Pop Conference 2016

Douglas Wolk writes about pop music and comic books for Pitchfork, the New York Times, Billboard, and elsewhere. His most recent book is the graphic novel Judge Dredd: Mega-City Two, with artist Ulises Farinas.  “Zero Tolerance for Instruments!” | There is a tiny but persistent strain of a cappella punk rock: nothing could be more D.I.Y. than the sounds of the human body. I'll offer a brief history of voice-only punk... Read More →

Rebecca Gates is an Oregon-based musician, artist, curator, and activist. She has toured and released albums internationally as a solo artist and as leader of The Spinanes. Her programs and work relating to issues of sound and space, listening, and artist’s roles in their communities have been hosted by PS1, Mass MOCA, P.I.C.A., The Museum of Contemporary Craft, New York University, and galleries in the U.S. and Europe.  "The Shape of... Read More →

Glenn McDonald believes that music is the thing that humans do best, and lives in fear that the music he hasn’t heard yet is even more amazing than the music he has. At Spotify he channels this into genre taxonomizing, music discovery, personalization, gothic symphonic metal and fraud detection. He spoke about Every Noise at Once at EMP Pop Conference 2014, and about Satanic metal and the worst songs in the world in 2015. “Can an... Read More →

Laura Snapes is a contributing editor at Pitchfork and former NME features editor who also writes for The Guardian, The Observer, The Financial Times, Uncut Magazine, Marie Claire US, and the NME among others. Born and raised in the remote county of Cornwall, she maintains a firm interest in regional musical identities and affirming the importance of a non-London-centric music press. Her work deals with feminist issues, language, technology... Read More →