Call for Chapter Proposals, The Oxford Handbook of Pop Music, edited by Eric Weisbard
Proposals now due: August 15, 2023
Pop music, by definition, is commercial music: motivated by profit more than artistry, seeking a mainstream appeal that forbids fussiness about aesthetic absolutes. This resistance to firm definition has affected music writing. Jazz criticism, rock criticism, and rap criticism reflected genre communities debating standards. Popular music studies preferred scenes, subcultures, and other margins that at times crashed the charts. Sound studies almost left music behind altogether. There is no precise field of pop studies to glean from. Nevertheless, for 20-plus years now the Pop Conference has featured hundreds of writers pursuing pop across numerous topics and methods. And a phrase has circulated, “poptimism,” disposed to correct for the biases of “rockism.” The Oxford Handbook of Pop Music will build upon these significant beginnings.
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