As we begin our holiday/winter break, we wanted to take a second wish our readership and larger MusiQology community for a year full of engagement and support of our little corner of the Internet. It’s been a year of firsts and debuts for the MusiQology team, and we are so grateful to have an online and social media community willing to support, share, like, and engage with our content.
You’ll be able to expect more of the same along with expansions of our content offerings in 2019, but we thought we’d take a few moments before we close up shop to reflect on the year that was.
January
Managing Editor John Vilanova was in full GRAMMYs-mode with debut of our Extended Play series. The first EP was a five-part exploration of the Album of the Year nominees, beginning with Kendrick Lamar and carrying through Jay Z, Bruno Mars, Lorde, and Childish Gambino.
February
The 2018 GRAMMYs, John argued, were more of the same after Bruno Mars took home the trophy in a moment John called the GRAMMYs’ “Stick to Sports” moment. Dr. Guy delivered the Provost Lecture on Diversity through his immersive and stirring Hide/Melt/Ghost multi-genre and multi-media performance piece.
March-April
Perhaps 2018’s biggest month for us, we launched Dr. Guy’s MusiQology Podcast! Expanding our media offerings, we brought a collection of fantastic guests including Laurin Talese, J. Michael Harrison, Ursula Rucker, and many more. #MusiQologyMonday through our first Season became a mini-event for our team as we prepare our dozenth episode. The podcast conversations—intimate and thoughtful in-studio talks with Dr. Guy—are evergreen, so the break is a great time to catch up on any you might’ve missed. The podcast is available on the following platforms: iTunes, Spotify, and Stitcher.
May
As the 2017-18 school year wound down, Dr. Guy was notably invited to analyze Childish Gambino’s attention-grabbing music video, “This is America,” for TIME magazine. “It’s really a commentary on how much violence and contradictions there are in the consuming of pop culture, particularly in the violent elements of it,” he said. “With all the conspicuous consumption that global capitalism inspires, part of what we are consuming is this appetite for violence.”
Summer
Like they are on many college campuses, the summer months are relatively quiet for MusiQology (due in part to Managing Editor John Vilanova’s marriage), but the summer months offered a few noteworthy pieces on the blog. “Why Shouldn’t I Interview Stevie Wonder” was a thoughtful methodological provocation from John as he began crafting his dissertation on the GRAMMYs and his long-form exploration of George Clinton’s surprise album release wasn’t quite a beach read, but it asked provocative questions about the structure of the industry on which we focus. Perhaps most excitedly, though, we were able to publish the work of Simon Ghebreyesus, who attended Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer Prize presentation ceremony, reflecting on the juxtaposition of hip-hop and broader structures of class and taste.
September
As school returned to session, we took some time to round up all the different umbrellas for our MusiQology content. If you’re a relatively new reader (or interested in pitching), this piece sums up our various story frameworks. We also shared one of the best pieces of music writing we read this year on Tidal’s cooked books by Kitanya Harrison, and, off the blog, Managing Editor John Vilanova authored his first piece in The Atlantic, on John Legend and the seductive attraction (and potential hidden disappointments) of visions of racial progress.
October
October was a massive month for us, with the return of the MusiQology podcast featuring the estimable critic and scholar Marc Lamont Hill guest-hosting our premiere episode, in which he interviewed Dr. Guy and Bridget Ramsey on their creative projects. We published a personal essay on getting songs stuck in our heads and watched as our artist Bridget Ramsey heralded the formation of a new genre—Trap Jazz. Her Trap Jazz cover of “The Very Thought of You” got music scholars across the nation talking, and if you haven’t heard it yet, you should!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_6IVeTwszY
November
As the year drew to a close and temperatures dropped, our imprint, The MusiQ Department, heated up with a cadre of new releases and live performances from our artists Bridget Ramsey and Vince Anthony. Vince began to assume the role of artist and communicator he was born for, with a stirring live show at The Painted Bride; Hide/Melt/Ghost returned for two more performances at Penn’s Van Pelt Library and the Awbrey Auditorium.
December
We finally caught up to our prodigious artists, breaking down the group of new releases which included Bridget’s Jazz Nonstandards EP, Vince’s single “Hurricane,” and his concept EP Black Child: A Song Cycle. Very excitingly for us, local news outlets began to take notice, with radio station XPN’s The Key blog featuring both Vince and Bridget in recent days. Bridget’s video for “Save Your Love For Me,” a massive undertaking featuring local musicians, filmmakers, and the city’s creative arts community, is a thrilling bookend to a year where, as always, we’ve tried to be keeping you musical.” Happy holidays to all and we’ll see you in 2019.
Share On Facebook
Tweet It
