American communication studies professor, author
Devon Powers (born 1977 or 1978) is an American communication studies professor, author, and former music journalist.
Biography
Powers was born in 1977 or 1978.[1] Her father, Lee R. Powers, is an engineer and her mother, Mandy Powers, is a nurse.[1] In 2007 she married lawyer David Bennion.[1] Powers is African American.[2]
In 1999, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and women's studies from Oberlin College and, in 2008, a Ph.D. in media studies from New York University.[3]
Between 2001 and 2004, she worked as a freelance music journalist, largely writing for PopMatters.[3][4]
As of 2023[update], she is a professor of communication and media at the University of Michigan.[5] Her research interests include consumer culture (historical and contemporary) and shifts in cultural intermediation, circulation and promotion.[6]
She has written two books, Writing the Record: The Village Voice and the Birth of Rock Criticism (2013) and On Trend: The Business of Forecasting the Future (2019) and, with Melissa Aronczyk, co-edited Blowing Up the Brand: Critical Perspectives on Promotional Culture (2010).
Writing the Record
In 2013, University of Massachusetts Press published Writing the Record: The Village Voice and the Birth of Rock Criticism. In the monograph, a reworking of her doctoral thesis, Powers provides a deeply researched analysis of the challenging relationship between critics and the rise of pop culture in the 1950s through the 1970s.[7][8] To tell this story, she focuses on the careers of Richard Goldstein and Robert Christgau, both writers at New York's famed Village Voice.[7] Powers argues that these music journalists should be considered public intellectuals, even though they weren't traditional academics.[9]
Powers was influenced to study the topic because of her own work as a music journalist.[4] She says she tested many of her ideas about the social function of music criticism in a regular column she wrote for PopMatters titled More Than Words: Musings on Music Journalism.[4]
On Trend
In 2019, University of Illinois Press published On Trend: The Business of Forecasting the Future, a study of the cultural economy of the trend analysis and futurology industry.[2][10] Powers employed ethnographic research methods, visiting forecasting companies such as Sparks & Honey and conducting dozens of interviews to collect material for the book.[2][10] Scott McLemee notes that the book shines a light on the largely opaque but influential trend-spotting industry.[2]
On Trend was selected as a 2020 Choice Outstanding Academic Title.[11]
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