wayne&wax

Academic Writing

A selection of recent publications — some on the web, some as pdfs.

• “Dem Bow, Dembow, Dembo: Translation and Transnation in Reggaeton.” Lied und populäre Kultur / Song and Popular Culture: Jahrbuch des Deutschen Volksliedarchivs 53 (2008): 131-51.
• Book Review: “Michael Veal, Dub: Soundscapes & Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae.” Forthcoming in LAMR.
• “Kool Herc.” In Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture, ed. Mickey Hess, 1-26. (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2007).
• “Follow Me Now: The Zigzagging Zunguzung Meme.” Paper delivered at Annual Meeting of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (US branch), Boston, 28 April, as well as at Experience Music Project, Seattle, 20 April 2007.
• “Giving Up Hip-hop’s Firstborn: A Quest for the Real after the Death of Sampling.” Callaloo 29, no. 3 (2006): 868-892.
• “The Riddim Method: Aesthetics, Practice, and Ownership in Jamaican Dancehall.” Co-authored with Peter Manuel. Popular Music 25, no. 3 (2006): 447-70.
• “Bling-bling for Rastafari: How Jamaicans Deal with Hip-hop.” Social and Economic Studies 55, no. 1 & 2 (2006): 49-74.
• “What Is Stolen? What Is Lost? Sharing Information in an Age of Litigation.” Paper delivered at Annual Meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Honolulu, 16 November 2006.
• “Musically Expressed Ideas About Music: Techniques and Technologies for Performing Ethnomusicology in the Digital Age.” Paper delivered at Annual Meeting of the Northeast Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Trinity College, 8 April 2006.
• “Hearing Hip-hop’s Jamaican Accent.” Institute for Studies in American Music Newsletter 34, no. 2 (2005): 8-9, 14-15.
• Book Review: “Deborah A. Thomas, Modern Blackness: Nationalism, Globalization, and the Politics of Culture in Jamaica.” Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies 7, no. 2 (2005): 270-2.
• Book Review: “Louise Meintjes, Sound of Africa!: Making Music Zulu in a South African Studio.” World of Music 46, no. 1 (2004): 145-52.

Teaching

I’ve taught courses on music, culture, and society at MIT, Brandeis University, the University of Chicago, Harvard Extension School, Brown University, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Here are links to several syllabi — some as HTML/blogposts, some as pdfs.

• Music Industry and Digital Youth Culture. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Spring 2010.
• Global Hip-hop. Brandeis University, Spring 2008.
• Music, Migration, and Nation. University of Chicago, Spring 2007.
• Introduction to World Music. University of Chicago, Winter 2007.
• Intro to the Social and Cultural Study of Music. University of Chicago, Autumn 2006.
• Routes, Rap, Reggae. Brown University, Spring 2005. (Here’s a bloggy reflection on the endeavor.)
• Electronic Music: History and Aesthetics of Popular Music since the 1960s. Harvard Extension School, Spring 2005 and 2006, Fall 2007. (Here’s another bloggy reflection.)

Journalistic Writing

When I can find the time, I like to write freelance popular music criticism as an experiment in voice and an exercise in communication beyond the academic sphere.

• Review of Ayobaness! The Sound of South African House. The Wire, June 2010.
• Review of Dancehall: The Rise Of Jamaican Dancehall Culture (Vol. 2). The Wire, February 2010.
• Review of Funky Nassau. The Fader, April 2008.
• Review of Pitbull’s El Mariel. Boston Phoenix, 18 January 2007.
• Review of Specialty Records Reissue Series. Boston Phoenix, 4 January 2007.
• Review of New Reissues in Heartbeat’s Studio One Series. Boston Phoenix, 7 December 2006.
• Review of Tego Calderon’s The Underdog / El Subestimado. Boston Phoenix, 19 October 2006.
• Review of Heartbeat’s Studio One Reissue Series. Boston Phoenix, 12 April 2006. (Extended version.)
• “The Rise of Reggaeton.” Boston Phoenix, 19 January 2006.
• Review of Welcome to Jamrock and The Trinity. Boston Phoenix, 28 October 2005. (Director’s cut.)
• “Reggae-Tinged Resonances of a Wicked Wicked City.” Sonic Heart 1, no. 3 (July 2005).
• “War Ina Babylon: Jamaica and the War on Terror.” XLR8R, August 2005.

Press

The following are profiles of / interviews with me, but as Public Enemy say, “Don’t believe the hype.”

• “Doctor Dread.” By Gervase de Wilde. Undercover, no. 23 (May 2005).
• “Marshall’s Plan.” By Renee Graham. Boston Globe (29 July 2005).
• “The Boston Jerk.” By Camille Dodero. Boston Phoenix (26 August 2005).
• “Boston Bounce.” By Nick Barat. The Fader, no. 33 (October 2005).
• “Into the Blogosphere.” By Kaili McDonnough. Skywritings (Air Jamaica’s Magazine), Spring 2006.
• “Un ethnomusicologue aux platines.” By Étienne Côté-Paluck. Le Devoir (French), 15 June 2007.
• “‘Globalistas’ buscam sons periféricos.” By Camilo Rocha. Folha de Sao Paolo (Portuguese), 26 December 2007. [full interview published at spannered.org]
• “Watch My Meme: How the Web is changing black youth culture, and vice versa.” By Miles Raymer. Chicago Reader, 16 October 2008.
• “State of the World: How Globalistas Are Tearing Down Cultural Barriers.” By David Dacks. Exclaim!, March 2009.

Here are some radio appearances I’ve made:

• DJ /Rupture’s “Mudd Up!” (WFMU): Talking reggaeton with Raquel Rivera and /Rupture.

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• NPR’s “Here and Now”: Talking to Robin Young about mashups.

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• BBC’s “The World”: Talking to Andrea Shea Ryan about reggaeton.

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