Department of Music Lecture: "Blacksound and Notions of Property (and Possession) in American Popular Music"

Matthew D. Morrison, Associate Professor in the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music in the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University

 Title
Blacksound and Notions of Property (and Possession) in American Popular Music

Abstract
This talk will discuss Morrison’s concept of Blacksound, with a particular focus on the legacy of blackface minstrelsy in shaping property relations within the development of the American popular music—in both its industry and performance. 

Biography
Matthew D. Morrison is a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, and is an Associate Professor in the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music in the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Matthew received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in musicology, has held the Susan McClary and Robert Walser American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, as well as fellowships at institutions such as Harvard, the Library of Congress, The University of Edinburgh, the Tanglewood Music Center, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame/Center for Popular Music Studies. His work has appeared in several publications, such as the Journal of the American Musicological Society, the Oxford Handbook of Music and Philosophy, American Music, and he contributes creatively as a dramaturg and artistic consultant within the arts. His book, Blacksound: Making Race and Popular Music in the United States, is published by the University of California Press (March 2024).