Robin James
@robinjames.bsky.social
editor & scholar. Pop music, gender, philosophy. Books: GOOD VIBES ONLY; THE FUTURE OF ROCK & ROLL; THE SONIC EPISTEME; RESILIENCE & MELANCHOLY. Writing a 33 1/3 on The Breeders. Bylines all over, views could only be mine lol. its-her-factory.com
My Stranger Things take is that a 50k watt radio station seems pretty big for Hawkins, IN in 1987
November 29, 2025 at 1:36 AM
My Stranger Things take is that a 50k watt radio station seems pretty big for Hawkins, IN in 1987
I'm with Laurie Anderson, any song in 4/4 would be better than the SSB
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj_e...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj_e...
November 28, 2025 at 8:48 PM
I'm with Laurie Anderson, any song in 4/4 would be better than the SSB
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj_e...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj_e...
"You'll be visited by three spirits"
The three spirits:
The three spirits:
November 28, 2025 at 8:37 PM
"You'll be visited by three spirits"
The three spirits:
The three spirits:
"what strikes me most about Grande isn’t so much how she looks, but how she carries herself right now. It’s as if she were made of glass"
This is also a leaning into whiteness. She started her music career leveraging southern Italian racial ambiguity...
buttondown.com/NinaWatchesE...
This is also a leaning into whiteness. She started her music career leveraging southern Italian racial ambiguity...
buttondown.com/NinaWatchesE...
The state of Hollywood bodies
Celebrities are human beings. But they are also selling us something. Right now, that's thinness.
buttondown.com
November 28, 2025 at 5:25 PM
"what strikes me most about Grande isn’t so much how she looks, but how she carries herself right now. It’s as if she were made of glass"
This is also a leaning into whiteness. She started her music career leveraging southern Italian racial ambiguity...
buttondown.com/NinaWatchesE...
This is also a leaning into whiteness. She started her music career leveraging southern Italian racial ambiguity...
buttondown.com/NinaWatchesE...
November 28, 2025 at 4:42 PM
I'm rereading Resilience & Melancholy to add footnotes to the 2nd edition and WOW was 2014 still a time when there was a THERE there in pop music, an identifiable mainstream
Today the main thing common across fragmented style/genre themes is the working conditions of musicians
Today the main thing common across fragmented style/genre themes is the working conditions of musicians
November 28, 2025 at 1:22 PM
I'm rereading Resilience & Melancholy to add footnotes to the 2nd edition and WOW was 2014 still a time when there was a THERE there in pop music, an identifiable mainstream
Today the main thing common across fragmented style/genre themes is the working conditions of musicians
Today the main thing common across fragmented style/genre themes is the working conditions of musicians
Alice's Restaurant on Inhailer rn
November 27, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Alice's Restaurant on Inhailer rn
I have six partially-read books on my desk, will I finish any of them today?
November 27, 2025 at 1:30 PM
I have six partially-read books on my desk, will I finish any of them today?
Promoting my most recently published book, and the one that's most accessible to general readers. @dandipiero.bsky.social called it "a secret lesson in the philosophy of freedom" and that's basically what it is, disguised in the story of a modern rock radio station
uncpress.org/978146967345...
uncpress.org/978146967345...
November 26, 2025 at 11:21 PM
Promoting my most recently published book, and the one that's most accessible to general readers. @dandipiero.bsky.social called it "a secret lesson in the philosophy of freedom" and that's basically what it is, disguised in the story of a modern rock radio station
uncpress.org/978146967345...
uncpress.org/978146967345...
ICYMI, this makes some great holiday/driving/food prep listening!
Episode 6 with @robinjames.bsky.social is out now for your holiday week! We cover the second edition of Resilience and Melancholy, what's happening at the top of the charts, why men left pop music for podcasts, and m o r e e e e
dandipiero.substack.com/p/6-resilien...
dandipiero.substack.com/p/6-resilien...
6 | Resilient Pop and Alt (Right) Rock with Dr. Robin James
Something's going on with men!!
dandipiero.substack.com
November 26, 2025 at 8:43 PM
ICYMI, this makes some great holiday/driving/food prep listening!
Music is already accessible and democratized. You can sing acapella. You can play spoons or acrylic nails as percussion instruments (check out Dolly Parton doing the latter). The long 20th c has shown us basically anything can be a musical instrument.
All AI music does is devalue the work done by human artists. It’s not accessibility, it’s exploitation. We need real protections for artists against AI!
BTW — even if you had access to this AI startup as a child, you still wouldn’t know how to make music.
BTW — even if you had access to this AI startup as a child, you still wouldn’t know how to make music.
November 26, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Music is already accessible and democratized. You can sing acapella. You can play spoons or acrylic nails as percussion instruments (check out Dolly Parton doing the latter). The long 20th c has shown us basically anything can be a musical instrument.
“It’s for the girls that get it”
Today in Peloton musicology, Cody says that the top 3 pop albums of all time for anyone with “taste” are:
Confessions On A Dancefloor (3)
Blackout (2)
Renaissance (1)
Confessions On A Dancefloor (3)
Blackout (2)
Renaissance (1)
November 26, 2025 at 2:58 PM
“It’s for the girls that get it”
Today in Peloton musicology, Cody says that the top 3 pop albums of all time for anyone with “taste” are:
Confessions On A Dancefloor (3)
Blackout (2)
Renaissance (1)
Confessions On A Dancefloor (3)
Blackout (2)
Renaissance (1)
November 26, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Today in Peloton musicology, Cody says that the top 3 pop albums of all time for anyone with “taste” are:
Confessions On A Dancefloor (3)
Blackout (2)
Renaissance (1)
Confessions On A Dancefloor (3)
Blackout (2)
Renaissance (1)
Would esp like to book a talk in Cleveland for fall 26 bc I have some research for the Last Splash book I need to do at the Rock Hall...
The vibes book has an estimated pub date! Look for it in October 2026!!!
November 26, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Would esp like to book a talk in Cleveland for fall 26 bc I have some research for the Last Splash book I need to do at the Rock Hall...
This is very smart, and I agree that one of the big questions is whether this will effectively lead to the extreme franchize-ization of pop music, where the only music the major players in the industry care about are MCU-like iterations of big IP properties
medium.com/@ravikrishna...
medium.com/@ravikrishna...
What will the end of litigation against Suno and Udio mean for musicians?
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted a dissertation note here. With the announcement today that Warner Music Group has settled with…
medium.com
November 26, 2025 at 12:27 PM
This is very smart, and I agree that one of the big questions is whether this will effectively lead to the extreme franchize-ization of pop music, where the only music the major players in the industry care about are MCU-like iterations of big IP properties
medium.com/@ravikrishna...
medium.com/@ravikrishna...
Will be officially talking about vibes at SCMS this year, will I have proofs of the book by then? (maybe?)
November 25, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Will be officially talking about vibes at SCMS this year, will I have proofs of the book by then? (maybe?)
A small bright spot in the Baker & Taylor closure aftermath: www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...
Lakeside Book Company Buys B&T Distribution Arm
The book manufacturing giant Lakeside Book Company has acquired distributor Baker & Taylor Publisher Services, an important asset of the soon-to-be-closed library wholesaler.
www.publishersweekly.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:40 PM
A small bright spot in the Baker & Taylor closure aftermath: www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...
100%. Think of eg people you were on a panel with recently, someone who asked a great question about your recent conference paper related to the book, someone whose article you cite a lot in the book...the big senior names are never useful as peer reviewers except maybe for books by other big names
if your press asks for names, give 6 to 8--NOT the biggest, most senior stars in your field. None of them will do it. part of the problem is that the ppl best poised are "mid-career"--i.e. have a book, tenure. TWIST: the mid-career folx, IF THEY EXIST, are so fucking overloaded I can't even tell you
November 25, 2025 at 2:03 PM
100%. Think of eg people you were on a panel with recently, someone who asked a great question about your recent conference paper related to the book, someone whose article you cite a lot in the book...the big senior names are never useful as peer reviewers except maybe for books by other big names
The fact that this is Butler Co is HUGE - they've had/elected an Arpaio-like Sheriff super hard/racist on immigration for decades, was also John Boehner's district.
Page One in Cincinnati:
“.. I need to be able to look my grandkids in the eye and say I did not remain silent.”
#ICE
“.. I need to be able to look my grandkids in the eye and say I did not remain silent.”
#ICE
November 25, 2025 at 1:47 PM
The fact that this is Butler Co is HUGE - they've had/elected an Arpaio-like Sheriff super hard/racist on immigration for decades, was also John Boehner's district.
Reposted by Robin James
The vibes book has an estimated pub date! Look for it in October 2026!!!
November 25, 2025 at 12:49 AM
The vibes book has an estimated pub date! Look for it in October 2026!!!
The vibes book has an estimated pub date! Look for it in October 2026!!!
November 25, 2025 at 12:49 AM
The vibes book has an estimated pub date! Look for it in October 2026!!!
Do I know anyone at like WIRED or some other venue that would be interested in a pitch for this?
With 2026 around the corner, I wanna pitch a like 3-5k word feature on the Telecom Act of 96 and what's happened to music and media in the 30 years since then, that's also kinda filtered thru my experience as a music writer who is also class of 96.
November 24, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Do I know anyone at like WIRED or some other venue that would be interested in a pitch for this?
Part of why I think existential phenomenology is a very good framework for thinking thru the philosophical problems w AI is bc it has a very clear and direct framework for showing how this is bad faith, a renunciation of your obligation to think and act and participate in society
I'm literally just living a normal life while also experiencing a theophany via communication with the satellite called VALIS.
November 24, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Part of why I think existential phenomenology is a very good framework for thinking thru the philosophical problems w AI is bc it has a very clear and direct framework for showing how this is bad faith, a renunciation of your obligation to think and act and participate in society
It was so fun to chat with Dan about what's going on with pop music (and gender) today - have a listen!
Episode 6 with @robinjames.bsky.social is out now for your holiday week! We cover the second edition of Resilience and Melancholy, what's happening at the top of the charts, why men left pop music for podcasts, and m o r e e e e
dandipiero.substack.com/p/6-resilien...
dandipiero.substack.com/p/6-resilien...
6 | Resilient Pop and Alt (Right) Rock with Dr. Robin James
Something's going on with men!!
dandipiero.substack.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:47 PM
It was so fun to chat with Dan about what's going on with pop music (and gender) today - have a listen!
NOW
Sunday from 5-7p Eastern on Inhailer.com I’ll spin some indie tunes and chat about some subjects of great musical disagreement among indie fans to give you something to debate at the Thanksgiving table that’s not politics! It’s the indie version of “is a hot dog a sandwich”
Inhailer Radio | Cincinnati | Independent Radio | Indie Music
Inhailer Radio is Cincinnati independent radio. Founded in 2017 to fill the void left by beloved radio station WNKU.
Inhailer.com
November 23, 2025 at 10:03 PM
NOW