Music books with historical depth.
New Books in Music treats music books as entry points into larger worlds. Its conversations move from Rolling Stone and J-pop to Roman opera, cassette culture, independent artists, memoir, and the political shadows around popular song.
PRESS PLAY
New Books in Music is a book-centered interview series about music history, music culture, and the industries that shape sound. It is serious without being stiff. Episodes usually begin with a book, then widen into the historical scene, the argument behind the research, and the cultural pressure around the music itself. The show gives authors time. That patience matters, because the subjects are rarely just about songs. A conversation about Rolling Stone becomes a history of San Francisco, Ramparts magazine, Altamont, Hunter S. Thompson, and the strange path from counterculture paper to global rock authority. A discussion of music technology panic moves from home taping to Napster to TikTok, asking why new formats so often threaten record companies less as machines than as openings for independent artists. The show likes these structural questions. It follows how cassette trading, punk, hip-hop, record contracts, and precarious gig work connect to larger patterns of power. Other episodes move through darker historical terrain, including pop music, the swastika, and the Third Reich. The range is broad. Marty Friedman's account of Japan opens into Enka, J-pop, karaoke, and the emotional pull of imperfect singing. Melissa Auf der Maur's memoir brings 1990s rock into a story about analog chance, live musicianship, and the drive to correct human performance inside machines. Martha Feldman's work points toward castrato voices, Fellini, sacred vernacular culture, and Roman opera. A presentation on Yiddish dialect songs frames archives as places that can unsettle, provoke, and complicate received history. The show is not built around quick verdicts. It prefers context, biography, publication history, and the slow reveal of why a musical object mattered. Some episodes include network announcements or ads up front, and the rotating format means the feel can vary. Still, the core appeal is consistent: intelligent conversations where music is treated as art, evidence, work, business, technology, and memory at once.
Made for: Best for listeners who enjoy thoughtful author interviews, music history, cultural studies, and long-form context over quick takes. It fits readers, researchers, musicians, and serious fans who want to hear how scenes, technologies, and institutions form around sound.
What sets it apart: Its strength is the New Books format applied to music: each episode uses a specific book as a stable anchor, then lets the conversation range across archives, scenes, politics, industry structures, and lived experience. It is more patient and research-driven than most music chat shows.
This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: newbooksnetwork.com Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetworkSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/music
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Book-centered conversations make music scholarship legible through precise discussions of technology, cultural memory, artistic taste, and industry change.
New Books in Music treats music history as an exchange between sustained research and close, curious questioning. Its recurring book-centered conversations move easily from cassette culture and freedom singing to J-pop aesthetics and the commercial machinery surrounding AOR,…
Cassettes, freedom songs, house clubs, J-pop: your music curiosity just acquired footnotes.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clear history of Rolling Stone as a San Francisco story that broadens beyond music.
Richardson's account of Rolling Stone is at its best in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Jan Wenner moves through the Ramparts circle and where Altamont and Hells Angels coverage help frame the magazine's next phase.
A steady look at how tech panic can squeeze independent artists and precarious workers.
David Arditi uses this New Books conversation to trace a familiar music-industry pattern: new technology gets treated like the threat, and the backlash often lands on independent artists first.
A thoughtful music conversation about taste, J-pop, and why imperfection can feel alive.
Marty Friedman sets up a clear discussion of how American rock ears and Japanese pop taste can drift apart, especially in J-pop and Enka. The best part is his explanation of hetauma: something can sound technically off and still hold real magic, which gives the conversation its…
A memoir interview that turns 1990s rock memory into a study of control, chance, and vulnerability.
The conversation around Melissa Auf der Maur's memoir is at its best when it dwells on how a 1990s rock life felt in analog time, and on what changes once memory is written down and read aloud.
A patient look at how place, song, and research become history.
The episode ties together a former ivory key factory, a new museum project, and a sea chanty community in a clear account of material history. It is at its best when it stays close to buildings, objects, and songs, especially the Ivorytown song, instead of moving on too quickly.
A careful look at how freedom song kept working after the movement's headline years.
Stephen Stacks's discussion keeps coming back to the same useful idea: freedom song did not stop in 1968, it kept working as a way to build coalition across difference.
A patient history of cassettes as objects, exchanges, and instruments.
Mark Masters and Bradley Morgan move through cassette history from noisy experimental music into mail art and handmade exchange, and the episode stays strongest when it treats tape as a physical object as much as a format.
A measured account of how radio-rock shifted into the MTV age.
Paul Rees's Raised on Radio treats radio-era rock as a story of changing habits: FM car stereos gave way to MTV, and sound-first anonymity gave way to image and exposure.
A familiar panic starts the argument.
Hunter S.
An interview with author Daniel Rachel about his book exploring the connections between pop music, the swastika, and the Third Reich.
Enka comes in as an unexpected affection.
Melissa Auf der Maur says Even the Good Girls Will Cry is a “90s rock memoir” shaped by the years 1991 to 2001, and she frames it as both personal reckoning and cultural commentary.
This episode features an interview with Professor Martha Feldman about her book exploring the history and cultural impact of castrato singers in 19th and 20th century Rome, focusing on figures like Moreschi and connections to Fellini.
An interview with Mike Huguenor about his book 'Elvis Is Dead, I'm Still Alive: The Story of Asian Man Records,' exploring the history and impact of the independent record label.
This episode introduces an exhibition titled 'Jewface' that explores Yiddish dialect songs from Tin Pan Alley, curated by Eddie Portnoy, aiming to provoke thought about Jewish history and cultural interactions.
A former ivory key factory becomes the problem.
An interview with historian Austin McCoy about his book on De La Soul's music, culture, and impact.
An interview with musician Ani DeFranco about her book on spirituality, feminism, music, and freedom.
An interview with Alva Kenny about her book 'Music Refuge: Living Asylum Through Music', discussing the role of music in humanitarian contexts.
An interview with Dr.
An interview with a scholar discussing their recently published research in music, part of the New Books Network's academic audio library.
Freedom singing is rougher than harmony.
Cassettes travel easily.
FM changed the shape of these records.
Celebrity gets made from more than one place.
An interview with author Kay Dickinson about their book analyzing ABBA's song 'Fernando' as part of a single series.
This episode features an interview with Ben Ratliff about his practice of running while listening to music, part of a series of author interviews on the New Books Network.
An interview with Christopher Lynch about his book on Stephen C.
A lecture by composer Lucas Foss on the state of American contemporary music, minimalism, and his compositional approach.
This episode is a promotional survey request followed by an interview with authors about their new book.
This episode features an interview with an author about a book on the art of Rick Freuberg, preceded by sponsor ads and a survey request.
An academic interview podcast where scholars discuss their recently published research with experts in their field.
Rebecca Buchanan interviews Andy Cohen about his book on the history and cultural significance of B-sides in pop music.
This episode features an interview with Jane Eisner about her book on Carole King, preceded by a brief survey announcement.
An interview with author Max Brzezinski discussing his book 'Under Pressure' about the David Bowie and Queen song, part of an academic music book series.
An interview with the authors of a new book about musician Fela Kuti, discussing their collaboration and the book's content.
This episode is a promotional segment for the New Books Network audience survey followed by an interview with an author about their book.
This episode discusses the history of The Saint nightclub and DJ Sharon White's experience playing Patti LaBelle's 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' there.
An interview with Michael Brown, music curator and author of a book in the 33 1/3 Oceania series, discussing his work.
An interview with Lucy Kaplan about her book 'Dreaming an Ensemble' on how Black artists transformed music.
This episode explores James Brown's 1976 song 'Get Up Off That Thing' as a deliberate funk anthem aimed at challenging the dominance of disco music and reclaiming dance floors.
Two political science professors discuss Bruce Springsteen's 'Nebraska' album as a political, sonic, and personal document, connecting it to a new expanded edition release and upcoming biographical film.
This episode features an interview with Song Ying, a PhD candidate researching how the horsehead fiddle shapes Mongolian identity in China through sociological analysis of ethnicity and art.
This episode features an interview with Cosima Clara Gillhammer about her book 'Light on Darkness: The Untold Story of the Liturgy,' exploring how liturgy intertwines with art, religion, and ritual to shape Western culture.
The Warehouse becomes the central question.