Neumann Lecture on Music: Robert Fink
Neumann Lecture: Robert Fink, What is Playlist Culture? In the era of streaming music, everyone is a DJ. We are all participants in playlist culture. From the perspective of the work-based musical cultures of the Western tradition, or even the recording-centered monoculture of 20th-century popular music, the new culture of the playlist looks so ephemeral and chaotic that only its most corrosive effects—on musical forms, on money-making strategies, on modes of listening—can be tracked and analyzed. But what if we saw the playlist itself as a newly dominant cultural form?
Robert Fink is Professor of Musicology, Music Industry, and Humanities, Chair of Music Industry Programs at UCLA, and serves as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Trained as a music theorist and musicologist, his primary areas of interest include musical analysis, avant-garde and minimal music, popular music studies, timbre and rhythm in music, playlist culture, and the history of electronic dance music. He has published widely on contemporary and popular music in academic journals, and is the author of Repeating Ourselves, a 2005 study of American minimal music as cultural practice; and The Relentless Pursuit of Tone, an interdisciplinary survey of research into the “sound” of popular music, awarded the American Musicological Society’s Ruth Solie Prize for best edited collection in 2018. Professor Fink regularly comments on current issues in the music industry, and has extensive experience as a forensic musicologist in copyright litigation.
This lecture is offered as part of the Department of Music Free Concert Series 2024-2025 Season. The Department of Music produces over 25 concerts annually featuring a broad range of styles and genres. Enjoy student recitals, faculty ensemble performances, and concerts created in collaboration with visiting artists. All concerts are FREE and seating is general admission. Tickets are required, and all will be welcomed as space allows.