Dr. Emily Gale

Sentimental Songs for Sentimental People

Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025 | 7 - 9 p.m. Owl Acoustic Lounge Cash bar Free, everyone welcome!

Feeling remains critical to how and why most listeners engage with popular song. A deep dive into sentimental pop music, however, reveals persistent judgement and suspicion; “overly emotional,” “pathetic,” “mawkish” and “cloying” are just a few of the adjectives that surface when tuning into the history of the most popular English-language songs of the last 250 years. What does an 1855 sentimental song sheet that sold approximately 20 million copies reveal about gender and race in antebellum culture? How did a 1960s singalong television show inform notions of belonging and American citizenship during the US Civil Rights movement? Join Dr. Emily Gale as her talk listens beyond a straightforward account of embarrassing guilty pleasures to reveal the unexpected political histories of sentimental songs and why we should take these sounded feelings seriously.