I took abundant notes at this year’s EMP Pop Conference, but I haven’t yet had a chance to write up any kind of at-length thoughts on the conference itself. In lieu of that, let me direct you to Ned Raggett’s in-depth reflections on numerous papers; Michaelangelo Matos’s paper on a capella vocals and house music; and Carl Wilson’s perspective on this year’s conference and related events. The conference did plant a few ideas in my head about longer-form music writing, and you’ll see a number of posts on that subject in the next few days.
Wilson’s paper this year, on the subject of auto-tune, provides a fine segue into the surreal and scarily catchy Auto-Tune the News [via Reihan Salam], the second edition of which is embedded below.
Watching it, I’m left with the feeling that this was birthed from some sort of critical-theory collective unconscious and subsequently imbued with a comedic sensibility somewhere between The Lonely Island and Little Britain. Either way, though, it’s a hook that’s hard to shake.