PopLife: The Value of Popular Music in the Twenty First Century

The University of Northampton, UK
6th and 7th June 2014

Registration Open

It has increasingly become a truism to suggest that contemporary popular music practice is in a state of flux. Established patterns of consumption, distribution and production have at the very least been revolutionised by the opportunities afforded by digitalisation and the internet. While subcultural identities may have become increasingly adopted by mainstream media, the proliferation of media outlets has contributed to an increasingly varied and cosmopolitan listening experience both in terms of stylistic breadth but also in terms of historical depth. While some commentators have sounded the death-knell of the music industry, others see an opening-up of opportunity for musicians and audiences around the world that may be far more liberating than at any time since the dawn of recorded music.

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Discover Hendrix at Handel House

            Christian Lloyd and Sheila Whiteley

         invite you to 

         DISCOVER HENDRIX AT HANDEL HOUSE

As many of you know, I have had what seems a life-long love of Hendrix and you can imagine my delight when Christian Lloyd (BADER Study Centre, Queen’s University, Herstmonceux) asked whether I’d be interested in being involved with a Hendrix exhibition. This was last year, and having been briefed by museum director, Sarah Bardwell, we are now gathering information for an exhibition booklet, and thinking about websites and apps.

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A long way to the top: The production and reception of music in a globalized world

Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 6-7 November 2014
Keynotes by John Street and Fabian Holt

AIM

Once upon a time, a famous rock ‘n’ roll group sang about what it means to play in a music band. In their lyrics they touch upon the role of the music industry (‘getting sold’), the difficulties of a musical career  (‘under-paid’ and ‘getting grey’) and music consumption (‘if you wanna be a star’), while celebrating music for music’s sake. As such, this song addresses many issues in the production and reception of popular music in the contemporary globalized world. Yet, recent developments in the field of music have changed the ‘way to the top’, such as governmental policy on music, the rise of new media, and the growing number of music festivals. Focusing on a select number of interrelated themes, this conference aims to bring together scholars from various countries each with their own perspective to engage in an international exchange of ideas and current research insights about music production and reception.

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IASPM UK & Ireland Biennial Conference – Cork, Ireland

University College Cork
12-14 September 2014

University College Cork is delighted to be hosting the 2014 meeting of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, UK & Ireland branch.

The final programme is now available.

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New Jazz Conceptions: History, Theory, Practice

Saturday 31 May
University of Warwick

In recent years jazz studies has attempted to move beyond the canonical view of jazz as a narrative of great performers within an American context, becoming more interdisciplinary and international in its approach. This one-day conference will bring together Warwick, Midlands and National speakers to discuss current research in jazz, share ideas about methodologies for future study, and explore the link between academics and the practice of jazz in the wider community.

Speakers: Tony Whyton, Catherine Tackley, Andrew Hodgetts, Roger Magraw, Katherine Williams, Adrian Litvinoff, Simon Barber and Vic Hobson (National Jazz Archive).

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Popular Music Education: Paradigms, Practices, Pedagogies, Problems

Call for Chapters

Popular music has a growing presence in education (formal and otherwise), from primary school to postgraduate study. Programmes, courses and modules in popular music studies, popular music performance, songwriting and many areas of music technology that could be said to relate chiefly to popular music (such as DJ-ing, for example) are becoming commonplace across higher education. Additionally, specialist pop/rock/jazz graded exam syllabi (RockSchool and Trinity Rock and Pop, for example) have emerged in recent years, meaning that it is now possible for school leavers in some countries to have obtained university entry requirements having only studied popular music. In the context of teacher education, classroom teachers and music-specialists alike are becoming increasingly empowered to introduce popular music into their classrooms. However, discourse regarding ‘popular music’ in education still tends to take place alongside normative discourse around ‘music’.

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Entertainment! – Post Punk, New Wave and Authenticity

Thursday 8th and Friday 9th May 2014

For journalists, bands and fans, genre categories are often a convenient short-hand way of discriminating between what is perceived-to-be-‘cool’ and what is not. More often than not, this boils down to a discourse around ‘authenticity’: such-and-such is ‘the real thing’ whilst some other band or set of bands is, by contrast, ‘phonies’, ‘frauds’ and/or ‘Johnny-come-latelies’. The separation of ‘Post-punk’ from ‘New Wave’ c.1977-79 is a particularly interesting case because, firstly, the sense of ‘authenticity’ and commitment to a (punk) cause was so prominent in this period and, secondly, because many reputations and economies of taste continue to capitalise on a sense that, on the one hand, you’ve got the commercial trash and, on the other hand, you’ve got the real deal.

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Creativities, Musicalities, Entrepreneurships

The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance is hosting its third biennial international conference, in partnership with the Art of Management and Organization. The event will take place at the Institute’s London campus from 4^th to 6^th September 2014.

The discourse of artists as entrepreneurs has become commonplace in recent years, perhaps especially in higher education, but there is less discussion of entrepreneurs as artists. Notions of what it is to be musical are increasingly challenged by narrow notions of success and the rise of celebrity (Smith 2013). Writers such as Peter Cook in The Music of Business (2012), Richard Sennett (2012), Peter Gloor (2006) and Cartwright, Gillett & Smith (2014) have begun to expand the discourse between these intimately interconnected domains. The time is right to explore creativities, musicalities and entrepreneurships in a vibrant, collaborative environment.

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Metal and Cultural Impact: Metal’s Role in the 21st Century

Thursday, November 6 – Saturday November 8, 2014
University of Dayton
Dayton, Ohio, USA

Metal Studies is a growing interdisciplinary field, connected to, though not limited to fields as diverse as Popular Culture, Leisure Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, History, English Studies, Music, Cultural and Critical  Studies, Gender Studies, Critical Theory, and Business and Economics.

This conference aims to examine Metal culture’s role in society throughout the world.  Does Metal seek to bring people together or pull them away from mainstream culture? Does it serve as a rallying cry for the oppressed throughout the world? Has its development over time negatively affected the quality of the music, or has the changing nature of our world made it that much more important to its fans, musicians, and those who control the industry? How has Metal music and its culture adapted with the changing world—or has it? And, as Metal continues to be a part of world cultures, how will it not only affect the world, but also how will it be affected by the world?

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The Good Old Days? Negotiating Quality, Mythology and Technostalgia in Contemporary Music Production

Journal on the Art of Record Production ISSN: 1754-9892

 CALL FOR ARTICLES

 Issue #9

The Journal on the Art of Record Production invites articles, provocations and practitioner interviews for Issue #9: The Good Old Days? Negotiating Quality, Mythology and Technostalgia in Contemporary Music Production. In a recent Audio Pro International provocation, columnist, engineer and mixer Ian Dowling rejects the notion of ‘The Good Old Days’ and rails against what he sees as a stifling of innovation caused by a slavish re-modelling of the past in today’s recording and production processes. Conversely, Dave Grohl celebrates analogue technology for its effect on the creative process in Sound City. Mixer Chris Lord-Alge freely blends old technology with new, as do many practitioners. Scholars such as David Morton (2000) and Timothy Taylor (2001) have discussed issues of ‘technostalgia’ in relation to music technology; Alan Williams has described the ‘canonization of process’ (2010) whereby past technologies and methodologies are celebrated (as in Sound City and the Classic Albums documentary series). What questions arise from considering the relationship between contemporary music production and its past, whether celebrated or denigrated?

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