Author Archives: IASPM webmaster

cfp: Special Issue of Rock Music Studies

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After All This Time: Legacy Acts, Fandom, and Collective Identity

Guest-edited by Andy Bennett and Devpriya Chakravarty (Griffith University, Australia)

Submissions are invited for a special issue of Rock Music Studies on the topic of Legacy Acts, Fandom, and Collective Identity. Popular music is now increasingly acknowledged as a key aspect of contemporary history and heritage. The marketing of popular music as a form of youth-based leisure and consumption from the mid-1950s onward has had significant implications for its cultural meaning as a collective soundtrack and a means through which successive generations of youth have sought to distinguish themselves from the parent culture. This aspect of the relationship between popular music and youth became more pointed during the 1960s and into the 1970s with a new political sensibility among youth, and was also reflected in much of the popular music of the time, which gave rise to a global counter-cultural movement. This sensibility continued to reverberate in subsequent musical genres such as punk, post-punk and new wave.

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Executive Committee communication

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Dear members,

In light of Rupert Till’s resignation as chair of IASPM, the Executive Committee wants to report on temporary operating measures while we decide how to find a new chair. Given the wide range of urgent tasks that need to be solved, as an emergency measure, the Committee members decided to take on the tasks of the management collectively. We will operate as a collegiate body where individual members will be responsible for specific tasks. This will give us time to work on very urgent matters that require our immediate attention, including the Daegu 2022 international conference that will happen in 5 weeks, the ethics investigation into the sexual harassment allegations, the construction of a code of ethics for our members, and a social media policy. As explained in previous communications, these tasks are being addressed most seriously and professionally, including hiring a sexual-violence consultancy firm to develop the investigation and creating an ethics committee to establish a code of ethics and other protocols to avoid repetition.

In the meantime, we will explore options for deciding on a new chair. We have begun talking to members who have been involved in similar situations in the past when Chairs have not completed their term to find out what was done then and how well it worked. We will keep you informed of any decisions made and invite any input you might have into this.

Chris Anderton (treasurer)
Andrea Dankić (Member-at-large) 
Ali C. Gedik (Member-at-large)
Beatriz Goubert (General Secretary)
Kimi Kärki (Web/Publications)
Keewoong Lee (Daegu Conference representative)
Andrew Mall (United States Conference representative)
Bernhard Steinbrecher (Membership secretary)
Catherine Strong (Member-at-large) 

IASPM Responses to the Current Situation in the Assocation

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Dear IASPM Members,             

As many of you know, extremely serious allegations regarding sexual misconduct by IASPM members at IASPM conferences were disclosed last week on IASPM’s Facebook page. As an executive committee, we take the allegations raised extremely seriously. We do not tolerate any type of violence, (gender, class, race, nationality, sexual orientation, etc), and that we are committed to creating a space free of violence of any kind.

A post was published on Facebook, followed by series of comments, which I took down, acting as a page moderator/admin. I’d like to apologise to IASPM members for taking down the post, in hindsight there should have been consultation between all Facebook admins and within the Executive Committee (EC) as to what action to take, which I think would have led to a different response. 

As an executive committee, we take the allegations raised extremely seriously, and want to outline some of the activities we have been engaged in as a response. We are seeking a specialist consultant to undertake an ethics/disciplinary report into the allegations that have been made, and to advise us on best practice in how we address any future complaints. The report will allow us to take  actions within our organization. An EC member is reaching out to the original poster to offer support, and we have consulted with the IASPM Facebook page administrators regarding how such disclosures should be dealt with in the future. 

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Music for Girls, Sussex-Leeds Collab, 18th May, 2:30-5pm UK time

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‘Music for Girls: Women’s Knowledge Cultures of Popular Music’, is an AHRC Network formed to explore alternative ways of ‘knowing’ about popular music and focused especially on the experiences of women and girls.

A ‘Music for Girls’ online symposium will take place Wednesday, 18th May from 1430-1700 UK time. Hosted online by Leeds, the symposium will bring together network members and other attendees to generate questions and themes to be more fully explored at a conference in 2023 and in a special issue for Popular Music and Society. For the online symposium, Prof. Lucy Robinson (Sussex), Dr Lisa Amanda Palmer (De Montfort), Dr Richard Elliott (Newcastle) and Prof. David Hesmondhalgh (Leeds) will discuss previous and current research relating to gender and popular music knowledge. Talks will be 15 minutes each, and will be followed by an open session, during which attendees can ask questions, but also share their own interests, highlight works in progress, and make connections with other researchers. The symposium is an opportunity for us to bring this network to life.

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Jobs: Postdoctoral Teaching Associate (Florida State University)

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Invitation for applications, appointment effective August 2022

Position: Postdoctoral Teaching Associate

Appointment/Salary: Two-year, 12-month appointment. Salary competitive.

Qualifications: Completed doctorate in musicology, ethnomusicology, or a related disciplineat time of appointment; university-level teaching experience; demonstration of outstanding potential in scholarly research and publication. The candidate should have been awarded a doctorate within the past five years of their appointment.

Desired Qualifications: We especially encourage applications from music scholars with research or teaching expertise in one (or more) of the following areas: twentieth- and twenty-first-century music, contemporary American and global popular music, sound and media studies, gender and sexuality, research and communication skills for graduate students.

Responsibilities: Teach courses from among current undergraduate and graduate offerings and/or in the candidate’s area of expertise. Teaching duties may include music appreciation, modern popular music, and music bibliography. Maintain an active agenda of research and publication, participate in activities related to the academic mission of the university, including student advising and mentoring.

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Call for Abstracts: Popular Music History special issue on jazz and gender

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Kia ora koutou,

With the usual apologies for cross posting. I am pleased to announce a call for abstracts for a special issue of Popular Music History Journal on jazz and gender. Please see below for details:

Special Issue of Popular Music History (2023)

Title: Gender and Jazz: Histories and Scenes

From the latter half of the twentieth century there has been increasing interest and work in gender and jazz, with several collections examining the roles of women and gay and lesbian musicians in the jazz world, both historically and contemporarily. Nichole Rustin-Paschel and Sherrie Tucker’s 2008 collection Big Ears: Listening for Gender in Jazz Studies has now become an eminent text in the area, and more recently, the Jazzinstitut, Darmstadt held its 14th Jazzforum on the topic of gender and identity in jazz (resulting in a published collection by the same name in 2016). These, and other collections and articles, have delved into gender and its roles in the jazz world, however there are still many more aspects to explore.  Gender, and gender binaries, have shaped the jazz world since the 1920s. Now in the 2020s, the centennial of the Jazz Age gives us an opportunity to explore the many ways that perceptions of gender have been defined and evolved over the last 100 years. There is a need to examine where we are at in the 2020s, and to give thought to the work ahead as creative practitioners, researchers and historians. This themed issue seeks to explore both the known and unknown about gender in the jazz world. Asides from issues around femininity and masculinity (and men and women) in jazz, we seek articles that explore musicians, bands, and scenes who have been ignored or shunned because their performance of gender and/or sexual orientation did not comfortably fit into the perceptions held by critics and audiences. We also seek explorations around power dynamics and gender on and off the bandstand, #MeToo, and collectives such as We Have Voice and Keychange.

Please submit a short abstract (no more than 200 words) to guest editor, Aleisha Ward: a.ward@auckland.ac.nz Abstracts deadline: 1 June 2022

[IASPM XXI 2022] Deadline extended for financial support application

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For those in need of financial support, IASPM offers bursary for eligible participants. Previously the arrangement was to compensate for travel costs. Due to the current pandemic situation, however, the bursary will be repurposed to compensate for the registration fee. The deadline for the financial support application has been extended to 21 April 2022. Please see below for more information.

If you need further information or have any questions, please feel free to contact us <iaspm2021@gmail.com>.

Kind regards,

Keewoong Lee (co-chair)                   Hyunjoon Shin (co-chair)

IASPM XXI 2022 Local Organising Committee

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IASPM Executive Committee Statement

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Dear members,

The Executive Committee would like to make an official statement regarding the serious allegations of sexual assault against senior members of the group published in the last 48 hours on the public Facebook page for our organisation.The post was deleted by an admin to de-escalate tensions in the comments to the post. This action has since been criticised by a number of our members, and we hear the concerns that are being raised. It is not our intention to silence discussion of assault or abuse that may have occurred at IASPM events, or between our members, and we apologise for any part of the response that made it seem as though we were doing so in this instance. This type of public post was not a situation that had come up before and we had no clear ways of dealing with it available. We recognize that IASPM needs to address the allegations and develop strategies to deal with these types of accusations in a responsible way. We also wish to ensure that our members feel safe, and that there are mechanisms in place to support them if they do not. We acknowledge, however, that it would be remiss to commit to specific plans in relation to these goals quickly or lightly.

As such, we propose to undertake a period of consultation with experts in the field of sexual violence and disclosure of abuse to address these accusations, and develop properly thought out guidelines and procedures for dealing with any such situations in the future. This will also enable us to improve our understanding of what the legal implications might be for the organisation in relation to these matters. We will invite all IASPM branches to participate in planning the new policies.

IASPM is well known for its collegial culture. It is our hope that we can use this moment as an opportunity to ensure that collegiality is as much about taking care for the wellbeing of all members and participants at our events as it is about good scholarship.

More correspondence on this matter will be forthcoming soon.

Yours truly,
Rupert Till

On behalf of the Executive Committee of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music.

cfp (extended): Western Popular Music and the Making of Indian Modernity

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Special Issue of South Asian History and Culture: Western Popular Music and the Making of Indian Modernity 

Description of Topic 

From the colonial period onwards a variety of Western musical forms and practices have traveled to the sub-continent interacting with domestic sound cultures and contributing to making of Indian modernity. While other influences from the west – in science and technology, political governance, and market mechanisms – have received considerable academic attention, the impact of western popular music in the Indian context is a relatively ignored area of inquiry. This special issue of South Asian History and Culture is based on the premise that our understanding of Indian modernity is enhanced by a deeper exploration of the ways in which western music – beginning with colonial army bands to MTV and beyond – has contributed to the formation of modern sensibilities in India. The issue focuses exclusively on the western pop music (as opposed to western influences on indigenous music-making) that reached Indian audiences as well as local production of English-language pop and seeks to ask a set of questions surrounding these musical encounters to refine and develop our understanding of how popular cultural flows are constitutive of local modernities. What was/is the nature of the audience for western music in India? Was the reception of this music tied to elite-formation? Can one speak of a sub-culture around western pop? Was there any clearly formed state policy regarding What part did this music play in creating an urban youth culture in postcolonial India? Was the Indian recording industry able to nourish homegrown western pop artists? What the was the role of Indian radio and television in creating an enclave of western pop that was distinct from vernacular popular culture?  

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