Robin James
@robinjames.bsky.social
editor & scholar. Pop music, gender, philosophy. Books: GOOD VIBES ONLY; THE FUTURE OF ROCK & ROLL; THE SONIC EPISTEME; RESILIENCE & MELANCHOLY. Writing a 33 1/3 on The Breeders. Bylines all over, views could only be mine lol. its-her-factory.com
Slowly coming to terms with the fact that with two books coming out in the next year or two I probably need to start talking about them on TikTik or IG 😒
December 26, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Slowly coming to terms with the fact that with two books coming out in the next year or two I probably need to start talking about them on TikTik or IG 😒
SUNDAY from 5-7pm Eastern tune into Inhailer.com to hear me spin some current indie hits and make some predictions about what I think will happen in the music world in 2026.
What are your music predictions for the coming year?
What are your music predictions for the coming year?
Inhailer Radio | Cincinnati | Independent Radio | Indie Music
Inhailer Radio is Cincinnati independent radio. Founded in 2017 to fill the void left by beloved radio station WNKU.
Inhailer.com
December 26, 2025 at 2:25 PM
SUNDAY from 5-7pm Eastern tune into Inhailer.com to hear me spin some current indie hits and make some predictions about what I think will happen in the music world in 2026.
What are your music predictions for the coming year?
What are your music predictions for the coming year?
I, a philosopher, hate to break it to that guy but all concepts are in fact made up, socially constructed, artificial, etc.
December 25, 2025 at 3:21 PM
I, a philosopher, hate to break it to that guy but all concepts are in fact made up, socially constructed, artificial, etc.
anecdotally, as someone who has been on both sides of this, this is also true re: faculty and editorial assessments/peer reviews
Experimental evidence that students are more likely to contest grades when they are delivered by an evaluator with a female-sounding name.
"These findings suggest that women in evaluative positions face disproportionate resistance when delivering negative assessments."
"These findings suggest that women in evaluative positions face disproportionate resistance when delivering negative assessments."
December 25, 2025 at 2:53 PM
anecdotally, as someone who has been on both sides of this, this is also true re: faculty and editorial assessments/peer reviews
One of my music predictions for 2026 is that DIY as anti-corporate streaming is BACK, right on time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of punk
www.404media.co/why-i-quit-s...
Excellent inspiration for your New Year's resolutions
Excellent inspiration for your New Year's resolutions
Why I Quit Streaming And Got Back Into Cassettes
In the age of Spotify and AI slop, tapes remind us what we’re missing when we stop taking risks.
www.404media.co
December 24, 2025 at 2:39 PM
One of my music predictions for 2026 is that DIY as anti-corporate streaming is BACK, right on time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of punk
100% - we’re seeing modern ideas of the intertwined autonomy of art and the liberal subject getting replaced by a sorta Hegelian ideal of mastery of others (which is also a position of frictionless use)
not that "chatbots are slaves" in an etymology of the word robot sort of way--bc chatbots aren't anything at all--but the way we relate to them is imbued with that subject position of mastery
December 23, 2025 at 3:29 PM
100% - we’re seeing modern ideas of the intertwined autonomy of art and the liberal subject getting replaced by a sorta Hegelian ideal of mastery of others (which is also a position of frictionless use)
ICYMI
Fleshed this out here: www.its-her-factory.com/2025/12/in-p...
December 23, 2025 at 2:12 PM
ICYMI
Idk if the SCMS program committee knew that they scheduled my panel in an extremely book exhibit-friendly time (setup day! - setup takes me maybe hour) but 🙏🏻 loving the indie scholar friendliness
December 23, 2025 at 3:08 AM
Idk if the SCMS program committee knew that they scheduled my panel in an extremely book exhibit-friendly time (setup day! - setup takes me maybe hour) but 🙏🏻 loving the indie scholar friendliness
Like, this is EXACTLY what I mean when I argue in the vibes book that the new math behind algos & AI is instituting a new regime of biopower
In the 19th c the object of governance was actual populations - masses of people - regulated with statistical norms.
These 'synthetic publics' are not about controlling masses of people as a mass, but about continuing existing biases into the future regardless of what actual populations r doing
These 'synthetic publics' are not about controlling masses of people as a mass, but about continuing existing biases into the future regardless of what actual populations r doing
"We risk inheriting a future in which institutions answer to synthetic publics rather than real ones" rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/researc...
December 22, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Like, this is EXACTLY what I mean when I argue in the vibes book that the new math behind algos & AI is instituting a new regime of biopower
In the 19th c the object of governance was actual populations - masses of people - regulated with statistical norms.
These 'synthetic publics' are not about controlling masses of people as a mass, but about continuing existing biases into the future regardless of what actual populations r doing
These 'synthetic publics' are not about controlling masses of people as a mass, but about continuing existing biases into the future regardless of what actual populations r doing
"We risk inheriting a future in which institutions answer to synthetic publics rather than real ones" rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/researc...
Research Radar: Synthetic Data Is Redefining Representation
As governments experiment with AI to simulate public opinion, new questions are emerging about who these systems truly represent. This Research Radar examines the Collective Intelligence Project’s Dig...
rebootdemocracy.ai
December 22, 2025 at 1:00 PM
In the 19th c the object of governance was actual populations - masses of people - regulated with statistical norms.
These 'synthetic publics' are not about controlling masses of people as a mass, but about continuing existing biases into the future regardless of what actual populations r doing
These 'synthetic publics' are not about controlling masses of people as a mass, but about continuing existing biases into the future regardless of what actual populations r doing
Reposted by Robin James
Fleshed this out here: www.its-her-factory.com/2025/12/in-p...
December 21, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Fleshed this out here: www.its-her-factory.com/2025/12/in-p...
Compression is a different Episteme than hermeneutics, maybe time to reread Sterne’s MP3 book and The Sonic Episteme
FWIW, the jury is still out on Gen AI being good at text summaries. Because it shortens & emphasizes text based on distribution, not meaning, it’s less of a summary (ie, salient points highlighted) than a compression (ie, the most frequently asserted terms in the distribution). Not the same thing!
December 21, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Compression is a different Episteme than hermeneutics, maybe time to reread Sterne’s MP3 book and The Sonic Episteme
Fleshed this out here: www.its-her-factory.com/2025/12/in-p...
December 21, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Fleshed this out here: www.its-her-factory.com/2025/12/in-p...
TODAY
no christmas music, plus the new KMFDM
no christmas music, plus the new KMFDM
This SUNDAY from 5-7p Eastern hear my show ITS HER FACTORY on Inhailer.com. I'll play some songs that are part of the not so new anymore shoegaze revival and do a block of songs from bands with members who are related bc by that time my house will be full of family in town for the holidays
Inhailer Radio | Cincinnati | Independent Radio | Indie Music
Inhailer Radio is Cincinnati independent radio. Founded in 2017 to fill the void left by beloved radio station WNKU.
Inhailer.com
December 21, 2025 at 2:32 PM
TODAY
no christmas music, plus the new KMFDM
no christmas music, plus the new KMFDM
Hey my claim in the vibes book that biopower is being remade around lineage (rather than norms) seems uh maybe on to something
December 20, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Hey my claim in the vibes book that biopower is being remade around lineage (rather than norms) seems uh maybe on to something
Spotify’s lean-back listening is actually the *determinate negation* of immediacy, “emotional wallpaper” as nothing, pure nothing
December 20, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Spotify’s lean-back listening is actually the *determinate negation* of immediacy, “emotional wallpaper” as nothing, pure nothing
Syllabi in systems like UNC are going to go form where they are as overloaded contracts to vague vibes
What’s publicly available will be general whisps
What’s on the LMS like Canvas (data surveillance, extraction) will be what ppl go by
Thus the rw state policy enabling privatization
What’s publicly available will be general whisps
What’s on the LMS like Canvas (data surveillance, extraction) will be what ppl go by
Thus the rw state policy enabling privatization
December 20, 2025 at 4:13 AM
Syllabi in systems like UNC are going to go form where they are as overloaded contracts to vague vibes
What’s publicly available will be general whisps
What’s on the LMS like Canvas (data surveillance, extraction) will be what ppl go by
Thus the rw state policy enabling privatization
What’s publicly available will be general whisps
What’s on the LMS like Canvas (data surveillance, extraction) will be what ppl go by
Thus the rw state policy enabling privatization
Maybe I wanna reread The Genealogy of Morals over the holiday?
December 19, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Maybe I wanna reread The Genealogy of Morals over the holiday?
Should I even bother trying to read this (guess who the author is)
academic.oup.com/jaac/article...
academic.oup.com/jaac/article...
Music as capitalist icon
ABSTRACT. This paper criticizes interpreters who appeal to structural homologies in making claims about the meaning of (classical instrumental) music. Such
academic.oup.com
December 19, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Should I even bother trying to read this (guess who the author is)
academic.oup.com/jaac/article...
academic.oup.com/jaac/article...
adding this to the "whining about poptimism in 2025 is really just manosphere misogyny in purportedly more erudite terms" file
I found it. The Bari Weiss/CBS News town hall promo for feminism does indeed use a 1964 photo of Beatles fans.
December 19, 2025 at 5:58 PM
adding this to the "whining about poptimism in 2025 is really just manosphere misogyny in purportedly more erudite terms" file
Reposted by Robin James
I wrote about the difference btw the American alt-right's use of alt rock and the British Dark Enlightenment's use of post-punk: www.its-her-factory.com/2025/12/the-...
The American alt-right, the British Dark Enlightenment, and the Post-Punk Tradition
www.its-her-factory.com
December 18, 2025 at 7:50 PM
I wrote about the difference btw the American alt-right's use of alt rock and the British Dark Enlightenment's use of post-punk: www.its-her-factory.com/2025/12/the-...
Philosophers, I have reliable word that Eduardo Mendieta has passed. What a loss.
December 19, 2025 at 12:17 AM
Philosophers, I have reliable word that Eduardo Mendieta has passed. What a loss.
This is from 1989, Claremont McKenna sociologist Fredrick Lynch’s “Invisible Victims: White Males and the Crisis of Affirmative Action”
Same grift almost 40 years old
Same grift almost 40 years old
December 18, 2025 at 11:38 PM
This is from 1989, Claremont McKenna sociologist Fredrick Lynch’s “Invisible Victims: White Males and the Crisis of Affirmative Action”
Same grift almost 40 years old
Same grift almost 40 years old
I wrote about the difference btw the American alt-right's use of alt rock and the British Dark Enlightenment's use of post-punk: www.its-her-factory.com/2025/12/the-...
The American alt-right, the British Dark Enlightenment, and the Post-Punk Tradition
www.its-her-factory.com
December 18, 2025 at 7:50 PM
I wrote about the difference btw the American alt-right's use of alt rock and the British Dark Enlightenment's use of post-punk: www.its-her-factory.com/2025/12/the-...