Love is the Message: Dance, Music and Counterculture

We've unlocked this patrons-only bonus episode from August, in which Jeremy and Tim have a conversation about what music they're listening to at the moment. To hear more of these conversations, along with book readings, lectures, Q&As and (soon) interviews, become a patron from £3 per month by visiting www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod. Tim and Jeremy discuss New Orleans hip hop, big edits of leg...

This is the an excerpt from the audio of our first patrons-only 'Live Conversations' between ourselves and our patrons, which took place over Zoom on the 10th September. To hear the whole thing, and to participate in the next one, along with accessing lots more LITM Extra content, go to www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod to become a patron from £3 per month. Tim and Jeremy discussed and took questions...

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only LITM Extra episode. To hear the whole thing, as well as conversations between Tim and Jeremy about what they've been listening to, intermittent lectures, listeners' questions and more, visit www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod to become a patron from £3 a month. In first of an ongoing patrons-only project, Tim reads from his seminal 2004 book 'Love Saves the Day:...

In the final episode of our second series, Tim and Jeremy turn to 1974 to consider the emergence of disco as a discernible and self-conscious genre. Does genre allow people to define themselves through the music they listen to, and to consider themselves part of a (physical or imagined) community? Or is genre simply a cynical tool of division promoted by a rapacious media and music business that&n...

In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy explore one of the most important musical currents of the early '70s, Feminist Soul. Beginning with Aretha Franklin, they situate the music of these powerful, articulate and conscious female performers within the Women's Liberation and Black Power movements, alongside the scholarship of Simone de Beuvoir and Angela Davis, and in relation to the girl groups&nbs...

This is an excerpt of a full length episode currently only available to patrons. To become a patron and support what we're doing from £3 per month, head to www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod. In this patrons-only bonus episode, Jeremy and Tim have a conversation about what music they're listening to at the moment. Tim and Jeremy discuss New Orleans hip hop, big edits of legendary tunes, reissue cultur...

In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy get ready to make you sweat with an extended length episode for maximum dancing. Starting with Soul Brother Number 1 James Brown, Tim and Jeremy chart this history of Funk, from its roots in Soul and R'n'B, via it's adoption by the Panthers and Black Power, and on to the psychedelia of Funkadelic. We also hear the source material of some of the most samples br...

In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy consider the emergence of Disco as a recognisable and distinct sound in the period 1973-75. They grapple with the problems of codifying a genre, showing how genrefication can limit previously open spaces of possibility, and talk about to what extent the participants in the nascent scene saw themselves as part of a single project. Tim and Jeremy also discuss th...

In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy consider the numerous musical and cultural currents of the early '70s that fed into the emergence of 'Disco' as a genre. They discuss the important antecedents of Soul and Rhythm and Blues, consider the yearning, future-facing qualities of Gospel, the musical influence of the Latin community in the city, and the imminent insistence of Funk. Tim and Jeremy also...

In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy are exploring the emergence of 'loft'-style living in downtown New York in the early '70s. Set against a backdrop of deindustrialisation and middle class flight to the suburbs, they detail how artists, bohemians and party hosts moved into these vacated loft spaces, affording them the space and time to exhibit their art and - crucially - throw parties. Tim and...

In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy finish their three-part overview of the transition from a Fordist to a Post-Fordist world by examining the period 1973-75. They cover the OPEC oil crisis, rising inflation worldwide, and the breakdown of the Bretton Woods Agreement, all of which served to puncture the post-war mood of endless growth and prosperity. Tim and Jeremy also discuss the sense of pess...

In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy continue their in-depth look at the economic, social and musical transformations of post-Fordism, focusing specifically on the years 1970 to 1972. They discuss the tedium, boredom and conformity many experienced during the post-war period, and the myriad ways people pushed back through art, inspired by a romantic vision of the expressive artist and new set of...

Love is the Message: Music, Dance & Counterculture is a new show from Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert, both of them authors, academics, DJs and audiophile dance party organisers. They’ve been friends and collaborators since 1997, teaching together and running parties since 2003. With clubs closed and half their jobs lost to university cuts, they’re inevitably launching a podcast. Tune in, Turn...

In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy begin the first of a three part series-within-a-series connecting the dots between Motown and Salsoul. We start with Fordism, Antonio Gramsci's term for both the industrial practices of Henry Ford and the wider post-war settlement in which they occurred. Tim and Jeremy discuss how the experience of Ford's production lines inspired Berry Gordy to create Motown...

This is an excerpt of a full length episode currently only available to patrons. To become a patron and support what we're doing from £3 per month, head to www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod. In this patrons-only bonus episode, Jeremy and Tim have a conversation about what music they're listening to at the moment. Tim and Jeremy discuss Afro-psychedelia, chill out rooms and ambient music, and how best...

In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy continue their two-part look at early DJ practices. They consider the role played by the personality-focused radio DJs of the late '60s, interrogating the relationships between these radio jocks, the party DJs, and the record companies, and the conditions that led to the establishment of the NYC Record Pool. Tim and Jeremy also take an in depth look at other a...

In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy turn their attention to the wheels of steel, and the inhabitants of late 1960s and early 1970s New York who played them. We hear about the overwhelmingly Italian American young men who first pioneered the scene, the various public discotheques in which they performed, and the numerous technical innovations which advanced the craft. Tim and Jeremy als...

In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy are tuning in and dropping out as we talk all things Acid. We hear a history of the psychedelic movement within the Anglophone world, taking in the accidental maiden trip of chemist Albert Hoffmann, the activities of Timothy Leary at Millbrook and the Merry Pranksters on their Magic Bus, and The Beatles' musical rendering of the classic trip. Tim and Jeremy al...

In the first episode of our new series looking in depth at the transformative decade of 1965-75, Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert discuss the pivotal position of New York City in the 1960s. They contrast the emergent New York with the fading Paris as centres of cultural and political life, taking in such important assemblages as the Greenwich Village Folk scene and Andy Warhol's Factory. Tim and Je...

This is an excerpt of a full length episode currently only available to patrons. To become a patron and support what we're doing from £3 per month, head to www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod. In this patrons-only bonus episode, Jeremy and Tim have a conversation about what music they're listening to at the moment. We had planned to listen to 6 or 7 tracks, but the conversation was flowing and so we on...

In this final episode of our introductory series, Jeremy and Tim dig into why the 1970s was such a crucial decade for political, social and musical innovation. Challenging the negative image of the ’70s so popularly held, they discuss the crucial importance of the era's global anti-colonial movements, and its liberation struggles around gender, sexuality and race, which found expression in music t...

In this week's episode, Tim and Jeremy are discussing love as the central affect of countercultural dance practice. They talk about the heteronormativity of the post-war period and the queerness of many male '60s pop singers, the religious antecedents to both the anti-war and the psychedelic movements, and the embrace of love as a universal force in both rock and jazz music of the period...

In this week’s episode, Tim and Jeremy chart the emergence of the dancefloor as a site of important cultural practice. From the frigid discotheques of the 1960s to the wild abandon of the all night dancing that would explode in popularity just a few years later, we hear how the role of the DJ changed in both technical innovation and relationship with the crowd, the types of people who were heading...

This week Tim and Jeremy recount their personal journeys across the dancefloors of the UK and the USA, talk about how they came to work together, and their first time meeting David Mancuso. They recall how - after playing in London for the first time - David would join Tim and Jeremy in eventually hosting four UK Loft parties a year. They discuss the difficulties of finding an appropriate venue an...

This week Tim and Jeremy take us back to Valentine's Day 1970 for the very first of what would become a 50 year era of David Mancuso's Loft parties. They consider David's childhood experience of collectivised living while in care; the important antecedents found in the rent party scene and the '60s psychedelic culture of the melting pot city of New York; Tim recounts the origins of David's interes...