There are any number of ways to talk about breaks, so I’ll just list a few ideas here. In Part 2 of Breakbeats in the Classroom, I listed seven possible ways to use breaks, starting with looping the break and ending with extracting the groove and applying it to another beat. A common dismissal of the use of breakbeats—and by extension, of the people who use them—is the claim that by relying on pre-existing material, you’re not making original music and therefore aren’t a musician, or a musician of serious art, etc.
Read MoreOn race and gender
I’ve spent a significant percentage of my life in school, eventually earning a Ph.D and then moving to the other side of the desk as a professor. In the entirety of my studies—literally decades of coursework—I had no exposure to race-critical studies and almost no exposure to gender-critical studies.
Looking back now, this lack is certainly what I regret most about my time in school. A lot of the blame is on me, because those courses were available and I could have enrolled but chose not to. I had no real understanding of what they were, how they pertained to my life, or why I should take them, so I didn't. That choice is telling on me.
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