Em Casalena

Em Casalena organizes popular music history into tightly framed lists that connect specific songs and albums with generational memories and emotional moments. At American Songwriter, Casalena writes as a writer and editor, focusing on features that group a small set of tracks around a year, genre, or life experience rather than broad overviews. Casalena has worked in music journalism for over a decade and has previously written for Arena Music and Phoenix New Times, alongside ongoing work in nature and sustainability writing at A-Z Animals.

Lists that tie songs to memory and era

Casalena’s core format at American Songwriter is the short, sharply defined list that anchors three to six songs to a particular moment in listeners’ lives. Recent pieces revisit shopping trips and teenage hangouts with headlines like “3 Rock Songs From 1993 You Heard While Shopping at the Mall With Your Friends” and a companion article on “3 Rock Songs From 1995 You Heard While Shopping at the Mall With Your Friends.”

Other lists focus on the enduring appeal of particular recordings, such as “3 Classic Singles From the 1990s That Still Have a Fresh Sound Decades Later” and “3 Rock Songs From the 2000s That Still Sound Fresh, Despite Being 20+ Years Old.”

Casalena frequently writes to baby boomer nostalgia, including “3 Soft Rock Songs From 1976 That Had Baby Boomers Crying by the Radio” and “3 Disco-Rock Songs From 1979 That Sound Like Two Eras Battling for the Dance Floor.” Pieces like “If You Went to Prom in 1974, You Remember These 3 One-Hit Wonders” and “3 Folk Protest Songs About the Vietnam War That Baby Boomers Still Can’t Forget” frame songs as soundtracks to specific rites of passage and historical tensions.

Even when dealing with earlier eras, as in “4 Songs From 1964 That Every Baby Boomer Knows by Heart,” the emphasis stays on recognition, memory, and how records lodged themselves in listeners’ lives.

Genre and era deep dives across rock, punk, disco, soul, and lyrics

Beneath the nostalgic framing, Casalena’s beat is a broad survey of rock-adjacent genres and their evolution over several decades. Alternative rock articles examine how ’90s singles still feel contemporary, while garage rock features like “3 Garage Rock Songs From 1966 That Could Have Soundtracked a Suburban Riot” and “3 Underrated Garage Rock Classics From the 60s That Deserve More Love Today” dig into lesser-known cuts and regional scenes.

Punk rock coverage includes “3 Punk Songs From 1978 That Made Classic Rock Sound Suddenly Ancient,” “3 Punk Albums From the 1970s That Changed Rock Forever,” and “3 Forgotten Punk Bands From the 1980s Worth Discovering in the Modern Age,” all of which focus on turning points and overlooked catalogues.

Southern rock stories such as “3 Southern Rock Songs From 1980 That Tried To Keep the 1970s Alive” and “3 Southern Rock Songs From the 1970s That Turned Regional Pride Into Radio Gold” track how a genre balanced continuity with change. Casalena also writes on disco and funk - “3 Funk Songs From the 1970s That Made Hard Times Feel Less Daunting,” for example - and uses soul music features and “Born on This Day” or “On This Day” pieces to highlight undervalued singers, session musicians, and crossover artists linked to Motown and classic R&B.

Separate lyrics-focused lists, including “3 of Your Favorite Lyrics That Don’t Actually Exist,” “4 Unusual Rock Lyrics and the Stories Behind Them,” and “6 Classic Songs That Hit Different When You Listen to the Lyrics,” show an interest in how words shape listener perception and myth around songs.

Tour announcements and contemporary live music

Alongside historical and thematic features, Casalena handles a steady stream of tour and residency coverage for American Songwriter. Their archive includes tour announcement pieces for the Tedeschi Trucks Band Deuces Wild Tour 2024, The Postal Service and Death Cab for Cutie’s Transatlanticism dates, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real’s 2024 run, and combined Styx and Foreigner tours. Casalena also reports on major residency and arena engagements, with articles about Garth Brooks’ Plus One Las Vegas residency and Adele’s Las Vegas residency finale dates. Coverage extends to hard rock and modern acts such as Wolfgang Van Halen’s Mammoth WVH Mammoth II tour, pairing practical ticket information and date lists with brief context about the artist’s current phase. This live-music strand keeps Casalena’s beat connected to present-day touring cycles even as much of the feature work looks backward across the 1960s through the early 2000s.

Nature and sustainability writing beyond music

Outside of American Songwriter, Casalena writes extensively for A-Z Animals, where the focus shifts from music to plants, gardening, sustainability, and wildlife. That work includes explainer pieces such as “Are There Snake-Infested Lakes in North Carolina?

Here’s What You’ll Actually Find,” and state-focused roundups like “Discover The 16 Official State Animals Of South Carolina” and “Discover The 10 Official State Animals Of Maryland.” Casalena also covers animal behaviour and physiology in articles like “How Long Can Turtles Hold Their Breath Underwater?” and explores pet and breed topics in pieces such as “What is a Reverse Brindle Dog? (with Examples).”

The outlet describes Casalena as a writer whose primary focus there is on plants, gardening, and sustainability, reflecting a parallel track of long-term work in environmental and nature topics in addition to music journalism.