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Any Sound You Can (Re) Imagine, A 25th Anniversary Special Issue 

Posted: September 6th, 2021 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | No Comments »

Journal of Popular Music Education 

Any Sound You Can (Re) Imagine, A 25th Anniversary Special Issue 

Guest Editor 

Daniel Walzer: Assistant Professor of Music and Arts Technology: Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)

Guest Contributor 

Paul Théberge: Canada Research Professor in Music and Interdisciplinary Studies, Carleton University, Canada

2022 marks the 25th anniversary of Any Sound You Can Imagine: Making Music / Consuming Technology, a ‘book about the role of recent digital technologies in the production of popular music…the industries that supply these technologies, the media that promote them, and the meanings they have for the musicians who use them’ (Théberge 1997: 5). A ground-breaking and interdisciplinary study drawing on music technology, cultural studies and popular music, Théberge’s research examined the complicated tensions among production and consumption, capitalism and consumerism, and what Henry Jenkins (2006) would later refer to as convergence culture, an interconnectedness among ‘media convergence, participatory culture, and collective intelligence’ (n.p.). Music production and consumption remain complex, as does the influence that corporations exert on virtually all aspects of the creative process. Prescient today as much as it was then, Any Sound You Can Imagine remains essential reading for scholars in popular music and technology.

In the nearly 25 years since its first publication, many of the training mechanisms associated with popular music and technology have shifted to educational institutions of all kinds. A once-robust music industry controlled by major labels has consolidated, recording studios have closed, and myriad business models have come and gone. Nevertheless, popular music continues to evolve mainly due to increased media exposure, organizations providing hands-on learning and performing opportunities, a steady increase in schools offering popular music classes along with colleges and universities offering credentials in popular music, and global interest in research and scholarship in popular music education as modern band programs expand. Educational institutions serve multiple critical purposes in that they provide opportunities for people to engage with popular music and serve as conduits for creativity and innovation.

The increasing connections between the music industry and global education have multiple pedagogical, technological, and sociocultural implications for researchers and practitioners. To commemorate the silver anniversary of Any Sound You Can Imagine and recognize the broad growth of popular music education, the guest editor for this issue of the Journal of Popular Music invites contributions on (but not limited to) the following questions:

  • What influence do music and media corporations have in designing facilities, standardizing curricula, and promoting knowledge transfer in popular music education?
  • How are the relationships between corporations and educational institutions scrutinized in popular music?
  • How can stakeholders from technology, industry and education promote a more just, equitable, inclusive, and sustainable future for the next generation of popular musicians?
  • How does the corporate monopolization of certain music technologies and media affect creative music-making and learning?
  • What disruptive forces in education, industry and culture have affected the ‘doing’ of popular music over the past 25 years?
  • What interdisciplinary theories and models of culture and musical practice can be mobilized to help reimagine pedagogy, creativity and learning in popular music education?

Proposals falling outside the scope of the themes above are also welcomed. Questions about possible topics should be emailed to the issue’s guest editor, Daniel Walzer, at [email protected] .

Full papers should be uploaded via the journal’s website at www.intellectbooks.com/journal-of-popular-music-education by January 30, 2022 with an expected publication date of November 2022.

References 

Henry Jenkins Blog (2006), ‘Welcome to Convergence Culture’,henryjenkins.org/blog/2006/06/welcome_to_convergence_culture.html. Accessed 27 August, 2021.

Théberge, Paul (1997), Any Sound You Can Imagine: Making Music / Consuming Technology. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.



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