Devon Powers is fascinated by the spaces where music moves between producer and consumer in popular culture. These sights of "cultural intermediation" are fundamental to meaning making, and include posts like music promoter, blogger, and, of course, music critic. Powers's post-undergraduate, pre-graduate school experience as a freelance music critic prompted an exploration into the role music criticism plays in our culture.

Powers's recent book Writing the Record: The Village Voice and the Birth of Rock Criticism (University of Massachusetts Press, 2013) is the result of a dense immersion into the history of popular music criticism in America. In our conversation, Dr. Powers transports listeners to 1960s New York City and ushers us through that history back to today. It is a story all dedicated music fans should be familiar with. Enjoy.