What, Like It's Hard?

What, Like It's Hard?

By WLIHEducationMusicMusic Interviews
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What, Like It's Hard? episodes

  • Growing Old In The Promised Land.

    Dr Michael Kobre from Queens University of Charlotte talks about the theme of time in Springtseen's music and how this is reflected in his performance of The Promised Land on the 1996 Tom Joad tour. 

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    57 min
  • Blacked Out in Brantford.

    Founder of Blackout Fest, Jamie Mittendorf, talks about the origins of the festival and the metal/punk community. Jamie started Blackout when he was just 15, and for this episode he runs over the highlights of the past 13 years, as well as what it's like to organise an event like this in the Brantford (Ontario, Canada) punk/metal scene.

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    34 min
  • The Adapt or Die Episode.

    Grad school is an 'adapt or die' situation, apparently, and this (adapting) is what we're doing for this episode. The complete interview with Dr. James Carter, from Drew University, failed in download, and as such we're veering away from the usual conference-style of the previous keynote episodes. Listen to a quick introduction to Dr. Carter's paper "Campus Rock: Rock Music Culture on the College Campus during the Counterculture Sixties, 1967-1968." before an abrupt stop, where Kirstin reads some extracts from the paper that details the story of Drew University within the development of Rock Music Culture. 

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    51 min
  • The Boats That Rocked: Return of the Pirates of the Airwaves.

    The 2nd episode of the Freshman series looks at the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association's annual conference. Host, Kirstin, reads her own paper that she presented at the 49th PCA/ACA conference in Washington D.C in April. “The Boats That Rocked: Return of the Pirates of the Airwaves" looks into the irony of the Radio Caroline 'pirates' creating BBC Radio 1. 

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    25 min
  • This Is Etta Moten, Saying, Stay Well.

    Dr. Katherine Karlin of Kansas State University gives us a look into her research on Etta Moten's radio show 'I Remember When', on WAMQ Chicago. Etta Moten was an American actress and contralto vocalist who created new roles for African-American women on stage and screen. After her performing career, Moten was active in Chicago as a major philanthropist and civic activist, raising funds for and supporting cultural, social and church institutions.

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    1 hr 1 min
  • The One With The Banjo.

    The Freshman series opens with a podcast episode featuring Shane Mulchrone who talks about growing up in Ireland playing music, and moving overseas to Canada to play some more.⠀
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    Shane Mulchrone hails from near Ballina, in county Mayo. He has been playing the banjo for over 20 years and he cites John Carty and Tommy Finn as early influences on his music. In addition, Shane’s music has also been shaped by local musicians in Mayo and Sligo. Shane has taught at numerous summer schools and workshops nationally, and internationally, and he plays regularly at sessions and festivals around the country. 

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    56 min
  • An Unmitigated Disaster!

    Dr. Ken Womack of Monmouth University reads us the introduction of his new book "Solid State: The Story of Abbey Road and the End of the Beatles" (out October 15th 2019!) before we talk about all things Fab Four in the iconic Abbey Road Studio.

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    1 hr 9 min

About What, Like It's Hard?

From the publisher's feed

What, Like It’s Hard? is the digital initiative and podcast that celebrates and explores the academic study of popular music. Conferences can be expensive to attend, especially for students, so this…