Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music

Tuesday Night Record Club - Saturday Night Fever
2026-09-08 19:30 (America/New_York) | Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, 382 Cedar Ave, Long Branch, 07740, United States
It’s just like book club but with albums! This event will feature Saturday Night Fever

It’s just like book club but with albums! With new advances in technology, the way we consume music through our devices, apps and on demand streaming services like Pandora, Spotify and iTunes is making the idea of the “album” as an art form extinct. Get together with other music enthusiasts on Tuesday nights to discuss some of the greatest records of all-time! Listen to the album beforehand and then come prepared to discuss. This event will feature Saturday Night Fever.
This event is offered BOTH in person and via Zoom. Join us in person at the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music on the Campus of Monmouth University or join us via zoom. When you register you will be provided the ZOOM meeting link to join the conversation.
Free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Conversations with Our Curator - Gliders Over Hollywood: Airships, Airplay, and the Art of Rock Promotion (2025) with Paul Rappaport
2026-09-16 19:00 | https://monmouth.zoom.us/meeting/register/BFUkN2syRVmtEFKoWt1EbA
Gliders Over Hollywood: Airships, Airplay, and the Art of Rock Promotion (2025)
Pre-register here: https://monmouth.zoom.us/meeting/register/BFUkN2syRVmtEFKoWt1EbA
Conversations with our Curator” is a free, monthly web series featuring BSCAM Director of Curatorial Affairs, Melissa Ziobro, in conversation with researchers and writers exploring new perspectives in American music history. Audience Q&A welcome.

Tuesday Night Record Club - Bruce Springsteen "Born in the USA"
2026-10-06 19:30 | Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, 382 Cedar Ave, Long Branch, 07740, United States
It’s just like book club but with albums! This event will feature Bruce Springsteen, Born in the USA

It’s just like book club but with albums! With new advances in technology, the way we consume music through our devices, apps and on demand streaming services like Pandora, Spotify and iTunes is making the idea of the “album” as an art form extinct. Get together with other music enthusiasts on Tuesday nights to discuss some of the greatest records of all-time! Listen to the album beforehand and then come prepared to discuss. This event will feature Bruce Springsteen, Born in the USA.
This event is offered BOTH in person and via Zoom. Join us in person at the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music on the Campus of Monmouth University or join us via zoom. When you register you will be provided the ZOOM meeting link to join the conversation.
Free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Conversations with Our Curator - The Midnight Special: The Secret Prison History of American Music (2026) with Colin Asher
2026-10-08 19:00 | https://monmouth.zoom.us/meeting/register/1EI9qSmhRSC9SxC3rreoCA
In American popular music, we often glorify rebellious artists and “outlaws.” But in THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL: The Secret Prison History of American Music [W. W. Norton & Company; June 30, 2026; $29.99 hardcover], Colin Asher, author of a critically acclaimed biography of Nelson Algren, Never a Lovely So Real, tells a deeper story about the criminal justice system’s impact on our musicians, explored through compelling portraits of five artists whose careers span the twentieth century.
Opening with folk and blues artist Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter, who was made to perform wearing prison clothes, Asher traces the intertwined histories of music and incarceration, from Southern prison farms of the Jim Crow era, through the heroin-driven mid-century drug wars that villainized a generation of jazz artists, and to our present era of mass incarceration.
Asher shows how the suggestion of criminality has often benefited white artists, while prosecutions often hurt Black musicians. Comparing the divergent trajectories of jazz pianist Elmo Hope with country singer Johnny Cash, Asher examines how violent and discriminatory policing stifled Hope’s career and led to the creation of his album Sounds from Rikers Island (1963), while forgiveness and lenience brought us Cash’s masterpiece At San Quentin (1969).
With keen musical analysis and sociological insight, THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL examines key themes in culture and criminal justice, from the movement for prison reform that allowed soul musician Ike White to stage thrilling concerts while locked up and record his album Changin’ Times (1977), to the crushing cultural weight of mass incarceration a generation later. Closing with Tupac Shakur’s Me Against the World (1995) and stories of music in prisons today, THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL recounts how prisons occasionally incubate talent but more often shorten careers and distort the public’s perception of musicians and their value to society.
An urgent book about the ways music can affirm an individual’s sense of humanity in dehumanizing circumstances, THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL writes the history of prisons into American music—a story as important as it is overlooked.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Colin Asher is the author of the critically acclaimed Never a Lovely So Real. His work has been featured in the Believer, the Baffler, the New Republic, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Conversations with our Curator” is a free, monthly web series featuring BSCAM Director of Curatorial Affairs, Melissa Kozlowski, in conversation with researchers and writers exploring new perspectives in American music history. Audience Q&A welcome.

Tuesday Night Record Club - George Harrison "Cloud Nine"
2026-11-10 19:30 | Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, 382 Cedar Ave, Long Branch, 07740, United States
It’s just like book club but with albums! With new advances in technology, the way we consume music through our devices, apps and on demand streaming services like Pandora, Spotify and iTunes is making the idea of the “album” as an art form extinct. Get together with other music enthusiasts on Tuesday nights to discuss some of the greatest records of all-time! Listen to the album beforehand and then come prepared to discuss. This event will feature George Harrison, Cloud 9.
This event is offered BOTH in person and via Zoom. Join us in person at the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music on the Campus of Monmouth University or join us via zoom. When you register you will be provided the ZOOM meeting link to join the conversation.
Free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Tuesday Night Record Club - Derek and the Dominos "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs"
2026-12-01 19:30 | Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, 382 Cedar Ave, Long Branch, 07740, United States
It’s just like book club but with albums! This event will feature Derek & the Dominos, Layla

It’s just like book club but with albums! With new advances in technology, the way we consume music through our devices, apps and on demand streaming services like Pandora, Spotify and iTunes is making the idea of the “album” as an art form extinct. Get together with other music enthusiasts on Tuesday nights to discuss some of the greatest records of all-time! Listen to the album beforehand and then come prepared to discuss. This event will feature Derek & the Dominos, Layla.
This event is offered BOTH in person and via Zoom. Join us in person at the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music on the Campus of Monmouth University or join us via zoom. When you register you will be provided the ZOOM meeting link to join the conversation.
Free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Tuesday Night Record Club - Genesis "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway"
2027-01-05 19:30 | Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, 382 Cedar Ave, Long Branch, 07740, United States
It’s just like book club but with albums! This event will feature Genesis, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.

It’s just like book club but with albums! With new advances in technology, the way we consume music through our devices, apps and on demand streaming services like Pandora, Spotify and iTunes is making the idea of the “album” as an art form extinct. Get together with other music enthusiasts on Tuesday nights to discuss some of the greatest records of all-time! Listen to the album beforehand and then come prepared to discuss. This event will feature Genesis, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.
This event is offered BOTH in person and via Zoom. Join us in person at the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music on the Campus of Monmouth University or join us via zoom. When you register you will be provided the ZOOM meeting link to join the conversation.
Free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Tuesday Night Record Club - Prince "1999"
2027-02-02 19:30 | Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, 382 Cedar Ave, Long Branch, 07740, United States
It’s just like book club but with albums! This event will feature Prince, 1999.

This event is offered BOTH in person and via Zoom. Join us in person at the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music on the Campus of Monmouth University or join us via zoom. When you register you will be provided the ZOOM meeting link to join the conversation.
Free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Tuesday Night Record Club - Stevie Nicks "Bella Donna"
2027-03-02 19:30 | Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, 382 Cedar Ave, Long Branch, 07740, United States
It’s just like book club but with albums! This event will feature Stevie Nicks, Bella Donna.

It’s just like book club but with albums! With new advances in technology, the way we consume music through our devices, apps and on demand streaming services like Pandora, Spotify and iTunes is making the idea of the “album” as an art form extinct. Get together with other music enthusiasts on Tuesday nights to discuss some of the greatest records of all-time! Listen to the album beforehand and then come prepared to discuss. This event will feature Stevie Nicks, Bella Donna.
This event is offered BOTH in person and via Zoom. Join us in person at the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music on the Campus of Monmouth University or join us via zoom. When you register you will be provided the ZOOM meeting link to join the conversation.
Free and open to the public, but registration is required.
