Call for papers
Severn Pop Network Inaugural Conference
The Small Economies of the ‘New’ Music Industry
University of Bristol
25 March 2013

The music industry is in a well-publicised state of upheaval. The emergence of digital reproductive technologies (such as CD burners and MP3s), of digital distribution and consumption technologies (such as the iPod, iTunes and Spotify), and of new social media (such as Myspace and Facebook) have radically disturbed established systems of production and consumption. The benefits of these changes have fallen unequally and most cultural commentary has focused on the problems caused to the global record industry. However, one of the distinctive features of the music industry is the continuity between localised ‘para-industrial acts’ and mainstream commercial practices. The importance of geographic and genre-based scenes means that small music economies have a greater significance for the structural organisation of the music industry than in other cultural industries: ‘in the music industry… the small is as significant as the big’ (Frith, 2000). Continue reading →

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

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. Continue reading →

Club Health Conference on Nightlife & Substance Use
San Francisco
28-30 May 2013

The Club Health Conference on Nightlife & Substance Use will be invading San Francisco 28-30 May 2013. This will be the 8th annual gathering and the first time this event will take place in the United States. Come join us to present, discuss, and network on ideas for designing and implementing harm reduction policies at raves, clubs, large-scale festivals, and other entertainment settings around the world. Information on registration and presentation submissions is available at the official website.

Call for papers
Changing the Tune
Popular Music & Politics in the 21st Century from the Fall of Communism to the Arab Spring
Strasbourg University, France
7-8 June 2013

Popular Music scholars have devoted considerable attention to the relationship between music and power. The symbolic practices through which subcultures state and reinforce identities have been widely documented (mainly in the field of Cultural, Gender and Postcolonial Studies), as has the increasingly political and revolutionary dimensions of popular music. Most studies have focused on the genres and movements that developed with and in the aftermath of the 1960s counterculture. Yet little has been written about how the politics of popular music has reflected the social, geopolitical and technological changes of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, after the fall of Communism. Continue reading →

Call for papers
Ray Browne Conference on Popular Culture
Modes of Mobility: Popular Culture in an Age of Technology
8 – 10 February 2013
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, Ohio

To build on the success of the First Annual Ray Browne Conference, and usher in the fortieth year of the Popular Culture Department at Bowling Green State University, the Popular Culture Scholars Association at BGSU would like to invite any and all students (undergraduates and graduate), scholars, critics, former members of the POPC program and friends of the department to join us for the Ray Browne Conference on Popular Culture to be held February 8 through February 10 2013, on the campus of Bowling Green State University. Continue reading →