Welcome to IASPM

The International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) is an international organization established to promote inquiry, scholarship and analysis in the area of popular music. Founded in 1981, IASPM has grown into an international network. On national and international levels, the organization’s activities include conferences, publications and research projects designed to advance an understanding of popular music and the processes involved in its production and consumption. To build a large and diverse body of knowledge of popular music, IASPM is an organization which is both interprofessional and interdisciplinary. It welcomes as members anyone involved with popular music. To preserve its autonomy, the association remains independent of all commercial and governmental interests.

As popular music is as much a local as a global phenomenon, IASPM has emphasized since its very beginning an international perspective for research. Every two years, the Executive Committee invites the members to reflect on their plans and the results of academic and journalistic projects at an international conference.

IASPM has arranged these biennial international conferences since 1981:

2023 Minneapolis, USA (forthcoming)
2022 Daegu, South Korea
2019 Canberra, Australia
2017 Kassel, Germany
2015 Campinas, Brasil
2013 Gijón, Spain
2011 Grahamstown, South Africa
2009 Liverpool, UK
2007 Mexico DF, Mexico
2005 Rome, Italy
2003 Montreal, Canada
2001 Turku, Finland
1999 Sydney, Australia
1997 Kanazawa, Japan
1995 Glasgow, UK
1993 Stockton, CA, USA
1991 Berlin, Germany
1989 Paris, France
1987 Accra, Ghana
1985 Montreal, Canada
1983 Reggio Emilia, Italy
1981 Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Between conferences, the international IASPM mailing list keeps members in touch.

In 2002 the Institute of Popular Music (IPM) of the University of Liverpool became the official archive of IASPM. The IPM now acts as the sole central repository for all IASPM archival materials, and is responsible for co-ordinating the preservation and continued maintenance of these important resources. The mailing address for hard copy documents is:

Dr. Marion Leonard
Institute of Popular Music
University of Liverpool
80-82 Bedford Street South
Liverpool
L69 7WW
UK