Joint SMI and ICTM-IE Postgraduate Conference 2025

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Joint SMI and ICTM-IE Postgraduate Conference 2025

Trinity College Dublin

16–17 January 2025

Call for Papers

Deadline: Friday 8 November 2024

Email: smi.ictmd.2025@gmail.com

The Society for Musicology in Ireland (SMI) and the Irish National Committee of the International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance (ICTMD-IE) are pleased to announce their annual joint postgraduate conference will take place at Trinity College Dublin on Thursday 16 and Friday 17 January 2025.

Postgraduate students working in all areas of musical research are warmly invited to submit proposals for 20-minute papers or 30-minute lecture recitals of research conducted under supervision at a third-level institution. Poster presentations are also welcome. Areas of research include but are not limited to, historical musicology, ethnomusicology, music theory and analysis, composition, music technology, music pedagogy, popular music studies, performance studies, musical practice as research, psychology of music, and music and gender. Attendees should convey research findings and professional conclusions honestly and in alignment with established research integrity principles, including those relating specifically to the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI).

We are delighted to welcome Dr Méabh Ní Fhuartháin to give the 2025 keynote address. The conference will feature the presentation of the Harry White Doctoral Prize. As in previous years, the postgraduate conference will also include a Careers Forum and a dedicated session featuring prize-winners of the annual CHMHE competition for undergraduate dissertations.

To submit a proposal, please send an email attachment (.doc or .docx, not .pdf) to smi.ictmd.2025@gmail.com by 6pm on Friday 8 November 2024 with the following details:

  • Title of paper
  • Abstract (max. 250 words)
  • Full name and institutional affiliation
  • Short biography (max. 150 words)
  • Please state whether you are proposing a:
    • 20-minute paper
    • 30-minute lecture-recital
    • 30-minute film, audio, or other media presentation (to include introduction and any commentary)
    • 10-minute presentation (Master’s Students)
    • Poster presentation

Please submit all information in a single Word document. Proposals will be anonymised prior to peer review and applicants will be notified of the outcome of this process by 9 December 2024.

On behalf of SMI and ICTMD-IE we thank you for your engagement. We are looking forward to welcoming delegates to Trinity College Dublin for two days of intellectually and socially enriching scholarly exchange.

Assistant Professor of Music (tenure track), Ethnomusicology and/or Popular Music

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Faculty Search Advertisement

Assistant Professor of Music (tenure track), Ethnomusicology and/or Popular Music

Boston University, College of Fine Arts, School of Music

The College of Fine Arts at Boston University invites applications for two full-time, tenure-track Assistant Professor of Music positions in the Musicology & Ethnomusicology Department of the School of Music, with expertise in the areas of ethnomusicology and/or popular music studies. We aim to hire two scholars whose research complements our faculty’s current areas of focus. We are particularly receptive to emphasis on gender, technology and media, political economy, or critical theory as areas of scholarly focus but are open to any area. Above all, we seek scholars that are committed to excellence in scholarship and teaching, with an active agenda of innovative research and the promise of sustained future publishing. The desired start date for this appointment is July 1, 2025.

We seek two faculty members for the CFA School of Music who are making significant theoretical contributions to the musicological and humanistic disciplines, who are committed to research that engages with the broader world and to teaching that prepares young scholars and artists at the graduate and undergraduate levels to navigate it, and who show potential for faculty leadership. Ideal candidates will have a proven track record of successful teaching at the college level, a demonstrated publishing agenda, and a commitment to engaged institutional citizenship. Responsibilities for this position include mentoring graduate students and teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses within the department and the School. A terminal degree in music is required, and the positions are expected to be filled at the assistant professor level (tenure track).

The Boston University School of Music was the first institution in the United States to grant a degree in music. Today, the School of Music trains musicians, educators, composers, and scholars in strong undergraduate and graduate programs. The Department of Musicology and Ethnomusicology, located within the School of Music, is a prolific, supportive, and inclusive department, dedicated to the shared purpose of innovative, engaged, and rigorous scholarship. Our department features thriving PhD and MA programs with customizable concentrations in Musicology, Ethnomusicology, and Musicology/Ethnomusicology, and offer a BA in Music with Musicology/Ethnomusicology, Global Music Studies, and General tracks. These programs provides the disciplinary grounding, critical theoretical tools, methodological breadth and sense of engagement with the world needed to produce music scholars of the highest caliber.  Boston University is an AAU institution with a rich tradition dedicated to inclusion and social justice. We are proud to be the first American university to award a Ph.D. to a woman, and we celebrate our record of and commitment to inclusiveness. The College of Fine Arts includes diversity as one of its core strategic goals. The successful applicant will value being part of an inclusive school that values cultural, ethnic, and gender diversity.  Our university community welcomes differences, encourages open-minded exploration, and upholds freedom of expression.

Qualified applicants should submit:

  • Cover letter
  • Curriculum vitae
  • Phone and email contact of three (3) professional references who may be contacted.

All application materials should be sent via email to musicsearch@bu.edu and must be received no later than October 15, 2024. Anticipated date of appointment: July 1, 2025.

BU conducts a background check on all final candidates for certain faculty and staff positions. The background check includes contacting the final candidate’s current and previous employer(s) to ask whether, in the last seven years, there has been a substantiated finding of misconduct violating that employer’s applicable sexual misconduct policies. To implement this process, the University requires a final candidate to complete and sign the form entitled “Authorization to Release Information” after execution of an offer letter. 

We are an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, military service, pregnancy or pregnancy-related condition, or because of marital, parental, or veteran status. We are a VEVRAA Federal Contractor. 

RECORDING POPULAR MUSIC

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RECORDING POPULAR MUSIC

IASPM 23rd international conference

7-11 July 2025

Organized by Iaspm-branche francophone d’Europe and Université Sorbonne Nouvelle 

Paris, France

Call for papers

Recording played a central role in the establishment of the field of popular music research in the 1970s and 1980s: at a time when popular music studies was gaining traction as a field of study,the specific status of recording made it possible to distinguish three areas of study: popular music, art music and folk music.

Recording has also been seen as a symptom and a variable in the development of the music business. Having become a reproducible commodity, music evolved in new directions when, towards the middle of the 20th century, the record became the main medium of the music industry. At the same time, recording made music available for distribution across a broad range of media, including radio, cinema and later television and then the Internet. In the present era of the domination of streaming platforms in the consumption of popular music (known as “platformisation”), music rights and the creation of catalogues are taking on major importance for the cultural industries and the digital economy. 

The recorded medium, as a reproducible asset, is also becoming something that can be preserved, archived and restored (republished) as media change. In addition to commercial aspects – the renewing of home equipment, the sale of augmented editions, alternate takes, and so on – there is a creative dimension involved. Recordings can be a medium for creation (for example in the practices of turntablism, dj-ing or sampling), as well as having a heritage dimension (recordings can be traces or treasures of the past). 

The analysis of recordings as ‘texts’ of popular music has naturally been one of the main areas of research over the last forty years. This type of analysis, applicable to all recorded music, also has the advantage of problematising the barriers between musical meta-genres and blurring the boundaries between categories applied, sometimes too rigidly, to music. Research into music production and studio techniques has also seen considerable development over the last few decades. Scientific literature has long emphasised the importance of  the recording studio as a technical and artistic tool (the studio as musical instrument), as well as as a place of interaction, and an economic focal point, at the crossroads of the practical, the technical, the aesthetic and the social, with very specific characteristics in terms of space and time. It is also a place where certain production relationships have been seen to change. If we consider, for example, the relationship between musicians and production intermediaries, whose status has developed throughout the history of the recording studio. More recently, the growth of home studios since the 1980s has opened up new social and economic horizons. Here we might also mention creative revolutions: the compositionperformance-production continuum, the central role of recording, the questioning of the status of the author/performer, and so on.

New questions have come into play in the recording of popular music in recent years, and research has expanded to take in other, more contemporary, perspectives. These include postcolonial studies: how is music recorded around the world? Gender studies: how do recording practices reflect or shift power relations and gender stereotypes? Ecological issues also arise, through the question of the environmental footprint of recorded music, whether produced on physical media or in digital format.

Moreover, in recent years, there has been a renewal of scientific curiosity regarding concerts and live performance as a central element within music production, as distinct from recordings. How distinct or different are they? It is often thought that the notion of live performance only exists because recordings dominate, and that the concept of liveness has only developed in relation to recordings, which are themselves mediated music. From an aesthetic and ontological point of view, there is a continuum between live music and recorded music (for example, when recorded music becomes the basis for new compositions or is used on stage). Cases range from hip-hop and trip-hop to electronic music; and beyond these, what should be said about the role of computers, artificial intelligence and the automatic production of recordings, in concerts and on record, and how these practices will evolve in the future?

The revival of research on live performance parallels the re-emergence of the concert as the focal point of the music economy, in contrast to the situation in the second half of the 20th century, when live performance was little more than a means of promoting recordings and attracted little academic attention. We can therefore assume that the current interest in live music stems from the crisis in sales of recorded music seen in the first fifteen years of the 21st century. But more recently, with the advent of the global public health crisis from 2019 to 2022, the impossibility of going on stage or to a concert shook up live music habits and initiated new thinking and research into the live/recording bipolarity.

There exists another aspect, and it is one of the most important: beyond recording as a process involving studios or various pieces of technical equipment, our conference is an invitation to look at the recording of popular music in global and cultural terms. Recording means keeping traces or tracks, a practice which can also be understood in a broader, anthropological sense: how are the traces kept or preserved? How are they also sometimes erased? How is socio-cultural diversity “recorded” or not in popular music? What role do field recordings play in this process? What is the logic behind this rendering invisible or this preservation, which facilitate the accessibility of certain genres or repertoires over others? How does the recording of music contribute to its semanticisation, its representation, the shaping of musical genres and the establishment of their aesthetic, economic, political, cultural and social value?

The difference between musical genres is also in evidence in their relationship to recording. Here we see the tension perpetually created in popular music by the notion of authenticity, which varies according to popular music genre and often comes into play in the relationship between recording and live performance. The values associated with a live sound in recording are not therefore the same in all genres. This has an impact on recording techniques, and on the various illusions that such techniques are called on to create, or not, when they aim to obfuscate the fact that recording is always an artefact.

How recordings are received and listened to is also a factor here: how do communities – audiences, but also critics and other professionals – judge recorded music? According to what criteria? Recording techniques have in turn led to changes in tastes, sensibilities, listening styles and habits. We have seen that the development of records as the predominant format for the consumption of music led to a habituation to sounds worked on in the studio and a resultant increased attention to timbre, for example. Listening has evolved in step with the habits and behaviours made possible by recorded music and its various formats, which are central to popular music. This also feeds into recent questions raised by sound studies and media archaeology in terms of soundscapes, sound archives, musical heritage and sound beyond music.

The IASPM 2025 biennial conference invites the exploration of these questions across all popular musical genres, emphasising their multidisciplinary nature, a key characteristic of popular music studies. Perspectives are welcome from anthropology, economics, sociology, aesthetics, musicology, history, and political fields, from technical studies, etc. This list is not exhaustive, and the intention is also to encourage cross-fertilisation between all possible approaches to the subject. Proposals may fall within the following areas, although proposals that fall outside the conference theme will not be exluded from the process, and will also be considered:

  • Recording as a medium
  • From recording to data and the predominance of streaming platforms (“platformisation”) in the consumption of popular music
  • Recording and liveness, recording and performance
  • Recording as a technique: equipment, media, electronic and digital technologies in signal processing
  • The recording studio and its different formats
  • Recording in sound studies
  • Recording practices and mediations, the status of intermediaries
  • Recording and related rights, remuneration models, international conventions
  • Recording and artificial intelligence
  • Recording and gender studies
  • Recording popular music and global cultural diversity. Traces or erasures of cultural diversity
  • Recorded music as heritage in exhibitions and museums
  • Recording and the music economy, the commodification of music
  • Sound recording as an investigative technique and/or as writing
  • Recording as a text for analysis
  • Recordings and their reception: how is recorded popular music listened to? What categories of evaluation are there? What are the links between recording and musical genres? 
  • Uses of recordings and dance practices

Organizing committee

Catherine Rudent (convenor), Marion Brachet, Romain Garbaye, Gérôme Guibert, Emmanuel Parent, Cécile Verschaeve

Scientific Committee

Chair: Christophe Pirenne

Mike Alleyne, Alessandro Arbo, Samantha Bennett, Lori Burns, Céline Chabot-Canet,

Meng Tze Chu, Martha de Ulhoa, Oded Erez, Franco Fabbri, Patryk Galuszka, Elsa Grassy,

Line Grenier, Catherine Guesde, Laura Jordan Gonzalez, Olivier Julien, Serge Lacasse,

Amparo Lasen, Buata Malela, Isabelle Marc, Julio Mendivil, Sue Miller, William Moylan,

Richard Osborne, Sergio Pisfil, Laurent Pottier, Cécile Prévost-Thomas, Catherine

Provenzano, Oliver Seibt, Veronica Skrimsjö, Catherine Strong, Justin Williams, Masahiro Yasuda

Advisory board

Baptiste Bacot, Sarah Benhaïm, Rémi Boivin, Marion Brachet, Claude Chastagner, Salomé

Coq, Marianne Di Benedetto, Iulia Dima, Stephane Escoubet, Claire Fraysse, Romain

Garbaye, Vincent Granata, Elsa Grassy, Catherine Guesde, Gérôme Guibert, Guillaume

Heuguet, Jason Julliot, Marc Kaiser, Sébastien Lebray, Barbara Lebrun, Sangheon Lee, Julie

Mansion-Vaquié, Guillaume Mouleux, John Mullen, Emmanuel Parent, Christophe Pirenne, Laurent Pottier, Jean-Christophe Sevin, Jedediah Sklower, Florence Tamagne, Cécile Verschaeve

Submission

We invite abstracts, in English or in French, between 250 and 300 words, alongside a short list of bibliographical references (and/or sources if applicable). Please specify in which of the thematic areas the presentation falls (maximum three), and include a short bio-bibliography of the author, as well as specifying their IASPM branch.   The abstract should be submitted on this page: https://iaspmparis2025.sciencesconf.org/submission/submit  Submissions will be accepted until October 15th, 2024.

Each participant must be a member of a branch of IASPM: www.iaspm.net/how–to–join

Individual paper presentations are 20 minutes long, to be followed by a 10 minute discussion. Some sessions will be broadcast online. However, remote participation will not be possible. Proposals for organised panels are encouraged (ninety minute sessions with three papers, or two papers and a discussant). Each session should leave at least 30 minutes for discussion or for comments by a discussant immediately following the presentations. The panel organiser should submit the panel abstract and all individual abstracts (250-300 words each) in one submission, with a full list of participant names, their biography and their IASPM branch.

Conference webpage: http://www.univ–paris3.fr/iaspmparis2025

Organising committee e-mail address: iaspmparis2025@sorbonne-nouvelle.fr 

JOB: Indiana University, Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor of Music Theory (Popular Music)

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The Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University Bloomington seeks candidates for a tenured or tenure-track position in music theory to develop and teach in its new programs in music production and music business, with an expected start date of August 1, 2025. https://indiana.peopleadmin.com/postings/2543

The primary responsibilities for the position will initially involve developing and teaching undergraduate courses in music theory for the new degree program in music business and major in music production. Eventually, the candidate will also be expected to teach graduate and undergraduate courses in music theory; supervise research in their area(s) of expertise; and maintain an active program of research and scholarly publication. The candidate will be expected to participate in departmental committees, doctoral advisory committees, and other departmental activities, as well as serve on Jacobs School of Music committees.

A completed Ph.D. degree in music theory or its equivalent is required by time of appointment. Qualifications include a record of scholarly accomplishment, an active program of research, and experience in undergraduate teaching. We are particularly interested in candidates who can support the department in its continuing efforts to expand and diversify our curriculum as we envision the future of our field. Potential areas of interest include, but are not limited to, audio production, timbral analysis, the music business, or corpus studies, among other areas of specialty in popular music analysis. The music theory department is equally committed to excellence in teaching and to fostering scholarship in both new and existing areas in the discipline. Salary and rank will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.

A complete application consists of a letter of application; curriculum vitae; a sample syllabus for an undergraduate course in the analysis and theory of popular music for students without training in Western classical music; and the names, titles, and email addresses for each of three professional references. An email message with instructions about uploading letters of reference will be sent automatically to each of your reference providers immediately after you submit your completed application. Please do not send other materials until requested to do so. If you need help completing your application, please contact Cecilia Bass at (812) 855-5541 or ceciflem@indiana.edu.

Deadline: Screening will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled, with priority given to applications submitted by September 20, 2024.

Before a conditional offer of employment with tenure is finalized, candidates will be asked to
disclose any pending investigations or previous findings of sexual or professional misconduct.
They will also be required to authorize an inquiry by Indiana University Bloomington with all
current and former employers along these lines. The relevance of information disclosed or
ascertained in the context of this process to a candidate’s eligibility for hire will be evaluated
by Indiana University Bloomington on a case-by-case basis. Applicants should be aware,
however, that Indiana University Bloomington takes the matters of sexual and professional
misconduct very seriously.

Indiana University is an equal employment and affirmative action employer and a provider of ADA services. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment based on individual qualifications. Indiana University prohibits discrimination based on age, ethnicity, color, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, national origin, disability status or protected veteran status.

TENURED PROFESSOR IN AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSIC

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Harvard University

Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Department of Music and Department of African and African American Studies

Cambridge, MA

Position Description: The Department of Music and the Department of African and African American Studies seek to jointly appoint a tenured professor of African American Music. The appointment will be at the rank of Full Professor and is expected to begin on July 1, 2025. 

The successful candidate will work at the intersection of practice and criticism of African American music. He or she will have a distinguished record of scholarship in the history, philosophy, or theory of African American music, coupled with practical experience in the creation, performance, or artistic practice in one or more relevant musical traditions. A commitment to public scholarship and engaged ethics is desirable. The chosen candidate will teach three courses over two semesters, at the graduate and undergraduate levels, plus one teaching-equivalent contribution.

Keywords:

faculty, instructor, tenure, professor, senior

Boston, Cambridge, Massachusetts, MA, Northeast, New England

African American music, improvisation, performance, ethnomusicology, musicology, music theory

Basic Qualifications: Candidates are expected to hold a doctorate in a relevant field. 

Additional Qualifications: Demonstrated strong commitment to teaching, advising, and research is desired. Candidates should have a strong record of intellectual leadership and impact on the field, as well as the potential to contribute to both departments, to the University, and to the wider scholarly community.

Special Instructions: Please submit the following materials through the ARIeS portal (https://academicpositions.harvard.edu). Candidates are advised to apply by September 16, 2024. Applications will be reviewed until the position is filled. 

  1. Curriculum Vitae
  2. Research statement
  3. Teaching/advising statement that describes the candidate’s philosophy and practices as well as their approach to creating a learning environment in which students are encouraged to ask questions and share their ideas
  4. Service statement that describes efforts to strengthen academic communities, e.g., the candidate’s department, institution, and/or professional societies

5.   Authorization form

Harvard University is committed to fostering a campus culture where everyone can thrive and experience a sense of inclusion and belonging. Community members are encouraged to model our values of integrity, responsible mentorship, equity, and excellence no matter where they are.

To support this commitment to our values of inclusion and excellence, the external finalist for this position will be required to complete a conduct questionnaire – specifically regarding findings of violation, on-going formal complaint investigations, or formal complaint investigations that did not conclude due to the external finalist’s departure concerning: harassment or discrimination, retaliation, sexual misconduct, bullying or intimidating/abusive behavior, unprofessional relationship, or misconduct related to scholarship, research, teaching, service, or clinical/patient care.

Harvard will also make conduct inquiries to current and former employers of the external finalist regarding such misconduct. To facilitate these inquiries, Harvard requires all external applicants for this position to complete, sign, and upload the form entitled “Authorization to release information for external applicants” as part of their application. If an external applicant does not include the signed authorization with the application materials, the application will be considered incomplete, and, as with any incomplete application, will not receive further consideration.

The health of our community is a priority for Harvard University. With that in mind, we strongly encourage all employees to be up-to-date on CDC-recommended vaccines.

Harvard is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, age, protected veteran status, disability, genetic information, military service, pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions, or other protected status.

Contact Information:  Eli Bernhardt, Department of African and African American Studies, eli_bernhardt@fas.harvard.edu

XXIII IASPM Biennal International conference, Paris (France)

Featured

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https://iaspm-paris2025.sciencesconf.org/?lang=en

Recording popular music

IASPM 23rd international conference

Organized by Iaspm-branche francophone d’Europe and Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Paris, France

    Recording played a central role in the establishment of the field of popular music research in the 1970s and 1980s: at a time when popular music studies was gaining traction as a field of study, the specific status of recording made it possible to distinguish three areas of study: popular music, art music and folk music.

    Recording has also been seen as a symptom and a variable in the development of the music business. Having become a reproducible commodity, music evolved in new directions when, towards the middle of the 20th century, the record became the main medium of the music industry. At the same time, recording made music available for distribution across a broad range of media, including radio, cinema and later television and then the Internet. In the present era of the domination of streaming platforms in the consumption of popular music (known as “platformisation”), music rights and the creation of catalogues are taking on major importance for the cultural industries and the digital economy. 

    The recorded medium, as a reproducible asset, is also becoming something that can be preserved, archived and restored (republished) as media change. In addition to commercial aspects – the renewing of home equipment, the sale of augmented editions, alternate takes, and so on – there is a creative dimension involved. Recordings can be a medium for creation (for example in the practices of turntablism, dj-ing or sampling), as well as having a heritage dimension (recordings can be traces or treasures of the past). 

    The analysis of recordings as ‘texts’ of popular music has naturally been one of the main areas of research over the last forty years. This type of analysis, applicable to all recorded music, also has the advantage of problematising the barriers between musical meta-genres and blurring the boundaries between categories applied, sometimes too rigidly, to music.

    Research into music production and studio techniques has also seen considerable development over the last few decades. Scientific literature has long emphasised the importance of  the recording studio as a technical and artistic tool (the studio as musical instrument), as well as as a place of interaction, and an economic focal point, at the crossroads of the practical, the technical, the aesthetic and the social, with very specific characteristics in terms of space and time. It is also a place where certain production relationships have been seen to change. If we consider, for example, the relationship between musicians and production intermediaries, whose status has developed throughout the history of the recording studio. More recently, the growth of home studios since the 1980s has opened up new social and economic horizons. Here we might also mention creative revolutions: the composition-performance-production continuum, the central role of recording, the questioning of the status of the author/performer, and so on.

    New questions have come into play in the recording of popular music in recent years, and research has expanded to take in other, more contemporary, perspectives. These include postcolonial studies: how is music recorded around the world? Gender studies: how do recording practices reflect or shift power relations and gender stereotypes? Ecological issues also arise, through the question of the environmental footprint of recorded music, whether produced on physical media or in digital format.

    Moreover, in recent years, there has been a renewal of scientific curiosity regarding concerts and live performance as a central element within music production, as distinct from recordings. How distinct or different are they? It is often thought that the notion of live performance only exists because recordings dominate, and that the concept of liveness has only developed in relation to recordings, which are themselves mediated music.From an aesthetic and ontological point of view, there is a continuum between live music and recorded music (for example, when recorded music becomes the basis for new compositions or is used on stage). Cases range from hip-hop and trip-hop to electronic music; and beyond these, what should be said about the role of computers, artificial intelligence and the automatic production of recordings, in concerts and on record, and how these practices will evolve in the future?

    The revival of research on live performance parallels the re-emergence of the concert as the focal point of the music economy, in contrast to the situation in the second half of the 20th century, when live performance was little more than a means of promoting recordings and attracted little academic attention. We can therefore assume that the current interest in live music stems from the crisis in sales of recorded music seen in the first fifteen years of the 21st century. But more recently, with the advent of the global public health crisis from 2019 to 2022, the impossibility of going on stage or to a concert shook up live music habits and initiated new thinking and research into the live/recording bipolarity.

    There exists another aspect, and it is one of the most important: beyond recording as a process involving studios or various pieces of technical equipment, our conference is an invitation to look at the recording of popular music in global and cultural terms. Recording means keeping traces or tracks, a practice which can also be understood in a broader, anthropological sense: how are the traces kept or preserved? How are they also sometimes erased? How is socio-cultural diversity “recorded” or not in popular music? What role do field recordings play in this process? What is the logic behind this rendering invisible or this preservation, which facilitate the accessibility of certain genres or repertoires over others? How does the recording of music contribute to its semanticisation, its representation, the shaping of musical genres and the establishment of their aesthetic, economic, political, cultural and social value?

    The difference between musical genres is also in evidence in their relationship to recording. Here we see the tension perpetually created in popular music by the notion of authenticity, which varies according to popular music genre and often comes into play in the relationship between recording and live performance. The values associated with a live sound in recording are not therefore the same in all genres. This has an impact on recording techniques, and on the various illusions that such techniques are called on to create, or not, when they aim to obfuscate the fact that recording is always an artefact.

    How recordings are received and listened to is also a factor here: how do communities – audiences, but also critics and other professionals – judge recorded music? According to what criteria? Recording techniques have in turn led to changes in tastes, sensibilities, listening styles and habits. We have seen that the development of records as the predominant format for the consumption of music led to a habituation to sounds worked on in the studio and a resultant increased attention to timbre, for example. Listening has evolved in step with the habits and behaviours made possible by recorded music and its various formats, which are central to popular music. This also feeds into recent questions raised by sound studies and media archaeology in terms of soundscapes, sound archives, musical heritage and sound beyond music.

    The IASPM 2025 biennial conference invites the exploration of these questions across all popular musical genres, emphasising their multidisciplinary nature, a key characteristic of popular music studies. Perspectives are welcome from anthropology, economics, sociology, aesthetics, musicology, history, and political fields, from technical studies, etc. This list is not exhaustive, and the intention is also to encourage cross-fertilisation between all possible approaches to the subject. Proposals may fall within the following areas, without excluding other topics, as long as they correspond to the theme of the conference:

  • Recording as a medium
  • From recording to data and the predominance of streaming platforms (“platformisation”) in the consumption of popular music
  • Recording and liveness, recording and performance
  • Recording as a technique: equipment, media, electronic and digital technologies in signal processing
  • The recording studio and its different formats
  • Recording in sound studies
  • Recording practices and mediations, the status of intermediaries
  • Recording and related rights, remuneration models, international conventions
  • Recording and artificial intelligence
  • Recording and gender studies
  • Recording popular music and global cultural diversity. Traces or erasures of cultural diversity
  • Recorded music as heritage in exhibitions and museums
  • Recording and the music economy, the commodification of music
  • Sound recording as an investigative technique and/or as writing
  • Recording as a text for analysis
  • Recordings and their reception: how is recorded popular music listened to? What categories of evaluation are there? What are the links between recording and musical genres? 
  • Uses of recordings and dance practices

Submission

We invite abstracts, in English or in French, between 250 and 300 words, alongside a short list of bibliographical references (and/or sources if applicable). Please specify in which of the thematic areas the presentation falls (maximum three), and include a short bio-bibliography of the author, as well as specifying their IASPM branch. 

The abstract should be submitted on this page: https://iaspm-paris2025.sciencesconf.org/submission/submit 

Submissions will be accepted until October 30th, 2024.

Each participant must be a member of a branch of IASPM: www.iaspm.net/how-to-join

Individual paper presentations are 20 minutes long, to be followed by a 10 minute discussion.

Some sessions will be broadcast online. However, remote participation will not be possible.

Proposals for organised panels are encouraged (ninety minute sessions with three papers, or two papers and a discussant). Each session should leave at least 30 minutes for discussion or for comments by a discussant immediately following the presentations. The panel organiser should submit the panel abstract and all individual abstracts (250-300 words each) in one submission, with a full list of participant names, their biography and their IASPM branch.

PhD course “Analytical Theory and Methods of Popular Music Research”

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PhD course “Analytical Theory and Methods of Popular Music Research”

University of Agder, Kristiansand/Norway

Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Popular Music

October – December 2024

The University of Agder invites applications for the PhD course “Analytical Theory and Methods of Popular Music Research”. The course provides an overview of scholarly discourses and methods in the interdisciplinary field of popular music research. It consists of lectures, seminars and presentations by the participating PhD students.

The hybrid meetings (face-to-face at the Kristiansand campus and via Zoom) will take place on the following days, each from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.: 10 October, 13 November, 3 December, and 5 December 2024. Lecturers: Prof. Eirik Askerøi, Prof. Tor Dybo, Dr. Ingolv Haaland, Prof. Daniel Nordgård, and Prof. Michael Rauhut (course tutor).

The course is free of charge and equates 10 ECTS Credit Points. At the end of the course, each participant is required to submit a paper of approximately ten pages in which her/his own dissertation project is presented in relation to general discourses in the field of popular music research. The final schedule and reading list will be published in September 2024. The number of participants will be limited to a maximum of ten.

Please send your applications and inquiries to: michael.rauhut@uia.no

4th Conference of the International Network for Artistic Research in Jazz (INARJ)

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4th Conference of the International Network for Artistic Research in Jazz (INARJ)

Communities of Practice

October 3-5, 2024, Jam Music Lab University

Vienna, Austria

Call for Proposals

 

The International Network for Artistic Research in Jazz (INARJ) was founded in 2019 in reaction to the increasing relevance of artistic perspectives in the academic discourses in jazz research. INARJ organizes regular symposia as a platform for knowledge exchange and connection between artistic jazz researchers worldwide. The specific focus for the fourth conference is artistic research and communities of practice ranging from geographic communities and the role of place making and curatorship, networks inside and outside of jazz, communities of pedagogy and education, social communities and marginalized groups, and economic and business communities, with the aim of discussing status, strategies, and transformation.

 

Some conference sessions will be provided in hybrid format, however, we encourage participants to plan on in-person attendance for more effective engagement in discussions and projects. Presentations should address one or more of the following areas in the form of discussion forums, project presentations, or performance sessions. 

 

Geographic Communities and Placemaking

Creative Placemaking strengthens communities through partnerships across sectors, integrating art, culture, and design activities, and helps advance local economies and social change. Creative Placemaking can be developed as an artistic strategy to bring attention to or elevate community assets, inject new or additional energy, people, resources, or activities into a place, community, issue or local community, envision new possibilities for a community or place, connect people, places, and economic opportunities via physical spaces or new relationships. What are opportunities, examples, options, strategies that connect the artistic practice of jazz with communities and placemaking activities and strategies?

Networks Inside and Outside of Jazz

Teitelbaum et al (2008)[1] note that “music is one of the richest sources of interaction between individuals”. The number of collaborations by jazz musicians is traditionally higher than in other musical genres due to the common practice of recording and performing in many different constellations. Jazz performances are highly interactive and as a result, the resulting social and musical networks are rather complex. Networks can be documented via archival, biographical, or various metadata sets and visualized in interactive maps. What is the role of artistic research in documenting existing networks, exploring the influence of networks, and exploring new ways of thinking about networks and changing norms? In which ways can artistic research contribute to the formation of new networks and what are its differences to traditional networks in jazz?

Communities of Pedagogy

Initially, during the rise of jazz as the dominant popular art form reintegrating improvisation as a musical practice in the musical discourse, jazz musicians developed their highly influential musical directions largely through autodidactic listening, practicing, jam sessions, and in touring bands. The development of an academic jazz pedagogy during the 1960s initiated the codification of jazz styles and performance practice. Parallel, rooted in the Lenox School of Jazz’ summer workshops, models of contemporary improvisation were conceived, synthesized, or even improvised resulting in various research devoted to improvisation. Current approaches focus on the notion of ‘play’ and the notion that music can serve as a model for improvisation practice in everyday life. What are new theoretical and organizational models, as well as new practices for institutional partnerships, the teaching of improvisation, teacher education, and theories of improvisation? How can artistic questions and strategies contribute to the development of jazz pedagogy in formal as well as informal learning environments?

Social Communities and Marginalized Groups

Throughout its history, jazz has functioned as a catalyst for social and political change. From early integrated bands to voices of protest for Civil Rights, to raising of awareness of contemporary racial discrimination, jazz musicians played an integral role as social and political activists. For example, during the height of the Cold War, the US Government selected a group of prominent jazz musicians to be world-wide ambassadors for peace. Furthermore, Max Roach’s 1960 release We Insist! Freedom Now! is one of the most important statements of contemporary music. However, jazz is the least diverse art form in terms of gender participation and the use of the term jazz has been widely disputed due to lingering racial connotations. Besides the canonic representations of jazz at established institutions, jazz and jazz-related practices have participated in the formation of a variety of social communities throughout the world. What contemporary social communities can we observe, are active, and are transformative through jazz practices? On the other hand, what groups are marginalized and what are effective strategies for integration? What is the role of jazz and specifically artistic practice in shaping the society of the future? How can jazz practices help to overcome gaps and conflicts between communities worldwide?

Economic Communities and Artist Teams

The music business has experienced drastic restructuring throughout the 20th century which has accelerated during the digital age. Initially, income from recorded music fueled a thriving support system of record labels and distribution, with live music as a secondary income source and way to connect to the public. However, the current dominance of streaming services is a convenient and cheap source of access for the consumers but has failed to provide a substantial income stream for creators. Consequently, support structures for recorded music have disappeared and the reliance on income from live performances has grown exponentially. The artist now needs to control all aspects of career development and is often confronted with the need for substantial financial investment and increasing economic instability. What are the changes of artistic practices in the context of current communities for economic support and stability? What is the current career trajectory and options for future economic viability and how does this reflect in artistic work?

  1. Presentations – 20-minute presentation followed by 10 minutes of Q&A and discussion
  2. Performance Projects – 20 minute projects followed by 10 minutes of Q&A and discussion.
  3. Open Formats – panels, jam session, focus groups up to 60 minutes

Projects can be shared via recorded materials or live. For live performances, the room allows for a basic combo setup with keyboard, bass and guitar amps, and drum set. However, it is not possible to allow for rehearsal time and space and human resources.

The conference will coincide with the launch of the Journal for Artistic Research in Jazz (ARJAZZ) through the Research Catalogue. The journal is administered through a consortium of universities and an INARJ initiative. Conference presentation have the option for submission to the second edition of ARJAZZ with publication pending peer review results.

For further information please visit http://www.artisticjazzresearch.com or contact monika.herzig@jammusiclab.com.

Please send conference proposals by July 5, 2024 in form of an Abstract of approximately 200 words or with links to media, a short Bio of not more than 150 words, and indication of presentation, performance project, or open format (with explanation) to conference@artisticjazzresearch.com.  

Conference Convenors

Michael Kahr (JAM MUSIC LAB Private University for Jazz and Popular Music Vienna / University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz)

Monika Herzig (JAM MUSIC LAB Private University for Jazz and Popular Music Vienna)

Andrew Bain (Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff UK)

Mike Fletcher (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire)

Matthias Heyman (Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel / Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

[1] Teitelbaum, T., Balenzuela, P., Cano, P., Buldú, J.M. Community structures and role detection in music networks. Chaos Interdiscip. J. Nonlinear Sci. 18, 043105 (2008).

The 2024 Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium

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The 2024 Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium

Sheets of Sound: Jazz, Improvisation, and Liner Notes

University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

September 11-13, 2024

The International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI), in partnership with  the Guelph Jazz Festival and the University of Guelph, invites proposals for presentations at our  annual interdisciplinary international conference. The colloquium will take place September 11- 13, 2024, as part of the 31st annual Guelph Jazz Festival. Featuring panel discussions, debates,  performances, workshops, keynote presentations, and critical conversations among researchers,  artists, and audiences, the colloquium fosters a spirit of collaborative, boundary-defying inquiry  and dialogue, and an international exchange of cultural forms and knowledges. 

In his liner notes for John Coltrane’s 1958 recording Soultrane, jazz critic Ira Gitler famously  coined the phrase “sheets of sound” to describe Coltrane’s unique style of improvisational  playing. It’s an apt phrase not only for attempting to capture in writing the spirit and energy of  Coltrane’s distinctive style, but also for acting as a metaphoric descriptor for the very genre of  liner notes. As an important part of the history of jazz and creative improvised music, liner notes  might themselves be considered as something akin to “sheets of sound” that have played a vital  role in shaping our understanding of the music. 

“Part publication relations blitz, part advertisement, part advance directive for hipsters, part  forum for writers hoping to match chops with the musicians they adored, liner notes  accomplished several tasks at once” writes Timothy Gray in his essay on “Jazz Criticism and  Liner Notes” in the recently published volume Jazz and American Culture. This year’s edition of  The Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium invites presentations, prompts, and creative responses that  reflect on some of these tasks, and that take up the question of what it means to use the liner note  genre to write about jazz and creative improvised music. 

In what ways have liner notes shaped the way the music is received? To what extent do liner  notes contribute to the ways in which we negotiate and construct meaning about the music, how  we understand history, how and why we listen? In what ways have digital dissemination and  streaming services disrupted our notions of liner notes? And how has this shifted  listener/audience understanding about their favourite artists? 

Citing the “far-out notes produced by Sun Ra, John Coltrane,” and others, Daphne Brooks in her  book Liner Notes for the Revolution explains that “liner notes hold out the possibility of  operating as critical, fictional, or experimental works of writing in and of themselves.  Conventional liner notes,” she suggests, “often walk a fine line between pedagogy and  socialization, between sociohistorical and cultural reportage and heuristic conditioning (here’s

how and why to love the artist in question). The most ambitious notes strive toward the narrative  realization, or the narrative reimagining, of a sonic collection of songs altogether.” What, then,  does it mean to engage in a narrative realization or reimagining of music? What are some of the  critical, fictional, conceptual, or experimental forms and practices being advanced by writers of  liner notes? What is it like to hear about the music from the artist’s perspective, and how might  this shape the listener’s sonic experience? What is the future of liner notes in an age dominated  by the digital delivery and dissemination of music? Does writing liner notes constitute a lost art  or is the practice enjoying a resurgence? In what ways do archived/archival forms of liner notes  play into thinking and writing about jazz and creative improvised music today? And what roles  do artwork, design and layout play in the presentation and impact of liner notes and the reception  of an album?  

We invite presentations that address these (and other related) questions and concerns, as well as  creative work that takes up the conference prompts. We are particularly interested in  interdisciplinary presentations that speak to both an academic audience and a general  public. We also invite presenters to submit completed versions of their papers and presentations  to our peer‐reviewed journal, Critical Studies in Improvisation/Études critiques en improvisation  (www.criticalimprov.com) for consideration.

Please send (500 word) proposals (for 15-minute delivery—alternate formats may also be  considered) and a short bio by May 31, 2024, to Dr. Ajay Heble at jazzcoll@uoguelph.ca

Philip Tagg

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Dear IASPM members,

The IASPM Executive is saddened to hear of the passing of IASPM founding member and popular music studies pioneer, Philip Tagg. Philip laid the groundwork for our discipline as we know it today, championing the study of popular music in the academy. Philip’s analytical methodologies brought popular musicology to the fore and showed us the depth and reach of popular musicality. Philip’s many works are widely cited today, and he leaves an extraordinary legacy that will resonate throughout our field now and long into the future. Philip was a generous and witty academic, a huge contributor to IASPM, and a mentor to many. He will be greatly missed.

The IASPM Executive will convene to see how best we can honour Phillip and his work. In the meantime, we extend our sincere condolences to his family, friends, and all who knew him.

Sincerely,

Sam 

On behalf of the IASPM Executive Committee