Editorial

Abigail Gardner is Professor of Cultural Studies at University of Gloucestershire (UK). Her research lies at the interface of popular music, sound, ageing and feminist media studies. She is the author of the books PJHarvey and Music Video Performance (2015), Aging and Contemporary Female Musicians (2020), Listening, Belonging, and Memory (2023) and, with Ros Jennings, Rock On: Women, Popular Music and Ageing (2012) and Ageing and Popular Music in Europe (2020). She has written on pop music, memory and music/migration. Her current funded research is on natural sound, ageing and care homes.

Dr Alex de Lacey is Assistant Professor in Popular Music at the University of Groningen. His research focuses on performance in grime and hip-hop. His first book, Level Up: Live Performance and Creative Process in Grime Music, was released through Routledge in 2023. Alex is published in Global Hip-Hop Studies, Popular Music, Popular Music History, Radio Journal and a wide variety of edited collections. He runs grime and bass event DRUK in Groningen, with a monthly show on Relate Radio.

Eric Smialek is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Huddersfield where he researches expression, technique, and cultural meaning in extreme metal vocals. His recent publications appear in the journals ZGMTH, Samples, Volume! and in The Cambridge Companion to Metal Music, Heavy Metal Music and Disability, and Musical Scenes and Social Class. His further specialization on Taylor Swift includes an article on LGBTQ allyship in Contemporary Music Review, co-founding the European Taylor Swift Research Network, and co-organization of the 2024 Taylor Swift unconference in Amsterdam. As a long devotee of Mahler’s music, he is now pursuing a long wish to contribute to Mahler studies. He serves on the editorial advisory board for the journal Metal Music Studies and as Assistant Editor for IASPM Journal.