In 2003, she began teaching humanities and the western cultural tradition at Boston College as a part of the Arts & Sciences Honors Program.

[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Reviewers tended to praise her writing and her recounting of the cultural history of American music, while criticizing her theoretical analysis.

Silver from Commentary writes that “… despite some theoretical shakiness, [Hole in Our Soul] is a spirited and enlightening book… [Bayles] provides an entertaining cultural history, full of many flashes of offbeat insight”.

[11] Similarly, Jonathon S. Epstein from American Music writes that “The book is a captivating text, despite its sometimes less than rigorous handling of complex, multifaceted issues, and it should spark considerable debate among readers”.

[24] In contrast, Hal Crowther wrote in the Journal-Constitution observed that “Bayles’s indictments of popular music for misogyny, racism and infantile sexuality are among the book’s best arguments.

[21] Stanley Crouch wrote that Bayles "[understood] well the defeatist techniques that would-be radical pop entertainers inherit from misbegotten fine art".

[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] Sam Schulman of the Weekly Standard writes that “Bayles’s genius here is not just in dissecting the pathology of the pop-culture mind, but in revealing its effects on the world at large—in matters of war, peace, freedom, and human relations”.