The cover of Tough Breaks: The Story of Baltimore Club Music by Al Shipley shows a DJ's hands operating a turntable and fader.

Maren Hancock, Lecturer in Popular Music at the University of Wolverhampton who researches and writes about DJ culture, seen here holding headphones to one ear.

Dr. Charity Marsh, director of the Humanities Research Institute, University of Regina, Saskatchewan, poses in front of shelves of books.

Tomorrow (Wed Apr 1, no fooling) it's the CLUBLANDS edition of the Popular Music Books online series, w/ Maren Hancock & Charity Marsh on Canadian DJ culture and Al Shipley on Baltimore club music. Get out on the floor w/ us at 5:30 pm! Here's how: iaspm-us.wildapricot.org/Popular-Musi...

Born 24 March 1935 - Carol Kaye, one of the most prolific bass guitarists, who has played on an estimated 10,000 recordings in a career spanning over 50 years. Kaye was the bassist on many Phil Spector and Brian Wilson productions in the 1960s and 1970s. She is 91 years old today. #CarolKaye

Welcome to Canada!

This issue is a big deal. First, it’s guest-edited by Georgina Born and @anthroposound.bsky.social , two of the best of their respective generations of musical anthropologists. Second, the contributor lineup is outstanding.

Popular Music Books in Process series, 2025-2026 Call for Proposals Since 2020, the Popular Music Books in Process series has held online events for music writers and scholars to showcase recent books or works in progress for an engaged audience. The series is a collaboration between the Journal of Popular Music Studies, the Pop Conference, and IASPM-US. There have been more than 140 Zoom events so far, almost all preserved on YouTube. We generally run biweekly from fall through spring. We look forward to another round of presentations. If you are publishing a book in the next year, or have ongoing work to showcase, please let us know. All kinds of formats are welcome, from readings and dialogues to roundtables, always including a generous Q&A. Some authors have even incorporated live music. We ask you to make your event conversational on some level and avoid longer solo presentations. If you need ideas for interlocutors or co-presenters, we can suggest some. Our YouTube page shows the variety of strategies presenters have used. We may group authors with kindred approaches, too. Whatever the format, our focus remains books, whether early in gestation or after publication. We want to showcase popular music writing of many kinds, keeping our communities connected, and welcoming in new participants. Presenters are asked to do their best to attend several other sessions through the season. Please feel free to share this call with others you think might want to join in.

For anyone writing a book about music, you might find this invitation to present of interest! I participated in the @iaspm-us.bsky.social "Popular Music Books in Process Series" a couple of years ago, and it was a wonderful experience. 🎶

JPMS needs some editors!!!!