{"id":131013,"date":"2026-06-15T15:09:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T19:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/?post_type=bu-article&p=131013"},"modified":"2026-06-15T15:12:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T19:12:19","slug":"creatives-in-practice-dan-dipiero","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/news\/articles\/2026\/creatives-in-practice-dan-dipiero\/","title":{"rendered":"Creatives in Practice: Dan DiPiero"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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The assistant professor of music in musicology & ethnomusicology at Boston University is researching, presenting, publishing, and writing books on the wave of contemporary queer and feminist indie rock bands that have been remaking the genre, and on the role gender plays in the reception of music. <\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n
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June 15, 2026<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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One thing that gravitates the next generation of artists to Boston University College of Fine Arts<\/a>? Knowing that their professors, advisors, and mentors are also working artists, gaining real-world experience and bringing that back into the classroom through their curriculum, lessons, and talks. In CFA\u2019s Creatives in Practice<\/strong><\/em> series, your favorite CFA faculty and staff members share the work they\u2019re doing off campus, locally, nationally, and globally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musician, writer, teacher, scholar, and<\/em> podcaster Dan DiPiero<\/a><\/strong> specializes in cultural studies and popular music. This past spring, DiPiero, assistant professor of music in musicology & ethnomusicology<\/a> at Boston University School of Music<\/a>, presented new research at highly respected conferences and at the<\/em><\/strong> Rock and Roll Hall of Fame<\/a>. <\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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At the Rock Hall in Cleveland, Ohio, DiPiero spoke about research conducted for his second book, Big Feelings: Queer and Feminist Indie Rock After Riot Grrrl<\/a><\/em>. “The talk centered on the wave of contemporary queer and feminist indie rock bands who have been remaking the genre in the past decade, including groups like Soccer Mommy, Indigo De Souza, and the Ophelias,” explained DiPiero, whose book situates these musicians in essential socio-cultural contexts, and shows how indie rock feminisms have shifted since the 1990s, rejecting overt political messages in favor of sonic catharsis, and reflecting the complex, ambivalent feeling of being young while the world burns. “At the Rock Hall, we also jumped back in time to discuss the history of indie music, and the way that gender has affected public reception of indie rock vs indie pop in the 1980s.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DiPiero also traveled to Washington, D.C., for the International Association for the Study of Popular Music Conference<\/a> and to Los Angeles, CA, for the Pop Conference<\/a> hosted by USC Thornton School of Music. “At these two conferences, I spoke about some research I\u2019m publishing in the Journal of the American Musicological Society<\/em> later this year about Sabrina Carpenter and her performances of ‘tragic heterosexuality,’ a term that scholar Jane Ward coined to discuss the way that straight culture has been historically overdetermined by patriarchy, resulting in the bad deal for women that Carpenter\u2019s music so often emphasizes.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In CFA’s Creatives in Practice<\/em> series, DiPiero shares forthcoming projects he’s working on, including his third book, tentatively called Crush: Essays on Love and Music<\/em>, and how he applies what he learns on the road and as a musician to the courses he teaches at BU School of Music. Fairly new to Boston, DiPiero also shares how exciting it has been to live in an arts-rich city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Oxford Handbook of Pop Music Roundtable, organized by Eric Weisbard, at the Pop Conference 2025. Dan DiPiero is second from the right.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Q&A WITH DAN DIPIERO<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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CFA<\/em><\/strong>: Tell us more about the new book you’re working on, Crush: Essays on Love and Music. <\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

DiPiero<\/strong><\/em>: I aspire for this to be a public-facing or crossover academic book that will interrogate both the social history and the philosophical potential of the crush as a concept. It will theorize this particular effect through popular music, which has so often been a privileged site for the exploration of crushing feelings. It will also attempt to incorporate reflections from my own experiences of music loving (as Vivian Luong would have it<\/a>), as well as just plain crushing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result will be a text that blends personal narrative, scholarship, and popular music writing into a series of reflections oriented around one theme: the crush. Its main argument will be that in a cultural milieu characterized by a reactionary resurgence of traditional masculinity, it is more important than ever to remain attentive to the lessons that crushing tries to teach, if only we can remain open to its unpredictable possibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does your real-world experience in the field connect to your role as a faculty member at CFA?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Everything I do at BU is informed by my experiences, whether that means teaching jazz history after 20 years of professional playing or talking to my musicology students about the nuts and bolts of peer-reviewed research. As a musician and scholar, I\u2019m constantly trying to bring research and practice together because I think that effort nuances our understanding of both areas at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Everything I do at BU is informed by my experiences, whether that means teaching jazz history after 20 years of professional playing or talking to my musicology students about the nuts and bolts of peer-reviewed research. As a musician and scholar, I\u2019m constantly trying to bring research and practice together because I think that effort nuances our understanding of both areas at once.<\/div>