Announcements

  • Special Issue: Aging, Time, and Popular Music

    21-03-2022

    This themed issue of IASPM Journal seeks to explore what aging might be/mean for popular music studies. Aging has not been addressed much across popular music studies, although significant contributions have emerged in relation to aging audiences (Bennett and Hodkinson 2012; Bennett 2013), nostalgia and revival (Driessen 2019), memory and music (Grenier and Valois-Nadeau 2020; Cohen, Grenier and Jennings 2022), the aging and ‘late’ voice (Elliott 2015, 2019), heritage culture (Roberts and Cohen 2014), and feminist interventions on representation across popular music (Gardner and Jennings 2020; Gardner 2020). We encourage contributions that speak to aging fans and fandoms, representation, performance and production from popular music studies, musicology, sociology, cultural studies, queer theory and, of course, from aging studies.

    Read more about Special Issue: Aging, Time, and Popular Music

  • Software Update

    08-02-2022
    Our IASPM Journal website will be undergoing a software update on February 10th 2022 and further website construction after that. Please do not be concerned during this time about the layout and design of the website. Thank you, Mary Fogarty Editor, IASPM Journal Read more about Software Update

  • 11.2 (2021) Special Issue: Popular Music, Decolonization and Indigenous Studies

    22-12-2021
    This Special Issue (11.2) of IASPM Journal aims to contribute to an ongoing process of decolonization through the lens and practices of popular music by highlighting Indigenous academics, theorists and musical explorations. The issue contains six articles and five book reviews. Liz Przybylski explores “Indigenous survivance” through what she calls “sonic sovereignty” which is the ability to frame how one is heard. Jon Bullock engages with Indigeneity discourse itself, offering a study on the early history of Kurdish Radio Baghdad. Israel Holas Allimant and Sergio Holas look at a 1970’s Chilean Psychedelic Rock band Los Jaivas, showing how their incorporation of Indigenous ways of being decolonize mainstream conceptions of the Chilean subject (as Andean, not dis-placed European). Ryan Shuvera offers an account of Inuk popular music artist and throat singer, Tanya Tagaq, looking in particular at the artist’s 2016 cover of Nirvana’s “Rape Me.” Ann Werner discusses the 2019 pop/hip hop album of one of the most well-known Sámi artists in Sweden, Maxida Märak, through an Indigenous feminist lens. Ismael de Oliveira Gerolamo's article, in the Open Section of the Issue, analyzes the third album of the Brazilian singer Nara Leão. Nico Thom reviews a book on Eastern European popular music. Marie Thompson reviews Dylan Robinson's Hungry Listening. Michael Ahlers reviews a field guide to understanding records. Benjamin Burkhart's review covers rap music's flow and rhythm. Sergio Pisfil reviews Carlos Torres Rotondo's Demoler: El Rock en el Perú 1965-1975 about the Peruvian rock scene. Click here to access this issue. Read more about 11.2 (2021) Special Issue: Popular Music, Decolonization and Indigenous Studies

  • Special Issue: Crises at Work: Potentials for Change?

    14-10-2021
    This special issue (11.1) consists of five articles, four statements (including a podcast) and two book reviews. Iain A. Taylor, Sarah Raine, and Craig Hamilton examine the UK live music industry during the COVID-19 pandemic and potential implications for social change. Magdalena Fürnkranz covers the live music scene in Vienna during the global pandemic. Melanie Ptatscheck discusses the mental health crisis concerns of EDM DJs related to COVID-19. Marco Antonio Juan de Dios Cuartas considers paradigm shifts in music production during the pandemic. Wonseok Lee and Grace Kao consider the power of fans through a case study of K-pop, BTS and BTS ARMYs in relation to #BlackLivesMatter. There is a podcast by Ioannis Tsioulakis on the politics of solidarity in Greece during the pandemic. Martin Lücke's statement considers the need for cultural policy changes in Germany. Jason Huxtable calls for accountability in white academics' work on popular music and Mirko Hall champions Hip Hop models of social change as powerful templates for hope. Nabeel Zuberi and Giacomo Bottà offer their insights on new books out in two reviews. Click here to access this issue. Read more about Special Issue: Crises at Work: Potentials for Change?

  • Practice Based Research

    06-07-2021
    Special Issue Editors: Laura Jordán González, Simon Zagorski-Thomas, Anthony Kwame Harrison, and Mary Fogarty IASPM Journal is the peer-reviewed open-access e-journal of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM). As part of an international network, the journal aims to publish research and analysis in the field of popular music studies at both global and local levels. The 21st century has seen a huge rise in practical and vocational courses in popular music, which is yet to be matched by a similar increase in research into and about practice. Philip Ewell’s plenary talk on ‘Music Theory’s White Racial Frame’ at the 2019 SMT conference made the point that it was not enough to look at a more culturally diverse range of repertoire through conventional theoretical lenses. It is also necessary to develop theory which goes beyond the practices and values of Western Art Music. Similar conceptual breadth should be applied to existing theories of performance, songwriting, the business of music and the uses of technology. This themed issue of the IASPM journal seeks to explore this practical turn in popular music studies through the aesthetics, the pragmatics and the politics of ‘doing’ popular music. Proposals might include, but are not limited to: • Music theory and pedagogy in popular music(s) • Judgments of value or quality in popular music practice • Movement, dance and the presentation of the persona • Theorising virtuosity • Using (and being used by) technology • How can and/or should music make money? • Theorising creativity • Power and influence in popular music practices • Modes of communicating popular music scholarship To be considered for this Special Issue, please submit the following by September 1, 2021: ● an abstract of 150-250 words (plus references, if necessary) ● author name(s) ● institutional affiliations ● contact details ● a brief bio of no more than 150 words (which includes the author’s positionalities in relation to their topic) Submissions should be entered via this online form (https://forms.gle/ZitHPoQuyuKccExx5). If your abstract is accepted, we expect to receive the full article uploaded into the online submission by June 1, 2022, at https://iaspmjournal.net/index.php/IASPM_Journal/about The issue will be published in early 2023. See the journal site for further information regarding Submissions. Click here for a Style Guide. NOTE: In order to submit to IASPM Journal you must be an IASPM member and registered as an author on the site. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the special issue editors at iaspmj.pr@gmail.com Read more about Practice Based Research

  • Call for Applications: IASPM Journal Editorial Board Members

    29-06-2021
    Two positions are now available on the IASPM Journal Editorial Board. The duration of the terms will be October 1, 2021-October 1, 2025. If you are interested, please fill out the questionnaire available here by August 1st 2021. We will announce the results of this call by October 2021. All editorial work is carried out online, via the OJS (Online Journal System), from the preliminary reading of submissions, the peer-review stage and editorial decision-making, to copyediting, layout and final proofreading. Although we have a robust editorial board team at the moment, most members began at the same time, so the call for two new positions at this time is to ensure a smooth rotation of editorial board members in coming years. Expectations of the editorial board involve copyediting and proofing articles that have gone through the peer review system, consulting at our annual board meetings, and contributing to other aspects of the journal. Members of our team without English language editing skills have also aided in calls for editorial board members and implementing internal guidelines for editorial board members, for example. We encourage applications from within the body of IASPM members. Although the form asks for transparency of past experience, we also strive for a balance of training opportunities and expertise amongst board members. We also hope to represent as many of our branches, subject interests, and cultural backgrounds as possible within our board membership. This competition will be discussed within the Editorial Board, especially with regard to diversity, academic qualification and editorial experience. Please find the requirements for the members of IASPM Journal Editorial Board: • has a good knowledge of, and specialism in, the field of popular music studies; • has good communication skills, and a working understanding of multicultural contexts, preferably with good control of the English language, and ideally at least one other IASPM branch language; • has good organisational skills, is able to take initiative and is able to deliver to deadline; • the position is usually held for 4 years, plus a 6-month handing-over period; • can support guest editors in producing special topic issues and encouraging article submissions; • can, in collaboration with the Chief Editor, act as Editor of article submissions; • can, in collaboration with the Assistant Editors, ensure that accepted articles are processed adequately through copyediting, proofing and layout stages. If you have some questions about the application process, do not hesitate to contact IASPM Journal editorial board members: Isabel Ferrer Senabre (isabel.ferrer.senabre@gmail.com) and Marija Dumnić Vilotijević (marijadumnic@yahoo.com). General enquiries can also be fielded by our Editor-in-Chief, Mary Fogarty (maryf@yorku.ca) Kind regards, Editorial Board of IASPM Journal Read more about Call for Applications: IASPM Journal Editorial Board Members

  • Vol 10, No 2 (2020) Open Issue

    10-12-2020
    This issue consists of four articles and five book reviews. Kai Arne Hansen discusses children's involvement in debates about climate change through music and music videos in Norway. Luiz Costa-Lima Neto analyzes the music and musical inspirations of Hermeto Pascoal, alongside his coined term "Som da Aura." Benjamin Hillier and Ash Barnes unpack the right-wing ideologies of Australian black metal bands, Spear of Longinus and Deströyer 666, covering the texts, paratexts, rationale of artists, and fan engagement. Sergio Mazzanti analyzes the output of the Russian rock band, DDT, and discusses the use of self-quotation by the bandleader to understand Russian history and his own life. There are also reviews by Monika Schoop, Antti-Ville Karja, Settimio Palermo, Mark Pedelty and Sergio Pisfil of new books about popular music in a Philippine prison video, cultural mapping and musical diversity, the politics of hope, the political ecology of music, and rap music and audiences. Click here to access this issue. Read more about Vol 10, No 2 (2020) Open Issue

  • Dance and Protest (2022)

    06-12-2020
    Special Issue Editors: Serouj Aprahamian, Shamell Bell, Rachael Gunn, and MiRi Park The recent succession of protests and uprisings following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of (now former) Minneapolis police officers overwhelmingly included dance as a protest tactic. While dancers have long engaged in cultural acts of resistance, this iteration in the #blacklivesmatter movement stemmed directly from the efforts of dancers/activists who participated in the protests following the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Ezell Ford, and Michael Brown. Dancer/activist/scholar/mother Shamell Bell deemed "Street Dance Activism" as a protest tool to celebrate Black Joy in the face of Black death, and renowned dance scholar Brenda Dixon-Gottschild has noted how such actions have gained increasing visibility over the last decade. Internationally, we have also seen the rise of dance actions such as the Māori haka performed in honor of and in solidarity with the victims of the Aotearoa/New Zealand mosque attacks, traditional Kurdish folk forms performed in protest over Turkish cultural repression, Chilean flash mobs mobilized against patriarchy and sexual violence, and the return of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy umbrella movement as a massive choreography of protest. Whether evoking emotions of pain and frustration or joy and exaltation, such displays link people together in a common cause, and draw attention to global struggles for political and social change. What’s more, the soundtrack of the protests, such as folk songs, African drumming, chants, anthems, and popular music, situates these actions within larger histories of rebellion and resistance. This Special Issue of the IASPM Journal aims to gather a broad range of scholarly and artistic perspectives on the topic of dance and protest, and the ways in which they interrelate, overlap, intertwine, and bolster political expression. We invite submissions that assess dance in relation to historical movements for social justice and grapple with questions related to how dance and music amplify each other within the framework of protests. We invite case studies that examine how dance is used at protests to enhance a political message, facilitate a call to action, unite people in solidarity, as well as examples of viral dances used for political means. We are interested in how protests themselves can be examined as a form of performance, and the potential limitations of performance as protest, especially when not linked to organized struggle. We encourage submissions on Indigenous experiences with dance, as well as the appropriation and commercialization of political dance and music. Submissions may consider, but are not limited to, any of the following topics: ● The interrelationship between dance, music, and protest ● Case studies of dance and protests (including TikTok / viral dances) ● Dance as a call to action ● Indigenous dance and activism ● Protests as performance ● The policing of the dancing body ● The commercialization and appropriation of dance and cultural activism More than a call for papers, however, this Special Issue is a CALL TO ACTION! As such, we invite two types of submissions: 1) Full articles, 2) Statements/Actions. 1) Full articles These submissions will be between 6,000-8,000 words and subject to double-blind peer review. We encourage practice-based and practice-led research submissions. 2) Statements/Actions These submissions are by scholars and/or practitioners (industry, education, administration, policymakers, etc.) about their dance/music activism experiences in the form of text (max. 2,000 words), audio (max. 12 minutes), or video (max. 8 minutes). The statements/actions will be subject to editorial review. ● This is a call to action, so if you would like your submission to be a part of a video collage of all submissions, please indicate this in your application. To be clear, we will select, subject to review, 1-3 video statements to be featured in full. To be considered for this Special Issue, please submit the following by February 15, 2021: ● an abstract of 150-250 words (plus references, if necessary) ● author name(s) ● institutional affiliations ● contact details ● a brief bio of no more than 150 words (which includes the author’s positionalities in relation to their topic) Submissions should be entered via this google form: https://forms.gle/RpcCxjBfMsB5Z1Qq8. If your abstract is accepted, we expect to receive the full article or statement uploaded into the online submission by August 1, 2021, at https://iaspmjournal.net/index.php/IASPM_Journal/about The issue will be published in 2022. See the journal site for further information regarding Submissions. Click here for a Style Guide. Read more about Dance and Protest (2022)

  • Vol 10, No 1 (2020) Open Issue

    14-11-2020
    This issue consists of three articles, three branch reports and five book reviews. Rosemary Lucy Hill and Molly Megson discuss how grassroots venues and promoters can implement changes to tackle sexual violence and work towards gender equality. Pascal Rudolph analyses the presentation of Björk’s filmic character, Selma, in Dancer in the Dark in conversation with her popstar status. Paul Carr and Ben Challis examine the creative incorporation of a specific type of repetition in popular music, that of loop-based composition and improvisation. Ruth Piquer, Bojana Radovanović and Emilia Barna provide IASPM branch reports covering the histories of popular music studies in Spain, Serbia and Hungary (respectively). There are also reviews by Bill Bruford, Jenna Doyle, Mark Duffett, Lee Marshall and Chris Anderton of new books out on the drum kit, popular music performance, The Beatles fandom, The Rolling Stones, and Henry Cow. Click here to access this issue. Read more about Vol 10, No 1 (2020) Open Issue

  • Crises at Work: Potentials for Change? (2021)

    08-07-2020
    Special Issue Editors: Michael Ahlers and Jan Herbst This Special Issue is motivated by, but not limited to, the current processes and effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the global civic rights movement related to “Black Lives Matter”, which highlights systemic racism as an epidemic in many societies around the world. Only a selection of topics is shown here, which is also historically part of personal, systematic or infrastructural crises of popular music cultures. The Special Issue of the IASPM Journal aims to gather a broad range of scholarly and artistic perspectives on crises in popular music composition and production, labour, business, education, societies and cultures. We understand crises as possible blockades of creative processes, economic threats, excessive demands on people or systems, but also as an opportunity for change. These potentials lead, for example, to changed forms of appreciation and to a renewed consideration of ecological or ethical values or to the establishment of new networks and methods for creative projects and work. This issue is interested in, but not limited to, any of the following themes: - Global (in)equalities and discrimination (e.g. racism, access to high-speed internet, online censorship) - Creative crisis, resilience and wellbeing - Crises of labour and music business - Innovative approaches to dealing with restrictions and limitations - Adaptations and alternative forms of commercial music industries - Focusing after overload: technical, psychological, social, economic issues - Value and appreciation of music professions in times of crisis - Emerging networks, communities and collaboration (online and offline) - Material and non-material support - Moral and ethical aspects of change We are looking for both scholarly contributions and expressions of opinion or relevant artistic outputs from professionals. The Special Issue also aims to provide a global perspective on support structure and hence motivates popular music scholars to provide information on their regional specifics. This Special Issue contains two parts, 1) full articles, 2) statements. Re 1) Full articles will be between 6,000-8,000 words and subject to double-blind peer review. We encourage practice-based and practice-led research submissions. The audio or audio-visual components must not be copyright protected and must be accompanied by a written component of 3,000 to 4,000 words that clearly describes research questions or objectives, relevant literature, the creative process and conclusions. Re 2) Statements by scholars and practitioners (industry, education, administration, policy makers etc.) about their experiences of crisis in the form of text (max. 2,000 words), audio (max. 12 minutes) or video (max. 8 minutes). The statements will be subject to editorial review. Abstract/proposals for full articles and statements are due by 15 August 2020, with full submissions (if accepted) expected by 1 January 2021. To be considered for this Special Issue, please submit an abstract of 150-250 words (plus references, if necessary) by 15 August 2020; along with author name(s), institutional affiliations, contact details and a brief bio of no more than 150 words which includes the author’s positionalities in relation to their topic to: j.herbst@hud.ac.uk. Please indicate “IASPM Crises Special Issue” in the subject line. If your abstract is accepted we expect to receive the full submission uploaded into the online submission by 1 January 2021 at https://iaspmjournal.net/index.php/IASPM_Journal/about Music will be submitted in 320 kbps .mp3 format and stored on the IASPM journal server, videos will be uploaded to IASPM Journal’s video channel. See the journal site for further information regarding Submissions. Our Style Guide is available on the website. Read more about Crises at Work: Potentials for Change? (2021)

  • Vol 9, No 2 (2019) Open Issue

    23-12-2019
    Lauren Leigh Kelly and Donald C. Sawyer discuss hip hop pedagogy in mainstream schools. Yuri Prado analyzes the capitalist logic of samba schools. Emma Winston and Laurence Saywood cover a new musical genre, Lo-Fi Hip Hop, and Christopher Charles considers the significance of crews in underground dance music scenes. Melanie Schiller, Beate Flath, Akitsugu Kawamoto, Ali C. Gedik, and Levent Ergun provide IASPM branch reports. There are also book reviews by Laura Niebling, Marianne Di Benedetto and Alison C Eales on new books out on heavy metal, popular music in France and the history of live music in the UK. Click here to access this issue. Read more about Vol 9, No 2 (2019) Open Issue

  • Vol 9, No 1 (2019) Pop Music Festivals and (Cultural) Policies

    11-10-2019
    This issue consists of five contributions. Daniel Fredriksson presents a study on the Falun Folk Music Festival in Sweden. Heikki Uimonen discusses the relationships between live music associations and various political and cultural institutions in Finland. Stian Vestby examines the programme and audience development processes at the Norwegian Country Meeting. Peter Lell discusses how world music festivals can be seen as sites of musical education. Bianca Ludewig introduces transmedia festivals as a new type of contemporary festivals. Click here to access this issue. Read more about Vol 9, No 1 (2019) Pop Music Festivals and (Cultural) Policies

  • Popular Music, Decolonization and Indigenous Studies (2020)

    26-09-2019
    Special Issue Editors: Daniel Hernandez and Kirsten Zemke This Special Issue seeks to confront the Western tradition of academia, which has only been made possible through historic and ongoing processes and ideologies of colonialism. This includes the paradox that many academic scholars and institutions are housed on stolen lands. This Special Issue of IASPM Journal aims to contribute to an ongoing process of decolonization through the lens and practices of popular music by highlighting Indigenous academics, theorists and musical explorations. Indigeneity is a contested and negotiated term yet provides a geopolitical identity and relationship to colonial legacies and contemporary power relations that survive and are resilient, despite the initial and enduring encounters of violence, erasure, displacement, and occupation. This includes Indigenous peoples in settler colonial nation-states as well as those within systems of coloniality in non-settler nation-states. Historical processes have served as catalysts to subversive Indigenous responses, adoptions and adaptations of styles and instruments, as well as, the erasure of Indigenous contributions to popular music. This issue is interested in, but not limited to, any of the following themes: • Indigenous peoples’ relationship with popular music • Indigenous musicians in popular music • Indigenous issues represented and negotiated in popular music • Popular music, Indigenous organizing, and protection of sacred sites • Decolonial coalition-building between communities through music • Indigenous Futures, Self-determination and cultural sovereignty • Indigenous cosmologies, instruments, and styles in popular music • Queer, Anti-colonial, Anti-capitalist Indigenous identities • Indigenous activism, sounds, and stories We would like this Issue to reflect a global spread and diversity. We are looking for articles that represent Indigenous popular music and issues on Turtle Island (North America), Oceania, Abya Yala (Central and South America), Africa, Asia, and wherever an Indigenous subject in popular music exists. Read more about Popular Music, Decolonization and Indigenous Studies (2020)

  • IJ 9/2 (2019) – Open Call

    19-09-2019
    IASPM Journal invites all IASPM members to submit papers for issue 2/2019 on any topic of research related to Popular Music Studies. The deadline for submissions is September 30th 2019. We seek contributions no longer than 8,000 words, inclusive of abstract. We expect to publish this issue in December 2019, with final decisions on submissions sent out in October 2019. Read more about IJ 9/2 (2019) – Open Call

  • IJ 8/2 (2018) – Open Issue

    10-12-2018
    This issue consists of two contributions. Emília Barna and Ádám Ignácz give a historical analysis of popular music studies in the 1960s and 1970s in the UK and Hungary. Jan-Peter Herbst and Tim Albrecht present findings from a study into the work realities of studio musicians in the German popular music recording industry. The review section consists of reviews from by Paul Long, Caroline Kennedy, Iain Taylor, Karlyn King and Eveleigh Buck-Matthews. Click here to access this issue. Read more about IJ 8/2 (2018) – Open Issue

  • IJ 8/1 (2018) – Gender Politics in the Music Industry

    20-08-2018
    This special issue focuses on Gender Politics in the Music Industry. It contains special issue articles from Kara Attrep, Toby Bennett, Cecilia Björck and Åsa Bergman, Helen Reddington, Cécile Navarro, Charity Marsh, and Caroline O'Sullivan as well as an open section article from Adrian Sledmere. The review section consists of reviews from Liam Alan Maloy, Verónica Dávila, Nabeel Zuberi. Derek B. Scott, Nicholas P Greco, and Laura Niebling. Click here to access this issue. Read more about IJ 8/1 (2018) – Gender Politics in the Music Industry

  • IJ 7/1 (2017) – Pop Life: The Popular Music Biopic

    29-10-2017
    Guest Editor: Matthew Bannister A special issue examining biopics of popular music artists, raising questions regarding the genealogy of the genre, remediation, authorship, identity and stardom, with articles by Jonathan Stewart, Benjamin Halligan and Liam Maloy; Maurizio Corbella; Ewa Mazierska; Bridget Sutherland and Paul Judge and Marcus O’Dair. Click here to access the issue. Read more about IJ 7/1 (2017) – Pop Life: The Popular Music Biopic

  • IJ 6/2 (2016) – Perspectives on Popular Music and Sound Recording

    30-12-2016
    Special Issue Editors: Samantha Bennett, Eve Klein A special issue that addresses the multiple relationships between popular music and sound recording in the construction of popular music and its cultures, with articles by Samantha Bennett, Eve Klein, Landon Palmer, Brett D. Lashua, Paul Thompson, Lori Burns, Gregory Weinstein, Maarten Michielse, and Alexander C. Harden. Click here to access the issue. Additional Editors: Hillegonda C Rietveld, Jacopo Tomatis, Sarah E Raine, William Echard, Carlo Nardi Read more about IJ 6/2 (2016) – Perspectives on Popular Music and Sound Recording

  • IJ 6/1 (2016) – New Directions in Music Fan Studies

    07-11-2016
    Special Issue Editors: Koos Zwaan, Mark Duffett A special issue regarding changes in popular music fandom and the new methodologies that the study of this subject, with articles by Toija Cinque, Sean Redmond, Marion Wasserbauer, Alexander Dhoest, Pilar Lacasa, Laura Méndez Zaballos, Julián de la Fuente Prieto, Simone Driessen, Bethan Jones, Chris Anderton and Gayle Stever. Plus an article by Rob Ahler, as well as a selection of book reviews. Click here to access the issue. Additional Editors: William Echard, Carlo Nardi, Sarah E Raine, Hillegonda C Rietveld, Jacopo Tomatis Read more about IJ 6/1 (2016) – New Directions in Music Fan Studies

  • Looking for reviewers of publications and other outputs in Popular Music Studies

    28-04-2016
    We seek expressions of interest from IASPM members to act as potential reviewers of academic publications, documentaries and websites in the field of popular music studies. If you are interested in reviewing for IASPM@Journal, please contact the Review Editor, Sarah Raine, at sarah.raine2 (at) mail.bcu.ac.uk, providing her with key words to indicate your research expertise, as well as your contact details (e-mail and postal address). In order to submit to IASPM@journal you must be an IASPM member, and register as an Author on this site. Read more about Looking for reviewers of publications and other outputs in Popular Music Studies