Zoom Lecture by Fred Everett Maus, University of Virginia. "The B-52s, Loss, and Defiance". Zoom Registration is required for this event. Registration deadline April 5. Please click here to register.

In 1985, the rock and pop band The B-52s suffered the loss of band member Ricky Wilson who died of AIDS-related illness. His traumatic death marked a stark “before” and “after” in the life of the remaining members. This lecture explores the effect of this loss on the band’s music.

Fred Everett Maus teaches music at the University of Virginia. He has written on music and narrative, gender and sexuality in relation to discourse about music, popular music, embodiment, music therapy, and other subjects. He was a founding member of the editorial board of the journal Women and Music and for several years its book review editor. He served as the first Chair of the Queer Resource Group of the Society for Music Theory, and has been appointed as the Chair of the newly-formed LGBTQ+ Task Force, a standing committee of the Society for Music Theory. Recent publications include "Defensive Discourse in Writing about Music" (2020), "LGBTQ+ Lives in Professional Music Theory" (2020), "What if Music IS Sex?: Suzanne Cusick and Collaboration" (2019), and "Listening and Possessing" (2018). He is co-editor, with the late Sheila Whiteley, of the Oxford Handbook of Music and Queerness.