University of Iowa filmmaker turns spotlight on pop music in lecture at Cornell

MOUNT VERNON — University of Iowa professor Kembrew McLeod will lecture and show his film, “Money for Nothing: Behind the Business of Pop Music,” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 22, in Hedges Conference Room of The Commons at Cornell College. Admission is free.

This is the second presentation in a three-part Cornell lecture series, “Community, Agency and Action: Social Change in the New Century.” McLeod’s talk will analyze cultural production as an avenue for social change.

“Money for Nothing” demonstrates how popular music is being threatened by a shrinking number of record companies, the centralization of radio ownership and play lists, plus the increasing absorption of popular music into the broader advertising and marketing aspects of business. Narrated by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, the documentary features interviews with Ani DiFranco, hip-hop legend Chuck D, Spearhead’s Michael Franti and Le Tigre’s Kathleen Hanna, music critic and author Dave Marsh, music historian Reebee Garofalo, music journalist Shirley Halperin and author Robert W. McChesney (“Rich Media, Poor Democracy”).

McLeod is an assistant professor in communication studies at the University of Iowa, where he teaches media criticism and production classes. He is also a video producer, video/sound collage artist, zine maker and music critic whose writings have appeared in Rolling Stone, SPIN, The Village Voice, Raygun, PopMatters.com, MTV.com and VH1.com.

The lecture series is in its second year. The third and final speaker will be Nelda Pearson, Radford University sociology professor, on April 25 at 11 a.m. in Hedges Conference Room. As founder and executive director of Beans and Rice Inc., a nonprofit community development corporation in southwest Virginia, she has received several regional and state awards for her activism and promotion of service learning.