Join Alex Coles alongside special guests Hannah Catherine Jones, Fraser Muggeridge and Savvy to discuss the key ideas from his latest book, Tainted Love.
Titled after Soft Cell’s version of the original 1965 Gloria Jones track, Tainted Love is the first book-length inquiry into the subject of the twisted romantic ballad, giving a sense of both its history and contemporary currency. Sometimes extreme, this twist to the conventional romantic ballad spans across gender and generational boundaries to subvert our understanding of both the genre’s function and its behavior. Each chapter of Tainted Love takes a deep dive into a single twisted ballad, examining both its inner workings—lyrics, melody, and vocal approach—and its broader cultural resonance.
