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Jason King, PhD is Associate Professor, Director of Global Studies, and Director of Writing, History & Emergent Media Studies and the founding faculty member at New York University's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. A journalist, musician, DJ, and producer, he was the program's first Interim Chair, Associate Chair and Artistic Director. Jason has been teaching classes on popular music history, the music business (marketing/branding), and the social aspects of music technology for many years, as well as teaching at NYU campuses in Singapore and Abu Dhabi and developing study abroad programs in Berlin and Havana. He is the author of The Michael Jackson Treasures, a 2009 Barnes and Noble exclusive biography on the King of Pop, which has been translated in more than seven languages, and a regular contributor to publications like Pitchfork, Billboard, Buzzfeed, Slate, and Vice. He has been an expert witness in copyright infringement cases for Jay Z, Timbaland, Lady Gaga, Madonna, and others, and he has appeared in many music documentaries, including Spike Lee's critically acclaimed Bad 25 and Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall. He is the host and co-producer of NPR's “Noteworthy,” a series on the creative process of music superstars, as well as the curator of NPR&B, NPR's 24/7 R&B radio channel. He is also the producer, songwriter, performer, and driving force behind Company Freak, an international dance music “superband” featuring original members of groups like Chic and D-Train. Twitter and IG: @jasonkingsays

Roundtable: The All-Star Charity Single, Reconsidered
“Do they know it’s Christmastime at all?” was the plaintive query of Band Aid, the British pop stars who joined forces in 1984 to benefit Ethiopian famine relief. If the question betrayed what may politely be described as a certain myopia, there is no denying the farsightedness of Bob Geldolf, Midge Ure, and company when it came to the business of pop altruism. “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” was followed in short order by USA For Africa’s “We Are the World,” and the age of all-star charity single was upon us. Three decades later, the corpus of charity singles has grown to dozens of songs, and possibly a greater number of parodies. The aesthetics of these records are widely mocked, and their efficacy as money- and consciousness-raisers is debatable. Yet the charity single remains a hardy pop perennial. Examples from this past year alone include a song benefitting First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let Girls Learn”; two all-star singles recorded in the aftermath of the Orlando nightclub shooting; the blockbuster mash-up “Forever Country,” commemorating the CMA’s 50th Anniversary; and the celebrity sing-along version of “Fight Song,” which served as the anthem of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

This roundtable will consider the politics—and, yes, the art—of this often-derided and under-theorized musical staple. Possible issues of discussion include the place of charity singles in the wider history of protest song and pop music activism; the relationship of the charity singles to gospel, Adult Contemporary, and other traditions; questions of nationalism, colonialism, and a pop musical “white man’s burden”; and the shifting role of benefit records in the era of Internet and social media activism.

Panel participants promise to check their egos at the door—but not their ids.

Short presentations on particular charity singles will be followed by general discussion and Q&A.