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

And beyond… Popular Music and Transgression(s)

Posted: May 7th, 2016 | Filed under: Calls for Papers, IASPM Conferences | No Comments »

2nd IASPM-D-A-CH-Conference
20-23.10.2016 – Karl-Franzens-University of Graz

Organized in cooperation with the Institute of Musicology at the Karl-Franzens-University of Graz/A the second IASPM-DACH conference will take place from October 20th to 23rd 2016 – at the same time as the 11th edition of the elevate Festival, which connects a critical-political discourse and advanced electronic music, literature and art. That also roughly outlines our conference topic: Popular Music and Transgression(s). Seemingly independent from specific cultural and historical contexts, moments of transgression seem to be a characteristic feature of popular music styles, their practices, media and theories.

Transgressions of ways of life and practices connected with popular music
• When within the countercultures of the 1960/70s up until today, alternative concepts of living (sexual revolution, DIY) are initiated and the social status quo is criticized
• When today, within the worldwide interconnected scenes of electronic music, utopian and dystopian practices establish themselves close to artistic avant-gardes, as artistic avant-gardes or intentionally as a dissociation of these.
• When popular music becomes e.g. a means for refugees in dealing with the transgression of political, national borders in their own biography

Transgressions of medial operating systems, technologies and techniques of popular music styles
• When popular music styles interact with other art medias (e.g. Beatnik-literature, pop-art, media art)
• When cover versions, sound footage, sampling, remixes, re- and upcycling etc. are practiced within all medias (film, music, art, computer games, fashion)
• When business models transgress the boundaries of art scenes, creative industries and academic discourse

Transgressions while studying popular music
• When popular music cultures become a part of academic research and teaching and retroact into pop-musical and cultural practices
• When one’s own experiences with and within the medium of Pop/popular music are placed in a theoretical context
• When Popular Music Studies moves between the academic disciplines and their methods and generates own new approaches.

In the final analysis all (academic) conversations about music become an inevitable moment of transgression, so that the field of Popular Music Studies itself is continuously challenged to self-reflect, as well as to innovate theoretically and methodologically.

The mentioned phenomena raise a series of questions, which are to be discussed within the frame the conference: which interactions e.g. between popular music, art and media culture are being practiced and how do they articulate themselves as transgressions? Is transgression (has it been) always a constitutive characteristic of popular music (styles)? Which forms of transgression have in the past made popular music styles into dynamic fields of cultural practices? Which social, cultural, moral, aesthetic and/or gender boundaries have in the past been crossed by whom and in which direction? Who defines these borders, and which possible sanctions await those who do cross them? Which borders exist, that still can be crossed? How is the interaction of affirmation and transgression organized within popular music? Do regressive or reactionary transgressions exist? And is the transgression of boundaries in the realm of popular music a phenomenon, which has to be welcomed in each and every case, or are there also limits for the transgression of boundaries?

Proposals for panels (90 minutes), single papers (20 minutes), discussion forums, poster presentations or other presentation formats have to include a title, an abstract (about 250 words), 5 key words, which specify the content of the planned presentation, as well as the submitter´s name, academic affiliation and contact details. Please send the proposals via e-mail to [email protected] by 30.06.2016. Applicants will be informed about the acceptance by 15.07.2016.



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