The Eaton Conference went well this weekend. Jason Ellis posted a great digitally curated collection of Twitter posts covering several of the major panels. Still, it’s only the tip of the iceberg.

It’s worth listing the musical artists or soundtracks covered: Giorgio Moroder, Sun Ra, Bjork, Amon Tobin, music in Philip K. Dick’s Martian Time-Slip, opera in The Fifth Element, use of “All Along the Watchtower” in Battlestar Galactica, a whole panel in “Alterity and/in SF Music,” and my own paper on Buddy Holly.

That’s a pretty wide range. Is it a stretch to say that it’s indicative of SF/music studies in general? I’ve always had the sense that SF leans toward the avant garde.  Sun Ra and Tobin fit that bill. So where’s the country and western, blues, or zydeco?

(Also, it was nice to meet my co-panelist Grant Dempsey, along with Sean Nye, Keren Omry, and Mark Young.  Wish I’d had more time to talk to everyone there.)