Music and Environment

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Call for papers
Music and Environment Symposium
University of Technology, Sydney
Friday 26 April 2013

Music relates to different types of environmental transformations: social, economic, political, cultural or technological, while environmental changes can be heard in music and soundscapes. There has been an increase in academic discourse relating to the ecology of sound, or ‘green music’, often in relation to the preservation of an environment’s sonority. Environmental sounds figure in sound sculptures, installations and compositions. In popular music, the notion of place has been of particular interest. Labels such as the “Seattle”, “Liverpool”, “Perth” or “Dunedin” sound have come to function as almost genre-like distinctions relating to place-based music. Continue reading →

Master Class for Doctoral Students‏

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Master class on media and communication studies perspectives on music consumption
University of Roskilde, Denmark
15 October 2013

Organizers: Dr. Fabian Holt and the research program in Communication, Journalism and Performance Design at CBIT, Roskilde University

This master class offers Ph.D. students working on music and media an opportunity to discuss their dissertation research in the context of recent developments in communication and media studies. This one-day event begins by offering three core perspectives on the field before concentrating on in-depth discussions of chapter drafts by the participating doctoral students. The three emerging perspectives to be addressed in the opening lectures are 1) the ethical turn, 2) post-broadcasting, and 3) the audiovisual turn in music consumption. Continue reading →

Functional Sounds: Auditory Culture and Sound Concepts in Everyday Life

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Call for papers
Functional Sounds: Auditory Culture and Sound Concepts in Everyday Life‏
Berlin, 4-6 October 2013

Information and call for papers can be found at http://www.soundstudies.eu/2013conference/

The conference is organised by Sound Studies Lab at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the international research network Sound in Media Culture, and European Sound Studies Association (ESSA). Continue reading →

Out of the Absurdity of Life

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New book
Out of the Absurdity of Life – Globale Musik
Thomas Burkhalter and Theresa Beyer

GlobaleMusik

The first book of norient (network for local and global sounds and media culture – www.norient.com), edited by Thomas Burkhalter and Theresa Beyer, discusses contemporary movements and trends within globalised music scenes in Europe, Africa, Latin-America, Asia and the US. In Out of the Absurdity of Life – Globale Musik, journalists, scientists, artists and photographers question protest and provocation within the USA, Ghana and England. They dive into the shrill party worlds of São Paulo, trace the reinvention of Syrian synthesizer-pop and discuss the provocation potential of Latin-American copulation dance-moves. Journalistic and scientific, part of the book is in German, part in English. Continue reading →

Religion and Blasphemy in Popular Music

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Call for papers
French Association for American Studies Conference
23-25 May 2013
Angers, France
General Topic: Religion and Spirituality
Popular Music Panel Topic: Religion and Blasphemy in Popular Music

Though American popular music is more celebrated for its iconoclastic tendencies than its spiritual leanings, it welcomes the profane as much as the religious, the mundane as much as the transcendental, the flesh as much as the spirit. While heavy metal, rock, and gangsta rap have been famously accused by over-eager media of Satanism and immorality, other genres such as gospel, folk, and more recently Christian rock, New Age, or taqwacore have glorified God, and allowed their followers to access new forms of spirituality. The whole family of popular music, which includes the Carter Family, Madonna, Mahalia Jackson, Marilyn Manson, Little Richard, or Bob Dylan, reflects – sometimes magnifies – the relationship we may entertain with the divine. Some celebrate the Gospel, others tell us of their struggles with their inner demons. Even when it explicitly celebrates rebellion and transgression – or playfully and ironically conjures up some satanic majesty – popular music remains connected to the spiritual. Continue reading →

MA in Performance Studies at Texas A&M University‏

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MA in Performance Studies
Department of Performance Studies
Texas A&M University

The Department of Performance Studies at Texas A&M University is accepting applications for the Master of Arts degree in Performance Studies. Performance Studies scholars examine relationships between performance and culture. Our program emphasizes the ethnographic study of vernacular culture and the integration of practice and research. The department has research strengths in Africana studies, dance and ritual studies, ethnomusicology, folklore, performance ethnography, popular music studies, religious studies, theatre history, media studies, and women’s studies. Continue reading →

MA in Popular Music at Western‏

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MA in Popular Music and Culture
Western University
London, Ontario, Canada

The Faculty of Information and Media Studies and The Don Wright Faculty of Music at Western University (London, Ontario, Canada) are now accepting applications for our joint MA program in Popular Music and Culture. The due date for applications is 1 February 2013. Complete applications received by this date will be given priority consideration. Details are available here: http://www.fims.uwo.ca/acad_programs/grad/pmc.htm  Continue reading →