Can We Still Bump n’ Grind to R. Kelly?

To Grapple with the Immorality of Artists We May Have to Go Through Their Art

Whatever else “cancel culture” might be about, when it comes to the arts, it’s about this—if you want to do right as a consumer of art, the work of some artists is off the table. Whether it’s painters or pop stars, when these artists cross the moral line, we are supposed to cut their art out of our lives completely.

I think this view is mistaken, but not because I’m some aesthete who thinks ethics has nothing to do with art. Rather, I think this view is wrong for ethical reasons. …

The Red Brick Bungalow Where Hardcore Made a Home | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

The Red Brick Bungalow Where Hardcore Made a Home

In a D.C. Suburb, the Dischord House Became the Unlikely Epicenter for Reagan-Era Punk

Walking through the leafy Arlington, Virginia, neighborhood of Lyon Park, you might not even notice the bungalow-style house with its fading red paint and overgrown lawn, a relic from the …

Angelic Choir of the First Baptist Church of Nutley

The 1960s Gospel Hit That Defined a Genre and an Era

Recorded in the Wake of the Birmingham Bombing, the Faith-Fueled Power of ‘Peace Be Still’ Endures Today

“Peace Be Still,” a six-minute-long hymn, swept gospel radio in 1963.

Recorded just four days after the devastating bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, it became an …

The Beloved Bard of Solidarity | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

The Beloved Bard of Solidarity

Jacek Kaczmarski Wrote the Soundtrack for Poland’s Cold War-Era Resistance Movement

A microphone on a stand; a man with a guitar. The waiting audience is restless, shifting in seats as he tunes his instrument. He speaks one word—Kołysanka, lullaby in Polish. The …

How 1970s Pop Culture Cemented Today’s Partisan Divisions | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

How 1970s Pop Culture Cemented Today’s Partisan Divisions

Journalist Ronald Brownstein Explores the Creative Explosion in Los Angeles That Prefigures Our Current Politics

Longtime political journalist Ronald Brownstein paid a visit to Zócalo yesterday to speak about his new book, Rock Me On the Water: 1974- The Year Los Angeles Transformed Movies, Music, …

California’s Next Joan Didion Can Sing | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

California’s Next Joan Didion Can Sing

Phoebe Bridgers Offers an Homage to, and an Improvement on, the Classic Golden State Interpreter

California’s next Joan Didion might be an improvement on the original.

For one thing, she can sing.

Phoebe Bridgers, a brilliant and versatile 26-year-old musician and songwriter, isn’t just contending for four …