Call for Papers: Music and the Internet conference, University of Chicago and virtual, 9-10 June 2023
Music and the Internet (musicandtheinternet.co) is a hybrid, multi-day interdisciplinary conference that will take place virtually and at the University of Chicago June 9-10 2023.
From autoplaying videos to social media echo chambers, the 21st-century internet is a noisy place. The internet and online platforms have become increasingly entwined in both the music industry and in everyday musical activity, with music as both a shaped and shaping medium. Online music communities have emerged around net-native genres with distinct aesthetic, communicative, and meme-based conventions. Such developments have varied throughout the history of music on the internet, with reverberating effects in other online creative industries. Accordingly, a range of theoretical, practical, and ethical issues are in open (and often urgent) discussion for those studying these phenomena.
Recent research meetings in this area of study include Music and the Internet (Oxford, 2018), Like, Share and Subscribe (Online/Lisbon, 2020), Digital Socialities (Aarhus, 2021), Information Overload? Music Studies in the Age of Abundance (Birmingham, 2021) and Internet Musicking (Online, 2022). The upcoming conference continues the momentum of the burgeoning interdisciplinary field of music and internet studies, fostering conversations across scholars in disciplines including (but not limited to) music studies, sociology, media theory, and computer science.
Themes for the conference will include:
- Internet Musical and Audiovisual Aesthetics
- Internet Music Genres
- Music Platforms and the Digital Music Industries
- Music Fandoms and Communities Online
- Music in Virality, Memes, and Trolling
- Histories and Archives of Internet Music(king)
- Methodologies, Tools, and Ethics in Studying Online Music
- Music and Sound in Online Games
- Music Livestreaming and the Attention Economy
Keynote Speaker:
Dr. Jabari Evans (University of South Carolina, Harvard University Rebooting Social Media Institute)
Keynote Panel: Classical Music, Public Musicology, Race, and Social Media
Dr. Imani Danielle Mosley (University of Florida)
Babatunde Akinboboye (@babatunde_hiphopera)
The standard format for presentation will be 20-minute papers, although proposals for performances of creative work and multi-person panels or workshops are enthusiastically encouraged as well. Please send proposals of 250 words, a bio of 100 words, and a (nonbinding) preference for in-person or virtual presentation to musicinternetconference@gmail.com by 3 March 2023.
Conference Co-Organizers:
Dr. Steven Gamble (University of Bristol)
Dr. Kate Galloway (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)
Dr. Paula Clare Harper (University of Chicago)