Napster at 25 years

This year is the 25^th anniversary of the founding of Napster. At the time, the software allowed computer users to access music files online for the first time in an efficient manner. Following its release, record executives swore it would end recorded music; in fact, record labels continue to see profits every year.

However, the impact of Napster was much larger than just downloading music. The technology changed the Internet to facilitate the exchange of files on a large scale. Corporations across media and cultural industries reacted to stifle the burgeoning peer-2-peer software’s development. A cadre of lawyers and lobbyists worked to stop filesharing and change the laws governing the Internet. These changes altered the cultural development of software and trapped us in an era of unending consumption.

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Black British Music: Past, Present and Futures Symposium

British Library & Black Music Research Unit,  12th July 2024

General Outline

How can the concept of “Black British Music” be reframed or reimagined to better capture the diversity and complexity of Black musical experiences in Britain? What role should national institutions, such as the British Library, play in preserving and promoting Black British Music? And how can collaborations and partnerships between institutions, researchers, artists, and communities be leveraged to advance the understanding, appreciation, and impact of Black British Music?

Black British Music: Past, Present and Futures is an interdisciplinary symposium that reflects on the meaning, histories and legacies of Black British music. The symposium forms part of a broader partnership project between the British Library and the University of Westminster’s Black Music Research Unit (BMRU). Culminating in the first major exhibition on Black British Music, Beyond the Bassline: 500 years of Black British Music, the partnership aims to research and curate national collections relating to Black musical experiences in Britain in a way that engages with broader conversations on British popular culture and Black histories.

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Rhythm under the Microscope

An Interdisciplinary Conference on Microrhythm and Groove in Popular Music
25-27 September 2024, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Institute of Popular Music
Organized by Ralf von Appen in Collaboration with David S. Carter (Loyola Marymount University)

Keynotes: Anne Danielsen (RITMO, University of Oslo) and Justin London (Carleton College)

Since Charles Keil (1987) argued that very small variations in timing, which he called “participatory discrepancies,” were crucial for a sensation of groove, microrhythm has been the subject of much scholarship in a variety of disciplines. Researchers have struggled to find convincing empirical evidence for the aesthetic effects proposed by Keil. Today, however, numerous studies show that timbre, center frequency, dynamic envelope, and duration influence the perception of rhythmic “feel” at least as much as timing. Recently, Danielsen et al. (2024, 180) suggested distinguishing between microtiming and microrhythm, using the latter as a broader term that encompasses not just timing but also these additional aspects.

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Voices of Women – Unheard Voices 

Voices of Women (VOW) Erasmus+ Educational Symposium for researchers, music educators, and graduate music students
October 10-11, 2024
Faculty of Performing Arts at the University of Stavanger, Norway

The Voices of Women project, VOW, an Erasmus+ funded joint project with the University of Groningen, The University of Stavanger, UiT-The Arctic University of Norway, and the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar, invites paper presentations, performances, lecture recitals from teachers, performers, graduate students, and scholars interested in the theme of unheard voices. We understand voices metaphorically, artistically, and literally to include women or women-identifying genders in a variety of roles whose creative musical ‘voices’ contribute to the authorship of a particular body of work.

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The Taylor Swift Unconference

On July 4, 5 and 6, Taylor Swift will perform in Amsterdam, consequent to the Celebrity Studies Conference in Amsterdam (1 – 3 July 2024). The combination of these events offers a unique opportunity to gather, celebrate, and critique the multifaceted persona(e) of an increasingly iconic performer and songwriter. As the inaugural meeting for the European Taylor Swift Research Network, we hope this unconference will generate new insight into the emerging field of ‘Swift Studies.’

This unconference brings together a select group of like-minded scholars to delve into the nuances of Taylor Swift’s artistry, cultural impact, and personal evolution through an interdisciplinary research lens. The format is open, flexible, and therefore dependent on proposals received. We aim to foster a space of inclusivity and interdisciplinarity, blending presentations and break-out discussions in order to share research, encourage idea generation, and to spur new collaborations. At the end of the day, we hope to have established the groundwork for a special issue of IASPM Journal on the star while also considering the future of the research network and potential collaborative efforts.

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Rock, Activism and Liberation (1950-2020)

International conference organised by Jean-Christophe Aplincourt, Pascal Dupuy and Joann Élart
Université de Rouen Normandie, GRHis – Le 106
12-14 March 2025
https://grhis.univ-rouen.fr/grhis/?event=aac-cfp-rock-engagements-et-emancipations-1950-2020

In the collective consciousness, Woody Guthrie (1912-1967) represents the embodiment of a musician fighting social and economic injustices. One of the most renowned singers of the first half of the twentieth-century, Guthrie, in a testament to his conviction of the power of music and lyrics, inscribed on his guitar, “This machine kills fascists.” John Steinbeck even associated him with the spirit of freedom and resistance that animates the American people. The reality, as revealed to us by his biographers, suggests a musician whose progressive ideological commitment needs to be partially tempered. Nevertheless, despite his ambiguities, he represents a singer who, through his words, courageously expressed his convictions against oppression and in favor of freedom of expression. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly for rock fans, he was the artist who inspired Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen in the United States and Joe Strummer (known as Woody during his pre-Clash years) in the United Kingdom, three emblematic figures of the politically engaged musician of the last third of the twentieth century. Similarly, though more discreetly, there have been a number of bands / singer-songwriters who have displayed support for right-wing and/or extremist ideologies. A tradition of political commitment from various ideological perspectives animates rock music and can be traced back to individual charismatic musicians from the past. This tradition is constantly being reified, renewed, and reshaped by new generations of musicians.

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Musicology Matters Today

Saturday 7th — Monday 9th December, 2024
New Zealand School of Music—Te Kōkī,
Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington
Keynote address: Emeritus Professor Peter Walls
Public concert opportunity: Orchestra Wellington, “A Modern Hero”
Deadline for proposals: Sunday 26th May, 2024

The past few years have been challenging for musicology in New Zealand and around the world. This conference aims to affirm the importance of musicology and establish credible pathways for its future. Questions related to the conference theme might include:

• How is musicology in Aotearoa promoting knowledge and rewards for performers, composers, and listeners?
• How can tertiary music programmes articulate their worth in non-financial terms?
• What new pedagogical and research approaches might widen musicology’s appeal and contribution?
• How is musicology moving forward in its research involving place, race and gender?
• How might musicology’s engagement with the past be reconceptualised in forward-looking terms?
• How is musicology building its relevance to other musical and broader disciplines and practices? How can these relationships be deepened?
• What challenges does musicology face in an increasingly digital and online world, especially given the social and physical foundations of music and its performance?

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C21MP Conference 2024

The 21st Century Music Practice Research Network’s 2024 Two Day Conference is on Mon & Tue, 9^th & 10^th September 2024 at the Townshend Studio, University of West London, St. Mary’s Road, Ealing, London W5 5RF.

2024’s C21MP network event is themed around Pete Townshend’s long-term loan to UWL of his extraordinary collection of commercially produced electronic musical instruments. Presenters who wish to use one or more of the instruments from UWL’s Townshend Studio in their video or in the session should contact the organisers to discuss the possibilities (see list of instruments below).

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Re/Presenting Europe and Europeans in Twentieth Century Media – A critical examination

TMG Journal for Media History. Special Issue – Re/Presenting Europe Project
https://tmgonline.nl/announcements#representing-europe-and-europeans-in-twentieth-century-media—a-critical-examination

Guest Editorial Collective: Dr. Rachel Gillett, Dr. Gijs van Campenhout, Dr. Jacco van Sterkenburg, Isabella Hall Allen, Dastan Abdali, Jan Bant, Lis Camelia.

This special issue of TMG – Journal for Media History examines how historical practices of racialisation structure representations of Europe, Europeanness and belonging in the domain of popular culture. Mainstream media, by which we mean state-sponsored and dominant commercial and publicly accessible radio and television, and widespread print media genres such as newspapers and magazines, have produced and circulated dominant representations of who is European and has a rightful place in Europe. Although the domain of popular culture promises egalitarian and democratic representation, in practice, mainstream coverage of major sporting fixtures and popular music has historically offered simplistic or stereotyping portrayals of the complex and differentiated “othered” groups that contribute to European culture. We, therefore, invite submissions that re-examine media representations of popular culture through a critical lens.

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Musical Sustainabilities

18–19 November 2024, Seinäjoki, Finland

The Seinäjoki Unit of the University of the Arts Helsinki is pleased to announce an international symposium on “musical sustainabilities.” As the Sustainable Development Goals issued by the United Nations attest, sustainability has become a wide-ranging issue globally. While originally linked to the maintenance of natural resources, it has evolved to cover social, economic and cultural issues. Concerning music, the most apparent of these relate to work, production and industry, consumption and live music, and communities and institutions.

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