Sound Philosophy

This episode continues to explore the narcocorrido, now focusing on Chalino Sanchez and the theme of agency striving against fate.

This episode looks at the border genre of the narcocorrido (a Mexican folk music genre based on drug trafficking) in relation to the rhetorical nature of borders, the law, and the self.

This episode explores the role of suffering and self-developed narrative in the forming of a self in the music of Edith Piaf.

This episode explores the nature of the subject position in popular music (the implicit or explicit "I" in a song). It posits that most songs ask us to identify (or disidentify) with the subject but that some songs, including Björk's "Bachelorette" question the very notion of what it means to be a subject in the world.

This episode examines Tom Waits's debts to Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski, and the notion of melancholy. It examines "The Piano Has Been Drinking" and "Invitation to the Blues."

This episode looks at Randy Newman's vision of the American as essentially out of balance. I examine songs including "I Think It's Going to Rain Today," "Sail Away," and "Rednecks."

This episode looks at Cole Porter and the comic list song as exemplified by "Let's Do It."

This episode uses Aristotle's Rhetoric to examine the use of wit in the music and lyrics of Cole Porter. I begin by considering general characteristics and functions of wit. Then I turn to Aristotle's three elements of rhetoric and his notion that rhetoric is central to human experience. Finally, I analyze the verse of Porter's "Just One of Those Things" in light of my discussion of Aristotle and wit.

This episode continues my discussion of lyrics, now by paying attention to the lyrics in their materiality (rather than semantics), focusing on rhyme, repetition, and the notion of the lyrics as museme (that is, as a musical element--not a linguistic center of gravity).

This episode begins to explore how we might think about lyrics beyond considering them as a "key" to the meaning of a song.