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

Call for Nominations, IASPM-Canada Book Prize (2021)

Posted: December 24th, 2020 | Filed under: News | No Comments »

The International Association for the Study of Popular Music-Canada Branch (IASPM-Canada) requests nominations for the IASPM-Canada Book Prize, which recognizes a member whose published monograph makes a substantial contribution to the field of popular music studies, has been written by a Canadian author, or published by a Canadian-based press, or that deals substantially with Canadian subject matter. Nominated books must have been published in 2019 or 2020.

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Reggae Innovation and Sound System Culture – An Anthology

Posted: December 17th, 2020 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | No Comments »

Kingston is the loudest city in the Anglophone Caribbean and Jamaica whose national instrument is the sound system is the noisiest country on the planet. Reggae is but one of Jamaica’s indigenous musical genres. It provides a window into the soul of Jamaicans, the life and style of ordinary people including their historical struggles and contemporary triumphs. As a nation, Jamaica boasts world renowned creativity per capita that is arguably unmatched by any other nation. Sonic innovation, especially around the development of musical genres and the sound system, is at the heart of Kingston being designated a UNESCO Creative City of Music in 2015. It is this city which has birthed at least six (6) indigenous genres in the mid- to late Nineteenth Century. Reggae is arguably the most prominent worldwide, representing Jamaica across the world, with names such as Bob Marley, Dennis Brown, Jimmy Cliff, Burning Spear, Marcia Griffith and Peter Tosh being some of the most easily identifiable artists.

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Big Sounds from Small Places

Posted: December 15th, 2020 | Filed under: Calls for Papers, IASPM Conferences | No Comments »

IASPM Canada Annual Conference 2021 Call For Papers
Virtual Conference
7 – 18 June 2021

Submission Deadline: 15 January 2021

As we enter into a new decade it’s apt to question our place in the world. Almost sixty years ago, Marshall McLuhan notably coined the term Global Village to refer to the global spread of media content and consumption, and yet Canada still struggles with its position in the world as an imposing landmass with a relatively small population, and how that influences where and how its cultural texts are encountered. This conference seeks to address the concept of voice and sound as tied to space and place, in the broadest sense. In regards to popular music in Canada, we have established a strong identity, but one that is often defined in opposition to our more vocal neighbours to the South. As we continuously define and redefine Canadian cultural identity, and cultural outputs, this conference questions how our musical landscape has historically adapted, and will continue to adapt, to an increasingly globalized environment.

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‘Competing Sounds? Podcasting and Popular Music’

Posted: December 10th, 2020 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | No Comments »

CFP: Special issue of The Radio Journal:

Guest editors: Ellis Jones (University of Oslo) and Jeremy Morris (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Abstracts due: 20th January 2021

On 19 May 2020, Spotify announced they had secured worldwide rights to distribute The Joe Rogan Show – arguably the world’s most commercially successful podcast – exclusively through their streaming platform. This move, reportedly worth over $100m, follows a series of notable licensing deals and acquisitions by Spotify (e.g. Gimlet Media, Anchor, The Obamas, etc.). But the heavy investment in this emerging media format also puts podcasts and music in economic and cultural tension. Noting the paltry royalties Spotify distributes to musicians, jazz historian Ted Gioja scoffed that the Rogan deal shows ‘Spotify values Rogan more than any musician in the history of the world.’ Read the rest of this entry »


Dance and Protest

Posted: December 7th, 2020 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | No Comments »

Special Issue CFP
Editors: Serouj Aprahamian, Shamell Bell, Rachael Gunn, and MiRi Park

IASPM Journal is the peer-reviewed open-access e-journal of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM). As part of an international network, the journal aims to publish research and analysis in the field of popular music studies at both global and local levels.

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