Popular Music Studies Research Group Huddersfield University

Launch of the Popular Music Studies Research Group
15 January 2014
1.15pm Phipps Recital Hall (CAM2/06) in the CAB (Combined Arts Building)
University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield HD1 3DH

The meeting will include research presentations from Prof. Philip Tagg (Visiting Research Professor at the University of Huddersfield), Prof. Derek Scott (Professor of Critical Musicology at the University of Leeds) and Dr. Simon Zagorski-Thomas (Reader at the London College of Music), who will be discussing their current research.

We will take the opportunity to discuss possible future research activities and the direction of the group. It is anticipated the group will meet for a few hours perhaps 3-5 times a year. As well as bringing together researchers from across the University of Huddersfield with relevant research interests, it will aim to provide an opportunity for researchers in the North of England who are interested in popular music to meet up and work together.

The University of Huddersfield’s Popular Music Studies Research Group (PMSRG) aims to promote and advance popular music research at a national and international level and to disseminate that excellence in research to the global popular music community. It will do so by working with researchers and academics from all disciplines interested in popular music studies, as well as with musicians, composers, producers and other members of the music industry. It aims to include practice based research, study of the creative industries, as well as critical and contextual exploration of the reception and cultures of popular music.

Its approach to popular music is broad and inclusive, including commercial music, traditional and folk music, ethnomusicology, electronic dance music and a million and one other genres and styles. The definition of popular music is a long-standing thorn topic in the field, and PMSRG aims to cast its net wide.

Popular Music Studies is an interdisciplinary field that inevitably crosses boundaries of subject and discipline. PMSRG has been set up in order to develop and pull together research in this field within the university, and to provide support and encourage collegial activity between partners from different parts of the institution, and with external partners from other institutions and the music industry. We welcome all interested parties to attend meetings.

Research Aims:
– To encourage collegial research into popular music
– To provide mutual support for researchers active in the field of popular music
– To foster inter- cross- and multi-disciplinary research projects related to popular music
– To provide support for popular music research development in the institution
– To provide opportunities to discuss subjects related to popular music research