(courtesy Museum of Pop Culture)
The Pop Conference at MoPop got itself launched in 2002, when MoPop was the EMP, and American Idol was the new cool kid on the tube. I remember folks at the early Conference get-togethers, asking if Idol was where we’d go looking for new leaders in the music world.
Sixteen years later, the Conference is looking healthier, or at least more relevant, than that TV show. It’s welcomed critics, academics, and musicians from the world over, encouraging discussion, debate, depth, and elucidation, to pop matters large and small, superstar to cult. The co-honcho, Seattle’s own Ann Powers, took some questions over email.
Did you spend your entire childhood in Seattle? Which neighborhoods? Which schools? What are your most important formative memories, musical and non-musical?
I grew up in Magnolia. Last time I drove through the neighborhood, our childhood home was still there, though we sold it about 10 years ago. I guess that’s a rarity these days, for a small house to stay standing for upwards of 50 years! I went to Our Lady of Fatima elementary school and Blanchet High School — a good Catholic education.
One of my first musical memories, in fact, is seeing a band with some guys who went to my high school play in the Fatima school gym. One of the boys liked my friend Theresa, and he dedicated Jim Hendrix’s “Fire” to her. It was all very exciting.
I was really into the local Seattle scene as a high schooler. This is just pre- the breakout years of bands like Mudhoney and Mother Love Bone and then Nirvana. Going to all-ages shows at places like the Odd Fellows Hall on Capitol Hill opened up my world.
That’s one reason I love the Vera Project – all-ages venues are usually very fly-by-night, but Seattle found a way to ensure that high school kids have a safe place to play and hear live music. That’s so important!
How did you end up working at EMP, as we were still calling it then? What years were you there? What were your first thoughts of the building, which everyone seems to either love or hate? What were your duties, and what are your most interesting stories from that time?
I was working at the New York Times and living in Brooklyn when EMP first opened. My husband, Eric Weisbard, was working at the Village Voice We were asked to consult on the punk/indie rock exhibits at the museum, and met then-curator Jim Fricke and really hit it off with him. Eventually our collaboration turned into job offers for both of us. This was not too long after EMP opened.
I always liked the building. It’s funny, it was so unusual for Seattle when it opened, but now I feel like it fits perfectly into the city’s architectural schema. And honestly, since the museum expanded to become MoPop by adding science fiction and fantasy exhibits, the architecture makes even more sense.
I was a curator and also worked a lot on public programs. Eric and I curated the exhibit Disco: A Decade of Saturday Nights, which later went to the Ford Museum in Detroit and Lincoln Center in New York. That was an amazing experience, learning how to tell the story of a musical genre using multimedia — we had a working dance floor in that exhibit! And we got to meet legends like the DJ”s David Mancuso and Nicky Siano, Nile Rodgers of Chic, and more.
I also have great memories of doing public events — onstage interviews with people like Nile and Randy Newman, and Neko Case with her frequent collaborators Kelly Hogan and Carolyn Mark. The keynote event at the Pop Conference follows that model of great conversations with interesting artists.
How was this year’s theme decided on, and what do you find the most fascinating aspects of it?
Our theme this year is “What Difference Does It Make?: Music And Gender.” We decided on this theme before the recent explosion of feminist activism around #metoo and #timesup. The program committee, which changes every year and consists of academics and writers who’ve attended the conference in the past, came up with the theme, as it always does.
Gender feels like an obvious theme in some ways, but sometimes those obvious themes are the best — people really want to hear discussion on a subject like this. Which panels will you be sitting on, and what can we expect from them?
I’m doing a lot this year! First off, I’m moderating the keynote, which I think is going to be one of our best. It’s a summit on music and activism in the #metoo moment, featuring an amazing group of women who are artists, activists, and all-around powerful people. Local civic leader and Sub Pop CEO Megan Jasper is on the panel, among others. I’m very excited about that.
I’m also on a roundtable considering the legacy of soft rock and quiet storm — I’ll be talking about Kris Kristofferson as a bridge figure connecting country and soft rock. I’m doing a collaborative presentation on reframing the history of popular music through intersectional feminist practice, with three of my most adored fellow music scholars — Daphne Brooks of Yale, Alexandra Vazquez of NYU, and Gayle Wald of George Washington University.
And finally, I’ll be participating in the annual Critical Karaoke panel, in which writers talk about a song for the length of the song, as it plays. I’m not telling you what my song is, though. Which panels and presentations are you most looking forward to, and why?
Every single panel has someone I hugely respect talking about something I’m dying to hear about. So I can’t choose! I just encourage people to spend some time looking at the schedule and then come on down.
Which places, people, and things, do you return to when you re-visit Seattle, and why? Thoughts on your rapidly-changing hometown?
I miss the Seattle of my childhood, mostly because the old landmarks were comforting to me. But I always like finding something new, too. During Pop Con I don’t have much time to explore, but I always make time to walk down to the Olympic Sculpture Park and along the water in Myrtle Edwards Park. It was my special place when I was just a kid, and it still is. My laptop and iPhone screen savers are both pictures taken from that park.
The Pop Conference at MoPop 2018 happens April 26 – April 29 at the Museum of Pop Culture. Tickets, and more information, can be found at the MoPop website.