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

Special Issue of Rock Music Studies: The Velvet Underground

Posted: July 15th, 2014 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | Comments Off on Special Issue of Rock Music Studies: The Velvet Underground

Guest-edited by Alex DiBlasi and Steven Hamelman

“[T]he first Velvet Underground record sold 30,000 copies in the first five years…. [T]hat record was such an important record for so many people. I think everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band!”—Brian Eno, 1982

With the recent passing of Lou Reed and the upcoming fiftieth anniversary of their groundbreaking debut, the Velvet Underground remain one of the most influential recording acts in rock. Each of their four studio albums with Lou Reed at the helm—The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967), White Light/White Heat (1968), The Velvet Underground (1969), and Loaded (1970)—inspired entire genres, setting the precedent for alternative, indie, goth, punk, noise, post-punk, and experimental music in the decades to come. This special issue of Rock Music Studies seeks to examine the Velvet Underground’s lasting impact on popular music while also reappraising their own influences, works, and other realms of their career.

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Jazz and Modernity

Posted: July 10th, 2014 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | Comments Off on Jazz and Modernity

Call for papers #1 : Jazz and Modernity [full version here]
Coordination: Thomas Horeau, Édouard Hubert, Raphaëlle Tchamitchian

Since its birth, jazz has often been perceived as a musical paradigm for the modern age, a technological and rhythmical age characterized by an unprecedented “acceleration”, considered as a danger by some philosophers. The idea of modernity, which has been progressively legitimized and used within the field of aesthetics, is generally defined as a distance taken from the tradition and/or an orientation toward the future. The argument of modernity and positioning in relation to tradition is at the core of controversies relating to jazz legitimacy, from Berendt and Adorno, Panassié and Vian, to the recent controversy about the nomination of Olivier Benoît as director of the French Orchestre National de Jazz. Then, can and/or must one consider jazz a “modern” music, considering it is often constituted by a tension between rupture and continuity.

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