LitPop: Writing and Popular Music

Friday 24th June 2011, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne

Going beyond well-rehearsed comparisons between Dylan and Keats, this conference aims to bring fresh perspectives to debates about the forms and functions of popular music in relation to literature, exploring connections and conflicts between writing (fiction and non-fiction, past and present), and popular music (modern, contemporary or otherwise).  Where cultural value was once sought for popular music through analogy with literature, or popular music and literary texts were seen as incompatible, writers and critics now borrow the demotic idioms of pop.  Why?

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Home of Metal: Heavy Metal and Place

Capsule and the University of Wolverhampton
Location: University of Wolverhampton
Date: 1st – 4th September 2011

Keynote speakers: Prof. Scott Wilson, Kingston University (TBC) Prof. Deena Weinstein, DePaul University (TBC).

The Heavy Metal movement is littered with accounts of its birth, not only concerning the origins of the sound, but also the geographical and political locations from which the music evolved. The now global phenomenon of Heavy Metal culture has seen much change in the sounds, styles and fashions over its 40 years of history, but is simultaneously acutely aware of its origins in Birmingham and The Black Country (UK).

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Rhythm Changes: Jazz and National Identities

2-4 September 2011, Amsterdam

The first Rhythm Changes Conference will take place in September 2011 and will be hosted in partnership with the Conservatory of Amsterdam.  The three-day Conference will explore the theme of ‘Jazz and National Identities’ and will include presentations from an international line up of jazz researchers.

Keynote Speakers

Professor Bruce Johnson (Universities of Macquarie, Turku and Glasgow)
Professor Ronald Radano (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Conference outline

Throughout its history, jazz has played an important part in discourses about national identity, politics and cultural value; indeed, the music continues to play a complex role in the cultural life of nations worldwide. Within this context, jazz is an ideal cultural form from which to explore a number of critical questions bound up with national identity, from the development of national sounds and ensembles to the politics of migration and race, from the impact of globalisation and the hybridisation of musical styles to the creation of social institutions and distinct communities, from jazz’s shifting aesthetic status from popular to canonical ‘art’ music.  Jazz has developed in a range of national settings through different influences and interactions, so is ideally placed to explore wider issues surrounding identity and inheritance, enabling unique perspectives on how culture is exchanged, adopted and transformed.

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Tango: Creation, Identification, Circulation

International conference
October 27-28, 2011 – Paris, France
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)

This international conference held in Paris will gather together researchers from diverse disciplinary orientations (historical, sociological, anthropological, musicological) working on the tango and its various aspects (music, dance, poetry). This interdisciplinary conference, organized by the Center for Research in Arts and Language (CRAL, EHESS-CNRS) and affiliated with the ANR GLOBALMUS research program, takes place after UNESCO’s official recognition of the tango as international Intangible Cultural Heritage.

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Popular Music Essay Competition

Entrants are invited for the new Popular Music Essay Competition.

Entrants should address the following theme:

Questioning popular music orthodoxies

Essays may engage with any established popular music orthodoxy (whether the assumptions of critics and scholars or the habits of music makers and their audiences). Essays should provoke debate about the established practice and study of popular music, and may propose new approaches and practices.

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UB40 Symposium

Date: Friday 18th March 2011.
Venue: Birmingham City University, UK.
Organizers: Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research in association with Birmingham Popular Music Archive.

This year, the Birmingham-based band UB40 celebrates the 30th anniversary of the release of the album ‘Signing Off’. The band gained its name from an unemployment benefit form and achieved fame and notoriety in the ‘post-punk’ era. Known for a dedication to popularizing the sounds of reggae music the band has maintained a commitment to political issues through its music as well as cultural and social action.

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Cash Rules Everything Around Me: Music and Money

“The best things in life are free, but you can give them to the birds and bees, I need money!” Motown founder Berry Gordy co-wrote it, Barrett Strong sang it, and John Lennon’s vocal in the Beatles cover  offered a fervent affirmation. By the time Wu-Tang Clan recorded “C.R.E.A.M.,” however, chasing bucks in pop found kinship more with high stakes gundowns and teens behind bars.  For this year’s Pop Conference, the tenth annual meeting and first outside of Seattle, we invite presentations on a matter Los Angeles knows well:  the relationship between song and paycheck – or, to invoke the O’Jays hit “For the Love of Money,”  bass line and bottom line.

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The Business of Live Music

A conference to mark the completion of the AHRC funded project ‘The Promotion of Live Music in the UK–an Historical, Cultural and Institutional Analysis’.

University of Edinburgh, March 31/April 1   2011

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The Art of Record Production Conference 2010

Change and Continuity: transformations, innovations and tensions in the art of record production.

The sixth annual Art of Record Production conference will be hosted by Bob Davis and Justin Morey at Leeds Metropolitan University on December 3rd – 5th 2010.

The theme of the conference is centered around the idea of change and continuity – the idea that music and music production can look backwards or it can look forwards. The way our ‘art’ changes through technology and the use of technology is an example of where people make choices between, for instance, old technology and new technology – between old sounds and new sounds, while continually exploring the space in between these two theoretical poles. In addition, we see innovation all around us but we might also reflect on what is new. There are also tensions in our field between technology, artistry, craftsmanship, aesthetics, and commerce. We hope that the strands will allow the conference to consider change and continuity in the art of record production.

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East Asian Popular Music

Call for Papers for Popular Music Special Issue

Popular Music announces a Call for Papers for a Special Issue on East Asian Popular Music. We are particularly interested in submissions which address the transnational production and circulation of East Asian Popular Music both within and outside the East Asian region as a result of processes of globalisation and digitalisation; the new ways that popular music is being configured in relation to politics, society and technology under the legacy of Anglo-American political and cultural hegemony; the rise and decline of globalism; and (post)colonialism. These themes might include, for example, the impact of Japanese pop culture since the 1990s, the advancement of the Korean Wave (Hanryu) phenomenon in the 2000s, and the rise of pop culture in China. We wish to prioritise research which is exploring the way music is crossing existing borders and blurring previous musical and cultural boundaries.

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