Welcome to The International Association for the Study of Popular Music UK and Ireland Branch

Histories of Electronic Musical Instruments

Posted: March 13th, 2024 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | Comments Off on Histories of Electronic Musical Instruments

A Routledge/Focal Press Series

Series Editor: Prof. James Newman, Bath Spa University, UK.

Proposals are sought for books to be included in the series, including authored monographs and edited collections.

The goal of Histories of Electronic Musical Instruments is to cut through the hype, hyperbole, mythologies and misinformation associated with electronic musical instruments. Books in the series will offer authoritative and accessible histories of the design, operation and creative uses of seminal instruments.

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Musical Translations & Transformations

Posted: March 11th, 2024 | Filed under: Calls for Papers, IASPM Conferences | Comments Off on Musical Translations & Transformations

International Association for the Study of Popular Music – Australia-Aotearoa/New Zealand
2024 Branch Conference

Dates: Dec 4-6, 2024
Hosts: Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University and Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington
Venue: Massey University Pukeahu Campus, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa.
Local Organising Committee: Catherine Hoad, Geoff Stahl, Kimberly Cannady, Oli Wilson

Those who engage with music-making—as teachers, researchers, practitioners, and critics— transform, translate and integrate popular music practices and scholarship across varied contexts. This can be a deliberate political act, taking the form of activism, resistance, negotiation or advocacy. This transformation and translation is also an increasing characteristic within academic research contexts, whereby researchers may be encouraged and/or expected to demonstrate forms of impact and engagement across different communities, sectors, platforms or spaces.

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MusicID 2024 Digital Research Fellowship

Posted: March 7th, 2024 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | Comments Off on MusicID 2024 Digital Research Fellowship

MusicID is pleased to announce that we are now accepting applications for our sixth Digital Research Fellowship. The fellowship is awarded to a scholar from any discipline and at any career level with a strong vision to undertake music, cultural, and/or digital humanities research.

MusicID is a platform that archives current and historical music industry data into a single, easy-to-use source. Incorporating more than 5,000 charts spanning 74 countries, MusicID provides access to a wealth of music chart data, including from Billboard and the Official Charts Company dating back to 1944, contemporary statistics such as Spotify and Apple Music streams, and Shazam searches. It also offers built-in visualization tools which allow users to create and export customizable tables and graphs.

More info: https://musicidhub.com/musicid-digital-research-fellowships

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East Asian Voices in Global Music Stories

Posted: March 5th, 2024 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | Comments Off on East Asian Voices in Global Music Stories

One-Day Hybrid Symposium
Wed Aug 7 2024
Royal Holloway University of London, 11 Bedford Square, WC1B 3RE

This symposium brings together emerging and converging strands of activity and critical thinking around transnational East Asian presences in unevenly globalised music and sounded scenes around the world. Building on a recent spate of academic meets and performances/ workshops themed on East Asian voices, including multiple panels on the theme at annual conferences of the Society for Ethnomusicology and American Musicological Association, as well as recent work in in the UK on Transpacific East Asia, Racialised Performance in Western Classical Music and Cultural Imperialism and the “New Yellow Peril”, we seek to make meaningful community together once more in expanding and intersecting scenes within musicology, ethnomusicology, performance studies, composition, and sound studies. We locate ourselves strategically beyond the scopes of Western art music and delve into shared global sounded histories, presences, communities, practices and futures.

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Japan and sound: modernity, social constructs and power relations

Posted: February 29th, 2024 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | Comments Off on Japan and sound: modernity, social constructs and power relations

14-15 November 2024, Bordeaux Montaigne University
Organised by MSH Bordeaux, D2iA (Bordeaux Montaigne University, La Rochelle University), IETT (Jean Moulin Lyon 3 University)

Recent ethnographic and historical research has shown that sound and musical production and listening practices are linked to social constructs, in particular to questions of identity and power relations (Mitsui, Hosokawa 2005; Wajima 2010; Hankins, Stevens 2014; Kheshti 2015; Manabe 2015; Novak, Sakakeeny 2015; Radano, Olaniyan 2016; Plourde 2019; Chenhall, Kohn, Stevens 2021; Haukamp, Hoene, Smith 2022; Skelchy, Taylor 2022). These studies suggest that the relationship between sound and everyday life must be understood within specific cultural contexts, i.e. within specific temporal, spatial and social frameworks. The global dissemination of technologies and the standardisation of techniques for producing and mediating sound since the modern era have let to acts of reappropriation and reinterpretation of sound, whether determined as natural or artificial, and of the ways in which it is heard. Examining the ways in which sound is made, mediated and received reveals a fundamental political tension between what can be reduced to the pairing of hearing and being heard; it provides insight into the processes of exploring relationships with others and of psychic and social affirmation of an individual or collective selves, spaces and ‘ears’; it also reconsiders power structures through the imprints, and the ecology on which they depend, of a transitory form.

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Commercial Electronic Musical Instruments in 21st Century Music Practice

Posted: February 29th, 2024 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | Comments Off on Commercial Electronic Musical Instruments in 21st Century Music Practice

The 21st Century Music Practice Research Network’s 2024 Two Day Conference is on Mon & Tue, 9th & 10th September 2024 at the University of West London, St. Mary’s Road, Ealing, London W5 5RF.

2024’s C21MP network event is themed around Pete Townshend’s long-term loan to UWL of his extraordinary collection of commercially produced electronic musical instruments. Presenters who wish to use one or more of the instruments from UWL’s Townshend Studio in their video or in the session should contact the organisers to discuss the possibilities (see list below).

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Building Collective Futures: Communities Thriving Through Music

Posted: February 29th, 2024 | Filed under: Calls for Papers, IASPM Conferences | Comments Off on Building Collective Futures: Communities Thriving Through Music

IASPM Canada Annual Conference 2024: Call for Papers
University of Regina: Regina, Saskatchewan
September 27-29, 2024
Submission deadline: 1 April, 2024

Submit proposals through: https://forms.gle/qVgRUoGyF1frMcX98

We live in a time of uncertainty: multiple theatres of war and conflict, refugee movements across the globe, rampant technological change, political polarization, cultural upheaval, and a global climate crisis threaten individual and collective futures at every turn. At this unprecedented point in time, how can we envision and build thriving, alternative futures? And for whom? Does Canada have a special place in all of this: how do we transition from the inequities of our past relationships (to Indigenous populations and to the earth) to building respectful, inclusive, and sustainable futures? What role(s) does popular music play in such projects? Is it sometimes, also, a part of the problem? How does digitality help or hinder efforts to elevate humanity through musicking? How do new methodologies provide insight in changing times? How are musicians working collectively to build thriving futures?

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Popular Brass Music in the 21st Century

Posted: February 23rd, 2024 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | Comments Off on Popular Brass Music in the 21st Century

Special Issue, Journal of World Popular Music

Guest Editors: Dr. Bernhard Steinbrecher (University of Innsbruck, Department of Music); Bernhard Achhorner (Stella Vorarlberg Privathochschule für Musik)

This special issue aims to explore the multifaceted dimensions of contemporary popular brass music, with an emphasis on its global manifestations. Against the backdrop of the increasing popularity of brass music in German-speaking regions, particularly in youthful demographics, the special issue discusses from an international perspective the contemporary aesthetic, stylistic, sociocultural, economic, and political facets of music that gravitates around brass instruments. The objective is to shed light on recent developments since the 1990s, elucidating whether there are parallels, resonances, and distinctions in diverse glocal contexts. Hereby, the special issue also strives to initiate the transnational scholarly conceptualization of a newly emerging and adapting musical field.

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EDM and its Discontents: The Contested Meaning of “Electronic Dance Music”

Posted: February 23rd, 2024 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | Comments Off on EDM and its Discontents: The Contested Meaning of “Electronic Dance Music”

CFP: Dancecult issue edited by Anita Jóri

The phrase electronic dance music and its acronym EDM have acquired contested meanings, particularly among scholars, journalists and actors involved in the field, such as musicians, fans and industry members. Researchers (e.g., Holmes 2020; Jóri 2021) and journalists (e.g., Glazer 2014) have attempted to trace the evolution of this nomenclature, but consensus regarding their definition remains elusive and debated among practitioners, journalists and academics. In research, both terms are generally used interchangeably as overarching terms encompassing diverse electronic musical styles and genres.

However, it has become evident that “electronic dance music” and “EDM” can carry distinct connotations. Specifically, EDM has become a contentious term within underground electronic music scenes and is often linked to mainstream, profit-oriented genres and musicians. This tendency began in the early 2000s, when electronic music and dance cultures underwent a process of mainstreamisation. This association is also reinforced and amplified by the music industry (especially in the US), not only by releasing music for an extended market but also by organising megafestivals, such as the Electric Daisy Carnival or Ultra Music Festival, and awards such as the American Music Award for Favorite Electronic Dance Music Artist (Jóri 2021). In an effort to differentiate between these meanings, Holt (2017), for example, introduced the category of “EDM pop”, which provides a useful distinction from EDM as a simple acronym for electronic dance music.

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Chicago Music: Histories, People, and Scenes

Posted: February 16th, 2024 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | Comments Off on Chicago Music: Histories, People, and Scenes

We invite scholars, musicians, and arts programmers from diverse disciplinary perspectives to submit proposals for “Chicago Music: Histories, People, and Scenes,” a symposium to be held at DePaul University School of Music in Chicago, IL on Wednesday, November 13, 2024, prior to the American Musicological Society meeting, and sponsored by the AMS Popular Music Study Group and DePaul University. The symposium focuses on four themes that invite consideration of how music has impacted and been shaped by Chicago’s unique culture, economy, geography, history, and people: Chicago music histories; festivals; public arts programming; and identities, neighborhoods, and communities. The goal of the symposium is to foster conversations among participants from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and establish a groundwork for documenting and understanding Chicago’s musical life in its full richness.

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