Robin James

@robinjames.bsky.social

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writer, editor, philosopher. Author of a book about #vibes & algorithms, another about WOXY/97X, among others. Writing a another book on 90s alt rock. Bylines Jezebel, Guardian, LARB, Real Life, etc. no views, just vibes.

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Everything is awful but there's a slight possibility Juno might come to Chicago with me for AMS

Music tech/production faculty: I have FIVE electronic review copies I'm happy to give away to instructors who would consider adopting Simon Duggal's RECORD MIX & MASTER for their fall classes. Only $37! DM or email robin.jamesATpalgrave-usaDOTcom link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Record, Mix and Masterlink.springer.com This textbook is a practical guide to achieving professional-level audio productions using digital audio workstations.

This summer for the first time there are lots of woodpeckers and an oriole breeding pair making use of the hummingbird feeders.

Also this book offers a far more accurate depiction of Butler Co Ohio in the 80s & 90s than that, uh, other book

If you would like to read and think about people from Butler Co, Ohio who DON'T SUCK, may I suggest my book about WOXY uncpress.org/book/9781469...

The Future of Rock and Roll | Robin James | University of North Carolina Pressuncpress.org In 1983, an Ohio radio station called WOXY launched a sonic disruption to both corporate rock and to its conservative home region, programming an omnivorous ...

Someone at the VP debate should ask that guy "So, um, what IS a 'Middie'"?

If you would like to read and think about people from Butler Co, Ohio who DON'T SUCK, may I suggest my book about WOXY uncpress.org/book/9781469...

I am typically someone who's always cold but the hot & humid weather today is definitely less preferable to being out in the winter cleaning up snow, ugh

Staying in my lane, which is not electoral politics, so I've been thinking about pop's current girlboss era, which is 10 years after the 2014 popular feminism boom in pop music (think meghan trainor) in 2014 the songs were *about* feminism; today they depict empowered women (kesha, rodrigo)

Today seems like a great day to log off and do a bunch of yardwork, see y'all tomorrow.

Last week Hyperion caught a groundhog; just now Nyx caught a mole. She heard it underground and flushed it out., which is I guess what terriers were bred to do...

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Robin James

In Disagreement, Ranciere wrote about the then-innovative use of opinion polls in Clinton's '96 campaign as representing a new "regime" of politics grounded in statistics. I think what we're seeing today re: Biden is a move toward another new regime, one that leaves stats behind in favor of vibes.

Yep the barriers here are more in the high cost of rent and student debt and low royalties from Spotify etc. From hip hop to punk and grime kids have always DIY'ed it with whatever they had around, from turntables to FruityLoops Studio to secondhand TR909s

I talked to someone a few weeks ago who insisted that AI was good because it allowed poor, uneducated, and disabled people "to tell their own stories!" And I was just like, they can already do that None of the barriers to inclusion marginalized people face are helped by AI We can already write

Even Meghan Trainor did a better take on popular feminism than this video has, and I've gone on record as to why the former is...not good www.vice.com/en/article/6...

omg that new katy perry video is comically bad. it's like they tried to turn CA Girls era perry into Lady Gaga

All Your B/Ass Are Belong to Uswww.vice.com Megan Trainor, Nicki Minaj, and when bass and butts go hand in hand.

omg that new katy perry video is comically bad. it's like they tried to turn CA Girls era perry into Lady Gaga

Media, Comms, & Journalism scholars - are you headed to AEJMC in Philly next month and have a book project you want to talk about? DM me or email at robin.jamesATpalgrave-usaDOTcom to get on my schedule! I commission in all areas in media, comm, & journalism studies.

According to Zillow my house has appreciated 100k in 4 years (I live in the town next to Hartford, not a glamorous place at all), which seems WILDLY UNSUSTAINABLE, feels like we’re on the precipice of another housing crash

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Robin James

I've been writing about alt rock as using grievance to flip a distressed asset in a masculine (vs femme resilience) way; I wonder if this is also the same thing but in hip hop at 50

It's interesting that the Drake/Kendrick beef is happening precisely at the moment when hip hop proper has kind of dropped off the top of the pop charts in favor of Shaboozy/Wallen/etc and mostly white pop (mostly) girlies

I've been writing about alt rock as using grievance to flip a distressed asset in a masculine (vs femme resilience) way; I wonder if this is also the same thing but in hip hop at 50

Headed to AEJMC and have a book project you want to discuss? DM or email robin.jamesATpalgrave-usaDOTcom to schedule a time to connect in Philly.

Heard the new Kesha & Katy Perry - ppl are saying this + Charli & Chappell is 'recessioncore' but i'd say it's more like anti-Antonification: looking back to "Born This Way" chunky industrial synths & house vocals, i.e., KMFDM

factoid meaningful perhaps only to me: "Live And Let Die" was the Bond theme song ('73) three years before Foucault's Society Must Be Defended lectures where he talks about "making live and letting die" ('76)

Big "Save the planet, k1ll yourself" vibes, someone call Chris Korda

what the fuck are they even doing over there at this point

Redirect Noticewww.google.com

I just realized that I'll pay off my mortgage the same year I'm eligible for max social security benefits, so I guess I know when I'm retiring

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Robin James

Despite contributing 7.4% of New York’s economy, most of the state’s artists earn far less than the living wage, according to a new survey.

Most NY Artists Are Financially Unstable, Survey Findshyperallergic.com More than half of respondents said they earned under $25,000 a year.

I have literally been saying this (about the whole field of ethics, not just this collumn) for decades www.currentaffairs.org/news/2024/04...

The Bourgeois Morality of ‘The Ethicist’www.currentaffairs.org The New York Times advice column, where snitching liberal busybodies come to seek absolution, is more than a mere annoyance. In limiting our ethical considerations to tricky personal situations and di...

I'm no election strategist but it sure would feel good to have something to vote FOR rather than something to vote against.

Just reminding people that I still have an active research program and I would love to come talk to your department or conference about either the vibes book or the alt-rock to alt-right pipeline project…

The way AI calculates similarity is formally analogous to the way social media users collect images, hashtags, etc, together to construct a vibe. AI is literally just vibes at the most elementary technical level.