Election Day is approaching, and both presidential candidates have been foregrounding music, from Kamala Harris walking out Beyoncé's "Freedom" to Donald Trump...dancing for 30 minutes to "Memory" from Cats. It's been a weird, and terrifying, campaign season. But music can help us make sense of it, according to musicologist Dana Gorzelany-Mostak, who runs the project "Trax on the Trail." In this conversation, we discuss the sound and spectacle of this turbulent moment: how do Harris's playlists and Trump's dance parties define the candidates to voters, and what do they say about the state of American democracy?

Dana Gorzelany-Mostak is an Associate Professor of Music at Georgia College & State University.

Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!

Questions? Thoughts? Email soundexpertise00@gmail.com or tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation

ALSO, we're going to be at the American Musicological Society conference in Chicago soon!

Friday, Nov 15, 11:45am: Sound Expertise LIVE! The American Composer and the Future of the Conservatory with Jonathan Bailey Holland.
What does it mean to compose in America today, while overseeing a major cultural institution in flux? For this special live taping of the podcast Sound Expertise, host Will Robin interviews composer Jonathan Bailey Holland, dean of the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, to answer these crucial questions. (Accessible only to those registered for the conference)

Friday, Nov 15, 8pm: A hang for friends and fans of the pod, at 2Twenty2 Tavern right by the conference hotel. Come by anytime between 8 and 9:30 or so and say hi, and also goodbye!

Heads or Tails - Ignorance + Confidence = Success?