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Special Issue of Rock Music Studies: Working as a Musician Transnationally

Posted: April 27th, 2021 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | Comments Off on Special Issue of Rock Music Studies: Working as a Musician Transnationally

Guest-edited by Pierre Bataille (U. of Grenoble-Alpes), Marie Buscatto (U. of Paris 1 PantheĢon Sorbonne), Martin Cloonan (U. of Turku), and Marc Perrenoud (U. of Lausanne)

Submissions are invited for a special issue of Rock Music Studies on the topic of Working as a Musician Transnationally.

This issue addresses the question of rock and popular musicians working across borders. We would like to focus on the careers of those rock and popular musicians who have become transnational when they regularly tour in another country or tour recurrently around the world. It can be routine for musicians to play in a foreign country or region where they have an audience. In some cases, the international market may even be more important for them than their audience at home. The scope of such activities can range from a big world tour of stadiums by a megastar to a humble tour in some countries in underground venues by an alternative independent artist. Musicians may also operate transnationally via active local music networks and venues.

In all of these cases, in order to gain a better understanding of the working conditions of rock and popular musicians it is necessary to understand the factors that organize and shape their mobility. We are interested in a number of questions here, including the following:

  • How do specific networks, agents, venues, and festivals organize the transnational mobility of musicians and according to what principles?
  • How do such networks and norms affect such things as the music musicians create and play, the venues they are invited to play in, the money they earn, and the people they share their time with?
  • What are the stereotypes associated with musicians’ national or regional origins and music, and how are such stereotypes used in processes of authentification or resisted as part of an association with a transnational scene?
  • How may digital tools help to develop opportunities for musicians to move across borders?
  • How are local rules, networks, and norms and transnational careers combined across time? In particular, what role do local and national governments play in the regulation of international working?
  • What factors help musicians to work transnationally, and what factors hinder them?

Please send proposals of up to 500 words by 31 October 2021 to guest editors Pierre Bataille ([email protected]), Marie Buscatto ([email protected]) Martin Cloonan ([email protected]), and Marc Perrenoud ([email protected]). Indicate the name under which you would wish to be published, your professional/academic affiliations, a postal address, and preferred email contact. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to send us an email.

Proposals will be reviewed for potential inclusion in the journal, with authors of selected papers being informed by 31 January 2022.

Authors to be included in the volume should have their full manuscripts for review sent by 31 July 2022.

Submissions should be between 6,000 and 8,000 words (inclusive of everything). All affiliations, email addresses, and snail-mail contact information should be supplied in the first submission. However, for purposes of blind peer review, your name or the names of your coauthors should not appear in the body of the manuscript. All articles will be peer-reviewed anonymously by two reviewers.

Details about the journal are here.

Instructions for authors are here.