9:30: Doors open, coffee and tea, courtesy of USC Arts and Letters
10am: Welcome and opening Remarks: Alice Echols, USC
S/he works hard for the money (10:30am—12:00pm)
Moderator: Ann Powers, chief pop critic, Los Angeles Times
This panel features women working in the music industry discussing how issues of race, gender and sexuality affect their day to day experiences. What are the career benefits and challenges that difference may bring to musicians and music industry professionals? How does the practice of making and marketing music support traditional concepts of race, gender and sexuality? Subvert them? How have things changed for people outside rock's "straight boy's club" in the past few decades?
With:
Ceci Bastida, vocalist
Amy Blackman, Cookman Management
Nicole Vandenberg, head of Vandenberg Communications
Evelyn McDonnell, journalist and memoirist
Lauren Onkey, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio
Rachel Reynolds, music publicity director at L.A. public radio station KCRW
Judy Miller Silverman, head publicist, Motormouthmedia
Lunch and Break out sessions (12pm-2:30)
Organized by: Sarah Dougher, Portland State University
Catered lunch (Mexican with a vegetarian option)
In this lunchtime session, groups will form with one or more team leaders for discussion on the politics and pragmatics of taking gender and sexuality seriously in the following fields:
On Musical Practice, with:
Anna Huff is a multi-media artist, composer and performer, Anna Oxygen
Jen Smith, musician and activist
Allison Wolfe, musician and activist
On Education, with:
Jack Halberstam, USC
Alice Echols, USC
Elizabeth K. Keenan, Fordham University
Gayle Wald, George Washington University
On Activism, with:
Justice by Uniting in Creative Energy, or J.U.i.C.E., a LA-based project that curbs youth violence and crime through hip hop culture
Becky Gebhardt, bassist Raining Jane, co-founded Rock n' Roll Camp for Girls, Los Angeles
Emily Lacy, folk and electronic sound artist
On Journalism and publishing, with:
Margaret Wappler, Los Angeles Times music writer
Daphne Carr, Best Music Writing series
Marissa Meltzer, author and freelancer
Work it! A roundtable discussion about performance, pop, profit, and the academy (2:30—4pm)
Moderated by: Karen Tongson, USC
In this panel, leading scholars of gender, sexuality and race have a conversation about the interventions feminist/queer/of color scholars make in the reception of contemporary popular music and culture, especially in light of the EMP Conference's theme on "Music and Money." To what extent are academics themselves pop professionals, especially when pop music and culture are our primary objects of study? How do we understand "working it" not only in the music profession, but in the neoliberal and entrepreneurial environment of contemporary universities? And how are our own versions of "working it" critical of, as well as deeply related to, the performers and pop industries we write about?
With:
Karen Tongson, USC (moderator)
Christine Bacareza Balance, University of California, Irvine
Daphne Brooks, Princeton University
Jayna Brown University of California, Riverside
Jack Halberstam, University of Southern California
Tavia Nyong’o, New York University
Gayle Wald, George Washington University
Thanks to: Nikki Darling, Rebecca Das and Jeanne Weiss for administrative and promotional support for the conference. You rock!
A conference at USC that was held February 24, 2011 in association with the 2011 EMP Pop Music Conference
For current information on the Feminist Working Group, click here.
The biggest stars of the day from Katy Perry, Nikki Minaj, Lady Gaga, to Adam Lambert, play in the brightest lights with conventions of gender and sexuality, echoing and building upon traditions of pop performance as old as the stage itself. In basements, barrooms, concert halls and cafes across the country, artists of all types do the same—and more—while rooted in various political, performative, and social contexts they might hesitate to call “feminist” but will surely call “doing their thing.”
And at the same time, an industry shifts dynamically in the wake of dramatic technological changes, rendering concepts of “professionalism” in new light while the academy shifts to deal with popular culture in ways more inclusive than ever before (or not).
At this day-long conference, a group of music journalists, scholars, musicians, and music industry professionals came together to talk about the changing role of gender, race, and sexuality in the pop music world.
This conference was organized by Karen Tongson, Ann Powers, Daphne Carr, and Sarah Dougher.
The biggest stars of the day from Katy Perry, Nikki Minaj, Lady Gaga, to Adam Lambert, play in the brightest lights with conventions of gender and sexuality, echoing and building upon traditions of pop performance as old as the stage itself. In basements, barrooms, concert halls and cafes across the country, artists of all types do the same—and more—while rooted in various political, performative, and social contexts they might hesitate to call “feminist” but will surely call “doing their thing.”
And at the same time, an industry shifts dynamically in the wake of dramatic technological changes, rendering concepts of “professionalism” in new light while the academy shifts to deal with popular culture in ways more inclusive than ever before (or not).
At this day-long conference, a group of music journalists, scholars, musicians, and music industry professionals came together to talk about the changing role of gender, race, and sexuality in the pop music world.
This conference was organized by Karen Tongson, Ann Powers, Daphne Carr, and Sarah Dougher.