Pop Icons & Siren Songs
Welcome! My name is Katie, and I research, teach, write, and speak about pop cultural phenomena at the intersections of popular music, visual media, and literature, especially fairy tales and myth.
Check out my site and social media for music and pop culture-related writings, including my books and public-facing publications, along with news about my forthcoming projects.
For inquiries, please email me: kk19@txstate.edu
Artists
- The Beatles
- Taylor Swift
- Beyoncé
- Lana Del Rey
- Billy Preston
- Pattie Boyd
- Bruce Springsteen
- David Lynch
- Bettye LaVette
- Bob Dylan
Franchises/Series
- Disney
- Twilight
- Barbie
Symbols
- Mermaids
- Birds
- Princesses
Genres
- Melodrama
- Fairy Tales
- Mythology
- Romance
- Neo-Victorian Literature & Media
Author and Scholar
Katie is currently working on two books, The Disneyfication of Pop: With the Beatles, Beyoncé, and Taylor Swift (Bloomsbury, expected 2026), followed by The Mermaid as Pop Icon (Bloomsbury, expected 2028).
Recent books include Blackbird: How Black Musicians Sang the Beatles into Being–and Sang Back to Them Ever After (Penn State University Press, 2023). Co-authored with Jon Marc Smith, Blackbird is supported by an award from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Katie has also edited collections and has written numerous articles and chapters about the topics listed above. She serves as co-editor of the peer-reviewed journal AMP: American Music Perspectives.
Professor
Katie is Professor of English at Texas State University in San Marcos–the official Mermaid Capital of Texas! She teaches courses on youth culture, fairy tales and myth, and British literature.
Katie also serves as the Director of Communications for the Department of English at Texas State, managing news and publicity for the department’s social media accounts (@TXSTEnglish).
Email: kk19@txstate.edu
Public-facing articles/interviews/podcasts
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Katie Kapurch, Ph.D. 