Instrumental pop is more than the sum of its parts, drawing influences from surf and country, jazz and gospel. Sometimes kitschy, sometimes sincere, the best of it weaves into the fabric of our daily lives without becoming background music.

Who could expect a child with the ability to send snapshots to heaven and absorb the vortex of the universe to grow up sane? Read new short fiction from Celia Langford on our site now.

In our latest issue, Natalia Mendoza follows the natural gas pipelines making their way from Texas through Mexico and to the Sonoran coast, spoiling the land, air, and water at every step. thebaffler.com/salvos/termi...

In 2016, Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham were adamant that Obama not be able to fill a Supreme Court vacancy. They were singing a different tune four years later—how strange! That year, @daveadenison.bsky.social considered their change of heart.

Is making vinyl records from “sustainable” bioplastics really going to make a dent in the climate crisis? In his new book, Kyle Devine examines efforts to “green” the music industry.

The Houston studio of the late sculptor David Adickes will close up shop this year. What will become of his collection of massive presidential busts? In our new issue, Andrew Norman Wilson photographs the executive sculptures:

Instrumental pop is dead—or is it? Artists like Jeff Parker, Sam Gendel, and even Flea are making music with the hope of transcending labels like “jazz” and “soul” in order to bring music-without-words back to the masses.

“If I pull the Lever full-scale, right out of my chest, I know that I will be alone. I will be the inverted seam of a universe that is no longer here in any form I might know it.” thebaffler.com/fiction/the-...

There are red meats more in keeping with Japan’s sustainability goals: boar and horse meat, invasive muntjac and native sika. But foreigners who come to the country want to taste Wagyu.

“It seems to me to be a damn shame that we don’t currently have a political party that is willing to stand up and fight for the true interests of the American voter.”

Instrumental pop can be more than just anesthetizing hold music. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, artists like Herb Alpert and Chuck Mangione were making chart-topping music without words. Nate Wooley writes on the genre’s rise, fall, and reemergence.

The Baffler is seeking a part-time administrative coordinator to help us handle office activities, invoicing, events, and more. This role is three days a week, in person, and offers full benefits. Apply by Wednesday, August 5.

“The relocation of Taiwanese chip production to the Texas-Mexico borderlands is a key step in the United States’ desired reconfiguration of tech manufacturing while offering (maybe) Taiwan an extra layer of protection from the PRC.”

“Through the Adickes estate, his vision endures: to place the full set of forty-three presidential busts, from Washington through Obama, in a regional park system, tourism destination, or other public setting. Private acquisition will also be considered.”

No matter the format, recording music has always carried environmental costs. That’s to say nothing of the carbon emissions that an international concert tour can generate. @robarcand.bsky.social considers a new book on climate and culture.

Starting in the 1980s, Taiwanese companies expanded by building factories in China’s Special Economic Zones. Now, in search of cheap labor and profitable opportunities in the AI boom, they’ve turned to another part of the world: the Texas-Mexico border.

“An essential instrumental pop track may lead to boot-scooting, rump-shaking, or rug-cutting, but a true example of the genre should also be enjoyable in a non-boogie situation like sitting in traffic.”

In short fiction from Baffler no. 77, an Argentinian is working in a London restaurant when the Falklands War breaks out—and he wages his own proxy war on the sadistic cook who oversees him. thebaffler.com/stories/the-...

Subscribe to The Baffler today, and we’ll send you a copy of Jasper Craven’s new book on the bizarre, hypermasculine culture of the American military. thebaffler.com/god-forgives...

Can culture transform our climate politics? Can music save our mortal souls? Can we, by buying the right concert tickets, consume our way toward a greener future?

Taiwanese tech manufacturers like Wiwynn, Foxconn, and Inventec might be opening facilities in Texas. They’re drawn in by lax regulations and low taxes. But the real appeal is its proximity to the maquiladoras and cheap labor of Northern Mexico. thebaffler.com/salvos/democ...

From the Archives: @daveadenison.bsky.social writes on the principles guiding the Senate careers Lindsay Graham and Mitch McConnell, whose beliefs around rules and fairness in the democratic process were… creative, to say the least.

In Baffler no. 77, @anathanwest.bsky.social wrote on the passport bro, whose financial, social, and sexual anxieties can only be eased by preying on women overseas. thebaffler.com/salvos/bang-...

Happy Bastille Day! From my 2021 piece @thebaffler.com on two 1938 films about the French Revolution, one by MGM's Norma Shearer the other by Renoir. "Same revolution, same world on fire, and yet the two filmmakers could not be in fiercer opposition to one another." thebaffler.com/latest/danci...

It’s hard to imagine a tune like Herb Alpert’s “Rise” finding its way to the top of the charts now, but back in the day, the same stylistic fusion that made it hard to define also made it a hit.

Brazilian agribusiness boasts that it’s “feeding the world,” but its large-scale farms aim to boost the fortunes of the elite, not feed hungry Brazilians.

“While the shifting political economy of the music industry has drawn the ire of countless frustrated listeners, less attention has been paid to its environmental record in an age of AI, streaming, and globe-trotting megatours.”

Buc-ee’s must be stopped. In our latest issue, Forrest Wilder explains why.

As an example, it covers a law proposed last year to regulate the seed trade. Behemoth seed corporations are chomping at the bit to get into Lebanon, and environmentalists and farm worker organizers are putting up a heroic fight to protect their heirloom varieties and smallholders. Check it out! 3/3

The Trump administration has weakened protections for endangered species, opening up their habitats for drilling, mining, and agriculture. Last year, Christopher Ketcham described one man’s campaign to protect wildlife from commercial activity—through sabotage.

“It’s J. D. Vance versus the (American) Pope in a battle of who knows more about Catholic theology, which is a bit like watching a kid on crutches going one-on-one against LeBron.”

From the Archives: How senators like Mitch McConnell and Lindsay Graham embodied a creative, flexible, and some might say spite-driven approach to the rules of the Senate.

Kyle Devine’s new book considers various efforts to reduce fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions across the music industry—while maintaining a healthy skepticism of climate solutionism. @robarcand.bsky.social reviews “Recomposed.”

“We have seen the results of crafty Republican partisanship: control of the presidency, the Senate, and many state legislatures, all as part of a drive to impose minority rule on the rest of us.”

Poetry from Baffler no. 84: “The Moral of the Story” by Suzanne Rhodenbaugh.

In an educational system that prioritizes employability above all else, a religion degree might seem useless. But as Joseph P. Laycock discovered firsthand, America’s spiritually sick, wary of pastor and doctor, turn to the scholar instead.

Lindsay Graham is dead. Mitch McConnell is, apparently, “recovering from a fall.” Back in 2020—amid a contentious Supreme Court confirmation—@daveadenison.bsky.social considered the views of these two dreadful senators and the rules of Congress.

Subscribe to The Baffler, and we’ll mail you a free copy of Jasper Craven’s new book on the military’s role in shaping American masculinity. It’s an $80 value—but we’re selling it for just $48.

Is there some spiritual element to Vance’s conversion to Catholicism? Or is it, as @johnsemley3000.bsky.social speculates, part of his “slithering belly crawl through the corridors of American political power?”

Lebanon needs to build food sovereignty. A proposed seed law would do the opposite, transforming the agricultural sector for the benefit of foreign investment, while making smallholders dependent on corporate agribusiness.

On Vance v. Vatican and the mortal soul of the MAGA Catholic convert:

“As the world warms faster than scientists’ grimmest predictions, air conditioning will become increasingly essential to the preservation of human life—even as it continues to heat up the planet, putting the most vulnerable among us in even greater peril.”

American conservatism skews Protestant, but the new spate of MAGA converts have embraced popery, in all its bells and smells. In his insipid new political memoir, J. D. Vance tells the story of why he’s taken on the yoke of Catholic guilt, too.

Will McDonald reviews two collections that describe the tension between tradition and modernity, reason and myth in Swedish and Icelandic literature.

For just $48, you can subscribe to The Baffler and get a free copy of Jasper Craven’s “God Forgives, Brothers Don’t,” a history of how the military has defined American masculinity.

“Lebanon’s food crisis will not be solved through the nation’s greater commercialization and integration into global markets.”

In our latest issue, religious studies professor Joseph P. Laycock describes the calls he’s gotten from people who believe they’re dealing with demonic possession.

“The idea that J. D. Vance is nurturing some rich, inner religious life, which might be worth writing or reading about, is frankly unbelievable. And not in this sense of it being incredible or mind-boggling. As in: I literally cannot believe it.”

During the heatwave that smothered France late last month, more than a thousand people died. From the Archives: Andru Okun considers the history of air-conditioning and the increasing costs of comfort in an age of extreme heat.

Even before Israel began its latest incursion, Lebanon was already in the grips of a food crisis. The country must build a sustainable, sovereign agricultural sector—one not beholden to stopgap solutions or outside interests.