Call for Chapters:
Studying Live Music and Festivals: Production, Promotion and Consumption
Edited by:
Chris Anderton (Solent University, Southampton, UK)
Sergio Pisfil (University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK)
Proposals are sought for chapter contributions to an edited collection with strong publisher interest.
One of the major benefits of Popular Music Studies was to bring new approaches to the study of music by asking how the recording studio became a space for music creativity and recorded music artefacts an important part of the music industries. By shifting attention to these features, however, relatively few scholars have analysed how live performance and the staging and business of live events are a crucial part of the contemporary music industries. This book aims to interrogate these comparatively neglected areas of popular music practices and, in doing so, provide an authoritative contribution to the emergent field of live music studies.
We encourage scholars from all disciplines to present chapter proposals for research that relates to one of three broad areas of the live music ecology. First, research that reconsiders the role of technology in the production of live music events and festivals. Second, research that examines the complex set of industries and issues that surround the promotion and business of live music. Finally, research that explores the social issues and factors involved in the consumption of live music and festivals. Our objective is to bring together solid methodological and theoretical positions to provide a critical resource that casts new light on the practices of live music – past or present, and from any part of the world.
Potential contributors are asked to propose chapters related to the following themes and suggested topics:
Producing live music. Topics may include but are not confined to:
Audio production, Lighting, Staging, Touring, Venues (problems facing venues; importance of local venues for artist and audience development), Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality (from the production side), Accessibility (disability), Health & wellbeing, Environmental sustainability.
Promoting live music. Topics may include but are not confined to:
Concert and event management, Booking agents, Concert & event marketing & PR, Branding and sponsorship, Ticketing / secondary ticketing, Corporatisation and mediatisation, Policy initiatives, e.g. music cities, gentrification, Heritage and nostalgia, Data management.
Consuming live music. Topics may include but are not confined to:
Social media integration, Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality (from the consumer side), Virtual live music communities, Bootlegging and tape-trading, Venues/festivals as music communities (could also be related to the problems of venues closing), Carnivalesque expectations (drugs, alcohol, sexual assault issues), Changing audiences (aging, gender etc), Ways of listening.
Submission Procedure:
Researchers are invited to send an abstract of no more than 300 words, together with a short biography to studyinglivemusic@gmail.com by July 26th 2019. Any questions concerning possible contributions can be addressed to the same e-mail.
Authors will be notified of the outcome of their proposals by late summer 2019.
Successful authors should subsequently submit completed chapters of between 5,000 and 6,000 words (inclusive of bibliography and endnotes) by July 24th, 2020.