Make the music go pap.

The Experience Music Project's fourth annual Pop Conference wrapped up over the weekend, with music writers and thinkers of varied stripes convening in Seattle to talk about (or in the parlance of the conf., deliver papers on) everything from blackface and the minstrel tradition to fake bands and fake fans. I only barely noticed this event in years past, if at all, but my recent obsessive attention to music blogs has paid off, and I'm now more keenly aware than ever of my almost total lack of interest in academic approaches to music, a reaction that goes hand in hand with my typically simplistic, inarticulate, and shallow responses to it. That said, I was continually impressed by the depth of thought and research on display.

There's not a conference in the world that I'd attend willingly, and reading a variety of unmediated responses, reactions, and recollections to this one, via blogdom, is far and away the best way to go for the socially phobic. Here are some, unalike enough to make it seem as though all attended radically different confs.:

• Oliver Wang's wrap up at his new Poplicks site is heavy on the hip-hop, natch. Related: Matos on "Apache," with audio curated by OW. Model of the form, really, and in it's way a much bigger history than it lets on.

• Carl Wilson gives the best overall view, in multiple posts, with his usual thoroughness, clarity, and wit: day 1; day 2 (if you only follow one link here, make it this one; don't miss the bit re David Thomas on Cleveland horror-host Ghoulardi); day 3; summing up.

• Phil Freeman has posted his entire paper, on the semiotics of metal T-shirts, at his blog, along with another post about his time at the fair. The paper is intruiging, but the T-shirt, to me, is a thin and flimsy reed on which to hang the heavy load of authenticity.

If that doesn't do it for you, you're me, sadly, and so already know that Flaskaland has it all and more. Just keep scrolling.