American Musicological Society, Inc.

Robin James

Robin James is an independent scholar with a background in philosophy and popular music studies. Her fifth book, Good Vibes Only: Phenomenology, Algorithms & the Politics of Legitimation, is under contract with Duke University Press. Her previous four books include: The Future of Rock and Roll: 97X WOXY and the Fight for True Independence (UNC Press, 2023), The Sonic Episteme: acoustic resonance, neoliberalism, & biopolitics (Duke University Press, 2019), Resilience & Melancholy: pop music, feminism, and neoliberalism (Zero, 2015), and The Conjectural Body: gender, race and the philosophy of music (Lexington Books, 2010). Her writing has appeared in venues such as Jezebel, The Guardian, LARB, Real Life, BELT Magazine, The New Inquiry, SoundingOut!, Hypatia, differences, and the Journal of Popular Music Studies, and elsewhere across the internet. She is also working on a sixth book project about the alt-rock-to-alt-right pipeline. She grew up in Butler County, Ohio, listening to WOXY and the Modern Rock 500.