Know Your Enemy: Bob Dylan’s America, with Will Epstein
In some respects, Dylan’s Philosophy of Modern Song is a quintessentially conservative book. But Dylan’s America never stops moving, reinventing itself, or rebelling against its own strictures.
Spring 2025
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The Revolutionary Beethoven
In the year of the great composer’s 250th birthday, we can retune our ears to pick up the subversive and passionately democratic nature of his music.
John Prine’s Poetry of Human Connection
Prine was a friend of those left behind by progress and put down by other people. But his songs were all part of a larger universe where laughter and joy prevailed.
E Pluribus Country
Politics flattens, but the best country music invites us into people’s complex and contradictory lives.
Listening in an Emergency
Big Thief makes protest music for a moment when even language, even stories, even voices, have betrayed us.
Harlem Is Everywhere
As the old neighborhood gentrifies, its transatlantic spirit lives on as the influence of black culture grows—from Lagos to London, from Havana to Atlanta.
Lana Del Rey’s America
Trump’s election has made Lana Del Rey rethink her patriotism, without losing sight of a resilient, youthful Americana—and hope along with it.
How the Slants Reclaimed Their Name
Simon Tam, frontman of the Asian-American dance-rock band, says the recent Supreme Court ruling allowing the group to keep their name affirms that “ultimately communities should be able to determine what’s best for themselves.”
Country Music Capital
When Nashville was anointed the capital of country music, a true American icon was born.
David Bowie Was Our Mirror
David Bowie’s lyrics were hard to mine for political content, but his songs will continue to suit moments they were never written for.
Belabored Podcast #92: Don’t Mourn, Organize!
A celebration of pioneering union activist and radical troubadour Joe Hill.
Why Feminism Needs Punk
Taking a cue from punk icon Viv Albertine, today’s feminists should dare to want more—and forget about asking for it nicely.
Rock Against Racism
Rock-and-roll fans tend to see the rock culture of the 1950s and ‘60s as both a reinvention of American popular music and a force for self-expression and liberal culture. Two new books show what this account leaves out: rock and roll’s frontal assault on American racism.
A Turbulent Life: On Amiri Baraka
In 2002, Scott Sherman published this essay on Amiri Baraka. “Yet Baraka still has the power to surprise us.”
