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

Taylor Swift: Eras, Narrative, Digital Media and Music

Posted: February 26th, 2021 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | No Comments »

Deadline for proposals (250 words): 11:59pm EST  March 31, 2021
Selection notification by April 15, 2021
Proposed date: July 17, 2021

On February 11, 2021, pop star Taylor Swift announced the anticipated re-release of her 2008 album Fearless, a project launched following the contentious and public battle between Swift and her former label Big Machine Records. While specific and noteworthy in its particulars, this release also comprises one in a long series of re-visiting and re-versioning of the star’s life and output by Swift, the media, her fans, and her detractors. Listening to Swift’s releases as artifacts of the current digital age, this study day seeks to position Swift as a prism through which to examine intersecting issues in contemporary music industries and media ecosystems, from copyright and pandemic creation, to multimedia star texts and digital fan practices.

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Historical Traces of European Radio Archives, 1930-1960

Posted: February 26th, 2021 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | No Comments »

Dates: 28-29 October 2021
Location: University of Amsterdam and/or online
Organisers: Carolyn Birdsall, Corinna R. Kaiser and Erica Harrison
Contact: [email protected]
Abstracts: 15 April 2021, no more than 300 words plus short biography
Acceptance: 01 May 2021
Papers: 01 September 2021, position papers (2000-4500 words)

Bringing critical perspectives to bear on radio archives is the main departure point for this international workshop, which explores broadcasting, archives and the historical data they have co-produced. This two-day workshop brings together interdisciplinary perspectives from scholars and practitioners invested in theoretically-informed, connective histories about radio archives. It takes up a historical-geographical focus on radio archival collections in Europe that were affected by war and political transformations between 1930 and 1960, including case studies for Axis, as well as Allied, countries during and after World War II.

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Information Overload? Music Studies in the Age of Abundance

Posted: February 22nd, 2021 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | No Comments »

8-10 September 2021, University of Birmingham

Keynote Speakers:

Robin James (University of North Carolina at Charlotte)
Nick Seaver (Tufts University)
More speakers TBA

For those investigating any musical activity after about 1994, the main sources of research data will not be print archives or discrete media—they will be World Wide Web media. The Internet Archive, the web’s library, today holds over 525 billion archived web pages, while API and post-API archiving initiatives make social web platforms accessible as research databases. At first glance, no other archive is more inclusive in terms of whose voices it represents, and none more comprehensive in terms of the insights it provides into the thoughts, desires and musical tastes of ordinary people. To paraphrase the web historian Ian Milligan, whose recent book provides the title and framing for this conference, we might suggest that in its scale, granularity and plurality, the web represents the music historian’s dream.

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Global Hip-Hop Studies

Posted: February 22nd, 2021 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | No Comments »

Special Issue: ‘Breaking and the Olympics’ 

To be considered for this Special Issue, please submit the following via this Google Form by 31 May 2021:

  • an abstract of 150–250 words (plus references, if necessary)
  • author name(s)
  • institutional affiliation(s)
  • contact details a brief bio of no more than 150 words (which includes the author’s positionalities in relation to their topic).

Global Hip Hop Studies (GHHS) is a peer-reviewed, rigorous and community-responsive academic journal that publishes research on contemporary as well as historical issues and debates surrounding hip hop music and culture around the world.

The recent announcement of breaking in the 2024 Paris Olympics has stirred a substantial response from within and outside of hip hop culture. This special issue of GHHS is positioned to not only explore contemporary debates about breaking in the Olympics, but also to develop critical discourse that can offer insight to practitioners, cultural organizations and the IOC. We are especially interested in research projects that engage in local, regional and national perspectives and can provide useful resources transnationally for those involved in this milestone cultural moment. To this end, the issue will be published a year in advance of the 2024 Olympics in 2023.

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RGS-IBG Annual Conference

Posted: February 12th, 2021 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | No Comments »

31 August – 3 September 2021
*** This session will be hosted online *** 

RGS-IBG Annual Conference

Session title: A ‘cultural catastrophe’? The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the arts and cultural sectors and possible pathways to recovery

Session organisers:  Andrew Leyshon, Nottingham University and Allan Watson, Loughborough University

We have pleasure in inviting proposals for papers to be presented at the following online session at this year’s RGS-IBG Annual Conference.

Abstracts (max. 250 words), along with the title of the session and author contact details (name, affiliation, email address), should please be sent to Andrew Leyshon ([email protected]) and Allan Watson ([email protected]) by Monday 1st March. We aim to notify accepted presenters by Monday 8th March.

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Jazz Re:Search in 21st-Century Academia and Beyond

Posted: February 9th, 2021 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | No Comments »

Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Institute for Jazz Research
13th International Jazz Research Conference, Graz (Austria)
18—21 November 2021

Hosted by the Institute for Jazz Research and the International Society for Jazz Research at the University of Music and Performing Arts GrazFounded in 1971, the Institute for Jazz Research at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (KUG) is a historic cornerstone of academic jazz research. Along with similar institutions, like the Rutgers University Institute of Jazz Studies (founded 1966), the Institute helped to pave the way for and profoundly shape the discipline known as “jazz studies”, bearing witness to its transformation from a decidedly musicological to an inter-, even transdisciplinary investigation into what has been understood as jazz in their respective times.

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The Impacts of Covid-19 on the Live Music Industries: A Sample of Academic Projects Taking Place Across Europe

Posted: February 4th, 2021 | Filed under: News | No Comments »

 IASPM UK Hosted Online Event: March 17th 1600-1800 UK Time 

To book a place – click here

Introduction

The social and cultural value of live music is widely accepted in musical territories around the world, bringing not only enjoyment and meaning to our lives, but also promoting regional and national cultures and identities. Going to see live music also of course generates significant income for cities and nations more broadly. For example, in the UK, according to a recent UK Music Report (2020), the UK live music industries were reported as generating £1.3 billion to the UK economy. However, as with the vast majority of musical territories around the world, all of this changed with the emergence of Covid-19 in March 2020, with the UK live music group reporting in May 2020 that as much as £900 million could be wiped out of future live music income—a forecast that does not seem unrealistic. Similar bleak scenarios are predicted throughout Europe, with a recent report from Live DMA outlining audience restrictions and limited support from governments as one of the primary reasons (Live DMA 2020). Within this constantly emerging context, this seminar outlines a sample of some of the academic work that has been taking place both regionally and nationally across Europe since the pandemic emerged, investigating factors such as specific national and local government policies; economic and social impacts of the pandemic on specific sub-sectors; the effectiveness of ‘virtual performances’; impacts of local music ecologies and the sustainability of the sector post-covid. Featuring academics based in the nations of Wales, the Netherlands, Norway, Germany and England, the seminar provides a snapshot of the work that has taken place thus far, investigating commonalities and providing a forum for sharing good practice.

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Executive Committee Newsletter February 2021

Posted: February 4th, 2021 | Filed under: News | No Comments »

Dear IASPM UKI members,

I hope this finds you healthy and well.

I’d like to share with you the first of what we hope will be a regular series of newsletters from the 2020-2021 Executive Committee. The aim is to be transparent about the decisions being made at executive meetings and what is being planned for the membership more generally. Hopefully, this will be an engaging alternative to simply archiving meeting minutes on the website, and more dialogue across the membership can be encouraged as a result. 

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IASPM Monthly Online Research Seminars

Posted: February 4th, 2021 | Filed under: News | No Comments »

IASPM Research Seminar February

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/iaspm-february-online-research-seminar-tickets-139823561035

Wed, February 17, 2021
21:00 – 22:00 Kuala Lumpur time; 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM GMT; Midnight for Sydney; 08:00 in New York

ADIL Johan will present the February IASPM Online Research Seminar, which is hosted by the IASPM South East Asia (SEA) branch, on the subject of “Conceptualising an Intimately Connected Nusantara: The Rock Kapak Phenomenon of the 1980s and 1990s”.

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