Global South Popular Music Perspectives
Posted: January 6th, 2020 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | Comments Off on Global South Popular Music PerspectivesDate: Friday 28 February, 2020
Presentations from 9am to 5pm at the Garden Building, Bowen Street (above Streat Café), RMIT, with lunch provided, followed by DJ/VJ event at Loop Project Space & Bar featuring symposium participants.
Seeking papers from researchers to be presented on popular music-making and performance from the perspective of the ‘Global South’. We are also soliciting presentations from musicians, producers, DJs, and sound system operators.
Submit abstracts of 300 words to: [email protected] by 15 January 2020
The term “Global South” is deployed in scholarly discourses concerned with various connotations and critiques. We use it broadly here to refer to the nations and regions which had previously been called the “Developing” or “Third World”. These are all contested terms, which we encourage participants to address. This symposium also recognises that popular music can travel across borders more freely than its producers, and this creates both positives and negatives which must be carefully considered.
In the 21st century, in line with developments that are technological, political, and economic, there has been a growing scholarly interest in the diverse cultural industries of the Global South, especially in popular music. To mention a few examples of known musical genres associated with the ‘Global South’, scholars have researched Bollywood, K-Pop, Reggae, Reggaeton, Kuduro, and Cumbia and the contexts in which they are situated.
This symposium is an opportunity to bring together researchers from multiple fields with practitioners to foster inter- and intra-disciplinary discussion, and examine multiple approaches to researching popular music and the Global South.
Topics to be covered can include — but are not limited to:
- music production techniques / technologies
- DiY / tinkering practices
- band cultures of the Global South
- Music and cinema
- Political economy of popular music industries
- Popular music media
- Music-making amongst the diaspora
- Institutionalised popular music industries vs the informal sectors
- Issues of gender and sexuality within the popular musics of the Global South
- Networking and collaborations (social media platforms)
- Media ecologies surrounding the music scenes (i.e. socio-cultural contexts and political economies)
- Transnational collaborations and encounters (e.g.musical cultural exchange, cultural diplomacy, touring in the Global South)
- Cultures of sampling and repurposing sounds
- Development policy and music industries
- De-westernizing creative labour studies
The durations of presentations will be 20 mins (max). Multi-media presentations that include sound and video are encouraged.
Researchers outside Melbourne are encouraged to apply, but unfortunately we are unable to offer travel stipends or other financial support. The event will be free to attendees.