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Wayne & Wax

@wayneandwax.bsky.social

1.1K followers 310 following 800 posts

musicologist at Berklee, farmer at Belmont Acres, amateur bassist, erstwhile DJ, reggaetonera hasta la tumba

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Wayne & Wax @wayneandwax.bsky.social · Jul 31

I'm here to make friends

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Wayne & Wax @wayneandwax.bsky.social · 2d

thinking the kids might be all right

a sticker on a light blue bicycle that reads "hot girls hate fascists" with the first 3 words in white and the last on red

Wayne & Wax @wayneandwax.bsky.social · 4d

a car just drove past me (in Durham NC) bumping Marley Marl's "The Symphony"! sounds fresher than ever nearly 40 years later.

Wayne & Wax @wayneandwax.bsky.social · 4d

I wish I could tell you. it's a wild one. waiting on a ruling on this current phase.

Wayne & Wax @wayneandwax.bsky.social · 5d

the perfect meal to follow a talk about reggaeton and copyright at Duke Law School ;)

poster for a talk I just gave at Duke Law about the lawsuit over dembow. pictured: Bad Bunny, yours truly, and a bit of our reggaeton book cover

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Wayne & Wax @wayneandwax.bsky.social · 5d

in Durham, the pernil comes with greens, mac and cheese, & pork rinds #BoricuaSoul

my pernil plate from Boricua Soul (American Tobacco campus, Durham, NC): roasted pork, PR style, with tostones, pickled onions, greens, rice & beans, Mac & cheese, & pork rinds

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Wayne & Wax @wayneandwax.bsky.social · 6d

gutted every time I hear it played on the biggest local Spanish FM station. they must be paying good, with our money. so gross.

Wayne & Wax @wayneandwax.bsky.social · 7d

oh, I should add that Hogan's deal was for sheet music, not for player piano rolls. I'm definitely curious now to know how those deals compared. (and, yeah, discussing "c--n songs" is always a huge can of worms. but they affected Joplin's musical marketing too.)

Wayne & Wax @wayneandwax.bsky.social · 7d

yeah, composers were generally cheated out of fair royalties, unless they had leverage, which Joplin may have had at that time. (Ernest Hogan sold 'La Pa Ma La" for a flat $25 in 1895; it earned thousands. In 1896 he negotiated a royalty deal for "All ----- Look Alike" and made over 100k in a year!)

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Wayne & Wax @wayneandwax.bsky.social · 7d

I hear that, though it would have been cooler if they functioned as a (self-programmable) steampunk DAW rather than a steampunk Spotify

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Wayne & Wax @wayneandwax.bsky.social · 7d

see, e.g., Timothy Taylor, "The Commodification of Music at the Dawn of the Era of "Mechanical Music" (Ethnomusicology
Vol. 51, No. 2, Spring/Summer, 2007, 281-305), which includes the following advertisement from 1910

an advertisement from a 1910 issue of Everybody's Magazine for "The Piano That Means Music--The Pianola Piano." The ad copy reads: When people buy a piano nowadays, they buy it for music. The day when pianos were bought as ornaments is past. It is the PIANOLA PIANO that has wrought this change." It continues, in a new paragrap: "Everyone can play the PIANOLA Piano--artistically, humanly--from the moment it comes into the home. Naturally, there, people prefer it to the old style of piano, that took so long to learn to play."

Wayne & Wax @wayneandwax.bsky.social · 7d

AI marketing is beginning to echo the makers of player pianos who, a hundred or so years ago, labored (with ads) to convince the public they wouldn't be giving up on their own musicality by letting machines do it for them

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Wayne & Wax @wayneandwax.bsky.social · 7d

"and keeps your work unique"

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Wayne & Wax @wayneandwax.bsky.social · 7d

this track is so good. I was actually thinking about it earlier today. totally hear you on the "post-dembow" openness.

Wayne & Wax @wayneandwax.bsky.social · 8d

Lecture 3 is called "Bass" !! (and will feature Meshell Ndegeocello!!!)

Wayne & Wax @wayneandwax.bsky.social · 8d

they're going to be showing it at the Carpenter Center soon (!) alongside this (first lecture tomorrow)
mahindrahumanities.harvard.edu/steve-mcquee...

The Norton Lectures with Steve McQueen: Pulse | Lecture Two: "Small Axe" | Mahindra Humanities Center

mahindrahumanities.harvard.edu

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Wayne & Wax @wayneandwax.bsky.social · 8d

that would make a lot more sense !

Wayne & Wax @wayneandwax.bsky.social · 8d

Rauw really goes there on his new homenaje, "Caribeño" (though Chan Chan is an odd choice for "afromambo"), affirming longstanding Caribbean cultural exchange
open.spotify.com/track/3AMxTv...

lyrics from Rauw Alejandro's track "Caribeño" giving props to Jamaica, Cuba, and Haiti for such music as reggaeton, salsa, and merengue

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Wayne & Wax @wayneandwax.bsky.social · 8d

we use one a lot for roto-tilling where the tractor can't reach -- and for sickle-bar mowing. the design is a little odd in places, but they're good workhorses.