9.00-10.00

Opening Dialogue: Depression in Popular Music

Jessica Holmes, Jean-Victor Blanc, and Judith van der Waerden

10.10-11.30

Gender, Race, and Depression in Hip Hop

Lauron J. Kehrer, “‘Bad Bitches Have Bad Days Too’: Megan Thee Stallion, Doechii, and Black Women’s Expressions of Anxiety and Depression in Hip Hop”

Lizzie Bowes, “Survivor’s Guilt: Navigations of Masculinity, Depressive Disdain and Mental Health in Black-British Rap Music” 

Paul Adey, “‘There’s a War Going on Inside, No Man is Safe From’: Representations of Depression through Autosonic and Allosonic Quotation in a Critically Acclaimed Rap Album: An Artist’s Perspective”

11.45-13.05

Indie Rock’s Big (Bad) Feelings

Dan DiPiero, “‘Real Pain’: Trauma, Depression, and ‘Good Non-Sovereignty’ in Contemporary Indie Rock”

Jillian Rogers, “Weeping Men and Vocal Embodiment in Early 21st-Century Indie Rock Listening: Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea”

Natalie Farrell and Graham Ellinghausen, “Boy-tlemania: Depressive Hedonia and boygenius Superfandom”

14.05-15.25

Musicalizing the Affects and Effects of Political Turmoil

Ceyda Çekmeci, “‘May This World Sink’: Politics of Affect in Turkish Popular Music”

Iuliana Matasova, “‘Fake it till you make it’: (Western) Performance of Madness in Ukrainian Women’s Music of the 1990s” 

Sheyla Castro Diniz, “‘E Preciso Dar um Jeito, Meu Amigo’: Popular Music and the ‘Culture of Depression’ in Brazil during the ‘Years of Lead’ (1969-1974)”

15.45-17.05

Mental Health in the Popular Music Industry Pt. 1

Jeremy Vachet, “Keeping Your Head Above Water: Coping Strategies of Independent Musicians in Light of Gender, Sex, Race, and Class”

Melanie Ptatscheck, “From Solace to Struggle: Busking, Depression, and Mental Health in the Post-Pandemic Era”

George Musgrave, “Suicide, Depression, and the Music Industry: Epidemiology, Risk Factors, and Possible Intervention Approaches”

17.05-17.15 Break

17.15-18.15

Mental Health in the Popular Music Industry Pt. 2

Matthew Blackmar, “The End of the Road: ‘Cruel Optimism,’ ‘Burning Out,’ and Abandoning a Performing Career”

Macon Holt, “‘I Have to Feel’, or Where is the Depression in Popular Music?”

9.00-10.50

Gen Z, New Media, and the Internet

Jacob Downs, “Headphone Listening, Sonic ‘Self-Care,’ and Neoliberal Intimacies”

Veronika Muchitsch, “#mitkskiistherapy, Mental Health, Fandom, and Participatory Practices in Algorithmic Music Culture” 

Hannah Jamet-Lange, “‘posting about this along with every other mentally ill girl on your timeline because wtf’: Emotional Engagements with ‘Sad Girl Music’ on TikTok” 

John Debouter, “The Kids Are(n’t) Alright: Emo Rap and Gen Z Depression in the Music of Juice WRLD”

11.10-12.10

Feminine Melancholy, Mourning, and Healing 

Ramona Gonzalez, “‘King of Sorrow’: Sade’s Melancholic Protest”

James Grier, “Joni Mitchell’s Descent into Melancholy on Side 2 of Blue”

13.30-14.50

Queer and Trans Musical Aesthetics of Depression

Magdalena Fuernkranz, “‘Trauma Looks Good on Me’: Depression in Pop Music: An Austrian Case Study”

Jacob Kopcienski, “Placing Depression/Hearing Structures: Quare Affects and Expressive Strategies in Queer/Trans Americana Music in Appalachia”

Evan Martin-Casler, “Doom and Gloom and Gladness: An Exploration of Long-form Heavy Music as Deceleration and Fugitivity”

15.00-16.20

Popular Music in Music Therapy, Psychotherapy, and Self-Care

Charles Carson and Annie Vandervoort, “It Sounds How You Feel: Music Therapy and the Possibilities of Popular Music Interventions”

Chris Butler and Morag Butler, “Addressing Loss and Nostalgia in Contemporary English Folk Music”

Michelle Meinhart, “Happy Music, Happy Mom: Using Popular Music to Navigate Depression”

16.40-17.40

Tracking Feelings in Pop

Ajitpaul Mangat, “‘I’m Not Actually Sad’: Chappell Roan’s Celebration of Radical Kinship” 

Elizabeth Hunt, “‘Tell Me, Do You Feel Like Shit?’: Musical Comedy and Millennial Attitudes Toward Depression in Bo Burnham’s Inside (2021)