre performers, and a perspective from Jamaica.

Moderated by: Alexandra Vazquez
Featuring: Wayne Marshall, Raquel Rivera, Alexandra Vazquez

I’m sorry to report that our “perspective from Jamaica” will be absent from the conversation. We were excited to have Sonjah Stanley Niaah join us, but at the last minute she was unable to make the trip. That’s unfortunate, especially since I’m eager to talk about perreo (aka, winding, grinding, freaking, etc.) in cross-cultural perspective, not to mention reaffirming the links between reggaeton and reggae. We’ll still do all that, no doubt, especially anticipating all the knowledgeable colleagues who might be in the audience. But it would have been great to have Sonjah inna the house.

For my part, I’ll be discussing the circulation of “perreo” outside of Puerto Rico — both traveling with and, interestingly, also without reggaeton. See, e.g., Colombia, where you get perreo con champeta

dumb question, are any of the panels available to download as mp3?

I don't recall anyone filming the panels, to be honest.

a pox on all y'all Seattlites!

There was a specific mention at a couple of panels of them being recorded because of panelists needing to stay on mike, while the keynotes were definitely filmed. Beyond that...

No one's pals or acquaintances enough with Carl Wilson or other board members to ask about what happened to that plan to put stuff up on youtube and ITunes University? Or is that not polite or something?

Carl addresses it on his zoilus blog:

I wish we’d been able to fulfill our plan to videotape the whole conference so the presentations could be posted online, which would bring the material out of EMP and into public, to allow more of that kind of discussion. Simply put, we didn’t start early enough finding videographers - we did at least get as far as having people sign release forms! But let’s hope next year this level of documentation comes together - I think the Pop Conf needs to get its social-media on. He posts about the conference http://www.zoilus.com/documents/in-depth/2009/001529.php

More from Carl
I noted a general tendency to soft-balling in the question periods this year, partly because some of the most reliable challenging questioners weren’t able to make it (Joshua Clover, you were much missed!). Though apparently if I hadn’t been holed up typing during Thomas’s panel I might think differently. (I would give a lot to have seen the brilliant Pere Ubu frontman’s face when Bob Christgau answered his Britney-bashing by asserting casually that in the past decade, Britney’s made better music than Thomas has.

Bless Carl's heart for that link and credit! Now I just need to finish updating all my notes.

I see he also mentioned those evaluation forms. All of which I happily and completely ignored.

Why doesn't C-Span cover this instead of the umpteenth Heritage Foundation snorefest?

Because of the involvement of damn furriners like Carl and J.D.

http://www.ohindustry.com/2009/04/dispatch-from-seattle-2009-emp-pop.html

http://www.najp.org/articles/2009/04/emp-lookback.html
Christgau

http://www.zoilus.com/documents/general/2009/001672.php