However many years into iTunes’ existence, I still prefer to get my albums in physical form. I’m no audiophile (I don’t own any vinyl), but I am a bibliophile, and there’s something irreplaceable for me about reading liner notes. Occasionally, I regret this impulse: printed lyrics sometimes reveal that I should be ready to be … More Albums A to Z: King of America
Only two posts ago in this series, I said that I owned only two 1980s albums that were popular: Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. and Tom Petty’s solo album, Full Moon Fever. Oh, and one of the 25+ million copies of The Joshua Tree that have been sold worldwide. U2, The Joshua Tree How’d … More Albums A to Z: The Joshua Tree
I once told a friend that I didn’t like the newest record from her favorite musician because he had opted to sing more about politics than love. I can’t remember my exact words, but it was something to the effect of it being very hard to write a good love (or loss) song, requiring more … More Albums A to Z: I Feel Alright
We’ll get to a pretty loathsome chapter in French history in about forty-eight hours, but today, in honor of France’s national holiday, here’s a repeat of my 2011 post declaring “La Marseillaise” the best national anthem. At long last (okay, six days) we come to the end of our series counting down the best national … More Happy Bastille Day!
Earlier today I continued my series revisiting parts of my CD collection I haven’t listened to in a while by blogging about a terrific 1988 album by the Minneapolis alternative rock band Soul Asylum. Throughout the whole series, not once had it occurred to me that — were this a different time — no professor … More Evangelicals and Popular Music: Philip Jenkins on The Byrds
If you ask a couple of my friends, they’ll snicker that I’m clueless about Eighties pop culture. And it’s true, to a point: I haven’t watched most of the John Hughes oeuvre, and while I have probably two dozen albums in my CD collection that were released during the decade, only two were hugely popular … More Albums A to Z: Hang Time
In yesterday’s post on online education, I mentioned that I’m spending part of my summer working with my friend Sam on a series of short documentary films for the online version of our Western Civ/church history course, and that we’re sensitive to the challenge of producing something polished enough to appeal to our media-savvy students. … More Albums A to Z: The Glory of Black Gospel
When I shared my guilty pleasures in pop culture a couple of months ago, I included country-pop superstar Taylor Swift. But I failed to mention the Texas trio who in many ways paved the way for Ms. Swift’s genre-crossing, media-savvy success as a young woman working within and transcending Nashville’s patriarchy… Dixie Chicks, Fly If … More Albums A to Z: Fly
It happens to all of us at some point of our lives: the moment we freeze and our tastes are — for the most part — fixed. Growing up, many of us snicker at parents and grandparents who seem to have stopped adapting to fashion and wear the same style of shirt or shoes they … More Albums A to Z: Emotionalism
Two days back from vacation and it’s been hard to get back into the blogging swing of things. So I’ll tread water a bit by passing along the tiny, surreal bit of YouTube celebrity to which my friend Sam just drew my attention. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPNXYoneiPo It features Matt Richards, senior pastor of Sidney Lutheran Brethren Church … More My (Minor) YouTube Moment
The Pietist Schoolman 