In part two of our conversation, YouTuber and musician Tayo Omisore (COLORMIND.mp4 on YouTube) and I continue our conversation about "rap covers" and how rap is developing into a canon. We also discuss Tayo's songwriting and production process for his musical interlude segments in his YouTube videos.

Tayo's YouTube channel

Tayo's Male Friendship video

Tayo's Himbo video

Tayo's Inflation video

Adam Neely's video

Tayo's Spotify

This episode was edited by Jair G with ⁠ExpMediaProductions.⁠

Get in touch with me at: [email protected]

In this episode, I chat with YouTuber and musician Tayo Omisore (COLORMIND.mp4 on YouTube) all about his musical upbringing with rap, his experiences learning to write music, and the development of his career as a Black musical content creator. We also discuss his video response to music theory YouTuber Adam Neely, who made a video about the absence of "rap covers." Tayo and I offer our perspective as Black musicians and ponder what music theory offers us when studying and discussing rap. Stay tuned for part two of our conversation!

Tayo's YouTube channel

Tayo's Himbo video

Tayo's Inflation video

Adam Neely's video

Tayo's Spotify

This episode was edited by Jair G with ⁠ExpMediaProductions.⁠

Get in touch with me at: [email protected]

In this episode, I chat with Dr. Ben Cornelius-Bates (Duquesne University) about his musical upbringing in Alaska, his path to composition, and his experiences studying the organ. We also discuss how to write music for the organ, particularly within the context of secular music, and talk about timbre in Maan Varjot by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho for organ and orchestra. Rest in peace to Saariaho, who passed away on June 2, 2023.

Ben's IMSLP

Ben's recorded organ improvisations

The second movement of Maan Varijot

Offrande (organ and cello)

This episode was edited by Jair G with ⁠ExpMediaProductions.⁠

Get in touch with me at: [email protected]

In this solo episode, I chat all about how my winter semester at the University of Michigan went. I give an update on the grad student strike, my classes, and my teaching. I also explore my yearly theme of simplicity, set new goals for Summer 2023, and discuss the podcast's progress!

THANK GAWD this episode was edited by Jair G with ExpMediaProductions! Hire him for all of your video/audio editing needs!

Donate to the strike fund

GEO's Twitter

GEO's Instagram

My Staging Blackness term paper

Tressie McMillian Cottom Twitter threads (one and two)

Oliver Burkeman's 3:3:3 method

Get in touch with me at: [email protected]

In this episode, I invite Anna Rose Nelson (University of Michigan) on the show to give us an update on finishing her dissertation (hire her!). We also (in great detail!) break down the ongoing strike at the University of Michigan. Beginning with the very recent history of U-M graduate student workers and lecturers striking in 2020, Anna Rose shares about her experiences organizing with the Graduate Employees Organization on behalf of the School of Music, Theater, and Dance. We discuss how the bargaining with the university over the grad student workers' next three year contract has gone (poorly!) and what has led over 1,000 grad student workers to halt their teaching, office hours, and grading. Finally, Anna Rose shares about how the university's negotiations specifically affect music grad students, and how U-M faculty and undergraduates can support their grad student instructors and researchers. Thanks for your support! Solidarity!

(Again, this podcast is absolutely NOT an attestation that either Anna Rose or I are on strike! U-M kindly mind your business!!)

Small numbers correction: We mention that our economic ask was about 10% of the $200M we make the university each year. Actually, the highest compensation proposal would cost 33M (closer to 20%) in that first intense bump.

Anna's episode on modernist music

⁠GEO's website⁠

⁠Donate to the strike fund⁠

The 2020 strike

⁠The Rackham proposal⁠

Former President Mark Schlissel

The strike FAQ

GEO Instagram

GEO Picket Crush Instagram

⁠Steve Lett in Music Theory Spectrum⁠

Get in touch with me at: [email protected]

Our last episode for Women's History Month! Today on the show I welcome another Michigan alum Dr. Vivian Luong (University of Oklahoma) to chat about her background as a clarinetist and a pianist, her time studying music theory at Michigan, and her current approaches to theory pedagogy. We also discuss her research centered around feminist music theory and what it means to love music, her MTO article titled "Rethinking Music Loving," and her Engaged Music Theory blog post titled "Feeling Like a Theorist."

Our podcast episode on Susanne Cusick's chapter "On a Lesbian Relationship with Music"

Vivian's MTO article

Vivian's Engaged Music Theory blog post

Get in touch with me at: [email protected]

TW: brief mentions of sexual assault

For our second episode of Women's History Month, I chat with Dr. Susan McClary (Case Western Reserve University) about her path to musicology, as well as her experiences as an educator and researcher. We also discuss her incredibly influential scholarship centered around gender and sexuality in music by diving into her 1991 book Feminine Endings. Finally, she shares her current teaching philosophies as well as the music she is enjoying.

Feminine Endings

My SMT-Pod interview with Susan, Phil Ewell and Chris Jenkins

My performance at the Theorizing African American Music Conference

My podcast episode about Susan's article "Terminal Prestige" with Anna Rose Nelson

Get in touch with me at: [email protected]

Our first episode for Women's History Month! Today I chat with Dr. Kyra Gaunt (University at Albany, State University of New York) all about her experiences as a singer, her time studying voice and ethnomusicology at Michigan, and her first book The Games Black Girls Play: Learning The Ropes From Double Dutch To Hip-Hop. We also discuss her forthcoming book PLAYED, featuring her research centered around Black girls dancing on YouTube.

Thanks to Natalie Krafft for editing the written transcript of this episode!

Kyra's book

Kyra's TED Talk

Get in touch with me at: [email protected]

We are finishing off Black History Month with a conversation about Beyoncé! My sister Ismatu Gwendolyn Bangura and I chat all about our personal relationships to her music, the public perception of Beyoncé, and the aesthetics and politics in her latest album, Renaissance. I also feature the voices of some of the Black women and femmes in my community to get their thoughts on the album. In order of appearance, you heard the voices of Erykah Benson, Gaby Kubi, Dylan Keese-Forster, and Ijeoma Opara. A huge thanks to my sister and my friends for being on the show!

Thanks to Natalie Krafft for editing the written ⁠transcript⁠ of this episode!

YouTube visual companion

Donate to the fundraiser

Ismatu on Tik Tok

Ismatu on Instagram

Ismatu on Substack

Ismatu on Patreon

Ismatu's podcast

My first Beyoncé podcast episode

Article on Beyoncé performing in Africa

Get in touch with me at: [email protected]

In this episode, we are wrapping up Black History Month with some familial history! My younger sister Ismatu Gwendolyn Bangura joins me on the show to discuss our shared musical upbringing, their experiences leading a gospel choir at Northwestern University, and how their relationship to music changed after they became a sex worker. We also chat about their blossoming Tik Tok career and the ways in which they are using art, writing, dance, and poetry in their activism. Finally, Ismatu shares about the fundraiser they've started for our tribe back in Sierra Leone! If you are able, drop a dollar! And stay tuned for part two of our conversation, where we dive into the aesthetics and politics of Beyoncé's album Renaissance!

Thanks to Natalie Krafft for editing the written transcript of this episode!

YouTube visual companion

Donate to the fundraiser

Ismatu on Tik Tok

Ismatu on Instagram

Ismatu on Substack

Ismatu on Patreon

Ismatu's podcast

Lorraine Hansberry interview

My first Beyoncé podcast episode

Get in touch with me at: [email protected]