5th European Conference on Social Media

21-22 June 2018, Limerick Institute of Technology, Ireland

Mini Track on Social Media and the DIY Artist: How the development of social media has impacted on the music industries
Mini Track Chair: Dr Paul Oliver, University of West London. UK

Since the inception of the internet, DIY (do-it-yourself) artists and entrepreneurs working within the music industries have used social media in sophisticated ways to collaborate, create and disseminate their music online. Initially in the early 2000s with MySpace, then with Facebook and YouTube and now with Instagram and Snapchat, social media has revolutionised the way DIY artists and fans, and the wider music community, can interact with each other. Moreover, social media platforms have begun to expand and elaborate on existing features developing stronger possibilities to interact through live video streaming and storytelling which, in turn, makes it easier for organic DIY music communities to form on a global scale based on niche interests.

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AMS/SMT Alternative-Format Joint Session on Hip-hop Studies

In the introduction to his 2000 book Making Beats: The Art of Sample Based Hip-Hop, Joseph Schloss notes the relative absence of music studies:

“It does no disservice to previous work to say that [hip-hop studies] has tended to focus on certain areas (such as the influence of the cultural logic of late capitalism on urban identities, the representation of race in popular culture, etc.) to the exclusion of others (such as the specific aesthetic goals that artists have articulated). Nor is it a criticism to say that this is largely a result of its methodologies, which have, for the most part, been drawn from literary analysis. We must simply note that there are blank spaces and then set about to filling them in.”
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Riffs: Experimental Writing on Popular Music

The editorial team of Riffs: Experimental Writing on Popular Music invite 300 word / one page of A4 (visual) proposals for the next 2018 volume from PhD, MA, and outstanding undergraduate students, based on the following prompt:

“There is nothing wrong with hating rock critics” – Of Montreal, 2003

Your response should consider in some way journalistic and academic forms of writing and critiquing popular music, and the overlap between these two forms/forums. This volume will be guest edited by Laura Snapes, a music and culture writer based in London.

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Past and Present: Local Music Making and the Politics of Popular Music

27 January 2017, 11:00 – 16:30, The Red House (Old Town Hall), Merthyr Tydfil, CF47 8AE

Join us for a free one-day research and industry event marking the launch of a one-month exhibition celebrating the hidden history of popular music in Merthyr Tydfil, between 1955-1975. The event is organised by Centre for Media and Culture in Small Nations at the University of South Wales. The event is free and lunch is provided, but must be pre booked via Eventbrite.

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Crosstown Traffic: Popular Music Theory and Practice

University of Huddersfield, UK
3rd-5th September 2018

This is a call for papers for a joint conference arranged by four organisations:

• International Association for the Study of Popular Music UK & Ireland Branch (IASPM UK&I)
• Association for the Study of the Art of Record Production (ASARP)
• Dancecult: Electronic Dance Music Culture Research Network
• International Society for Metal Music Studies (ISMMS)

Hosted by the University of Huddersfield, this event will combine the IASPM UK&I Biennial Conference, with the 13th Art of Record Production Conference (ARP), a conference of ISMMS, and feature the additional participation of Dancecult. The theme of the conference is Crosstown Traffic: Popular Music Studies Theory and Practice.

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