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

Academic music associations’ joint letter to Oxford Brookes leadership

Posted: November 23rd, 2023 | Filed under: News | No Comments »

IASPM UK & Ireland Chair Prof. Simon Zagorski-Thomas co-signs joint letter from academic music associations to Oxford Brookes leadership urging them to rethink proposed closure of their music department and offering support.

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23 November 2023

Dear Vice-Chancellor Prof. Fitt, the Vice-Chancellor’s group, and Board of Governors,

We write to you regarding the proposed closure of the music department and ‘teaching out’ of its programmes, which has caused alarm, distress and shock across our communities.

In the recent days, members of our respective committees have made public statements in support of our colleagues and your students, including on social media, online petitions, in radio interview, and in online articles and newsletters. More are to follow in the coming days. Indeed, the wider support for the OBU Music Department amongst colleagues in academia, music education and the wider music profession and creative industries has provided your colleagues at OBU with a profound sense that their research, teaching and wider cultural impact is met with the recognition that its excellence deserves. But perhaps the most emotionally wrought and impactful stories have been those shared by current and past students, whose experiences of being taught in your music department have enriched lives and shaped careers within the music industry and, crucially, far beyond.

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CUMIN Conference, London

Posted: May 15th, 2023 | Filed under: News | No Comments »

On Friday 30th June, AHRC-funded network CUMIN (Contemporary Urban Music for Inclusion Network) will hold a conference at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London. The purpose of the network is to encourage discussion, recognition and change in regard to the educational, cultural and social status of contemporary musics such as hip hop, grime, EDM (and house, techno, dubstep, etc. etc.) that tend to get marginalised in many contexts despite actually being some of the most popular musics in the world.

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Eurovisions Conference

Posted: May 3rd, 2023 | Filed under: News | No Comments »

On 9th and 10th May the Eurovisions conference will be taking place at the Creative Campus, Liverpool Hope University.

Attendance is free of charge and pre-registration is not required. More information can be found at the conference website: https://www.eurovisions.eu/edition-6


Songwriting Camps in the 21st Century

Posted: January 6th, 2023 | Filed under: News | No Comments »

As part of the AHRC-funded project “Songwriting Camps in the 21st Century”, Dr Jan Herbst (University of Huddersfield) and Dr Simon Barber (Birmingham City University) are inviting applications for a postdoctoral Research Fellow in Popular Music Songwriting, employed for 3 years at the University of Huddersfield.

The successful candidate will join a cross-national research project between the UK and Germany (the German sub-project is led by Michael Ahlers at Leuphana University, Lüneburg). A summary of the project is available on the funder’s website: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FX002276%2F1#

To apply, visit: https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/CWI271/research-fellow-in-popular-music-songwriting. Please note the deadline is 24th of January.


PhD Scholarships at University of Huddersfield

Posted: January 5th, 2023 | Filed under: News | No Comments »

The University of Huddersfield is offering a number of PhD scholarships, including some specifically focused on popular music.

The Nitin Sawhney Scholarship is open to any popular music topic, whether focused on text based or practice based research. It will include some tutorial support from British composer, performer, and producer Nitin Sawhney.
https://research.hud.ac.uk/research-degrees/researchscholarships/schoolofartsandhumanitiesscholarships/nitin-sawhney-scholarship/

The Richie Hawtin Scholarship focuses on Electronic music, and may include some tuition from DJ and Producer Richie Hawtin if appropriate.
https://research.hud.ac.uk/research-degrees/researchscholarships/schoolofartsandhumanitiesscholarships/richie-hawtin-scholarship/

The Creative Music Production Scholarship is aimed at projects focused on the art of record production or other relevant subjects.
https://research.hud.ac.uk/research-degrees/researchscholarships/schoolofartsandhumanitiesscholarships/creative-music-production-scholarship/

The John Warhurst PhD scholarship is focused on film music and media composition, named after and supported by Huddersfield University graduate and Oscar winner John Warhurst, as well as the Nitin Sawhney Scholarship supporting any area of popular music scholarship.
https://research.hud.ac.uk/research-degrees/researchscholarships/schoolofartsandhumanitiesscholarships/john-warhurst-scholarship/

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RMA Vision, Mission, Identity

Posted: June 22nd, 2022 | Filed under: News | No Comments »

Mon, 18 July 2022, 13:00 – 17:00 BST (UTC+1) 

A half-day virtual symposium on the identity of the RMA in the context of contemporary musical culture and music studies.

Registration via Eventbrite. All welcome!

Since its founding as the “Musical Association” in 1874, both music and the ways we understand it have changed significantly. In recent years, there has been a move towards greater diversity within the organisation, both in its membership and in the areas of music study and practice that it encompasses. These changes have highlighted a need to reflect on the identity of the Royal Musical Association. Why might some people object to the remit and name of the Royal Musical Association? And why might others find it unproblematic?

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CUMIN Workshop on Hip-Hop, Healing and Wellness

Posted: May 23rd, 2022 | Filed under: News | No Comments »

Blended online and in-person, Friday 24 June, 2022, 11:00-16:00

Organisation: CUMIN https://contemporaryurbanmusicforinclusionnetwork.wordpress.com

CUMIN (Contemporary Urban Musics for Inclusion Network) is an AHRC-funded Network organising a series of Workshops in 2022 and a major conference in 2023. Workshop 2 from this series takes place in conjunction with University of York on Friday 24th June at York’s StreetLife hub (29-31 Coney St., York).

Hip-hop and other forms of contemporary urban music have been claimed to offer a ‘healing power’. The purpose of this workshop is to ask exactly what benefits to health and well-being can be identified, how these benefits can best be maximised, who is being impacted upon and why there is a need for those people to receive support for their health and well-being.

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Youth and Music in the City

Posted: November 11th, 2021 | Filed under: News | No Comments »

24th November 2021

The final webinar in our Youth and the City webinar series takes places on Wednesday, 24th November from 12 noon – 1pm (UK time). This webinar will focus on young people’s relationship with music and the city.

To register for this event and receive a Zoom link for the webinar, visit our Eventbrite page. 

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Applications are invited for the Dave Laing PhD Scholarship funded by the Margaret Wethered Bequest

Posted: October 27th, 2021 | Filed under: News | No Comments »

The scholarship is attached to the Institute of Popular Music, homed in the Department of Music at the University of Liverpool. It is established in honour of Dave Laing, who was closely associated with the institute, from its foundation in 1988 until his death in 2019.

Dave was a prolific writer and editor, with a wide range of interests and abilities, and his work spanned the history and breadth of British popular music studies. He was a central contributor to the leading journals and encyclopaedias in the field, and authored numerous publications, including the first work of British popular music studies The Sound of Our Time (1969), the pioneering book on punk One Chord Wonders, and two monographs on Buddy Holly. First and foremost, however, Dave was a music journalist and in this role he also broke new ground. He was a contributor to the rock magazine Cream before becoming a founding editor of Let it Rock, but he also had a strong interest in the music business. He became an early leader in the detailed and rigorous study of the music industries, authoring numerous industry reports while also acting as press officer for IFPI, deputy editor of Music Week, and founding editor of Music Business International.

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IASPM Early Career Researcher Conference, October 21st 2021

Posted: September 24th, 2021 | Filed under: News | No Comments »

Registration is now open for the IASPM Early Career Researcher Conference, which aims to bring together scholars with new and exciting ideas to discuss and share their work at the vanguard of popular music studies. These emerging scholars address a number of current concerns in popular music, from online composition to posthumous fame and musical ecologies of grief. The conference will be streamed live on October 21st 2021, from 4:30pm-8:30pm GMT.

It will feature the work of six scholars across two panels. This is then followed by the IASPM UK and EIRE contribution to the IASPM Global Lecture series, presented by Hammad Rashid.

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