XXIII IASPM Biennal International conference, Paris (France)

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https://iaspm-paris2025.sciencesconf.org/?lang=en

Recording popular music

IASPM 23rd international conference

Organized by Iaspm-branche francophone d’Europe and Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Paris, France

    Recording played a central role in the establishment of the field of popular music research in the 1970s and 1980s: at a time when popular music studies was gaining traction as a field of study, the specific status of recording made it possible to distinguish three areas of study: popular music, art music and folk music.

    Recording has also been seen as a symptom and a variable in the development of the music business. Having become a reproducible commodity, music evolved in new directions when, towards the middle of the 20th century, the record became the main medium of the music industry. At the same time, recording made music available for distribution across a broad range of media, including radio, cinema and later television and then the Internet. In the present era of the domination of streaming platforms in the consumption of popular music (known as “platformisation”), music rights and the creation of catalogues are taking on major importance for the cultural industries and the digital economy. 

    The recorded medium, as a reproducible asset, is also becoming something that can be preserved, archived and restored (republished) as media change. In addition to commercial aspects – the renewing of home equipment, the sale of augmented editions, alternate takes, and so on – there is a creative dimension involved. Recordings can be a medium for creation (for example in the practices of turntablism, dj-ing or sampling), as well as having a heritage dimension (recordings can be traces or treasures of the past). 

    The analysis of recordings as ‘texts’ of popular music has naturally been one of the main areas of research over the last forty years. This type of analysis, applicable to all recorded music, also has the advantage of problematising the barriers between musical meta-genres and blurring the boundaries between categories applied, sometimes too rigidly, to music.

    Research into music production and studio techniques has also seen considerable development over the last few decades. Scientific literature has long emphasised the importance of  the recording studio as a technical and artistic tool (the studio as musical instrument), as well as as a place of interaction, and an economic focal point, at the crossroads of the practical, the technical, the aesthetic and the social, with very specific characteristics in terms of space and time. It is also a place where certain production relationships have been seen to change. If we consider, for example, the relationship between musicians and production intermediaries, whose status has developed throughout the history of the recording studio. More recently, the growth of home studios since the 1980s has opened up new social and economic horizons. Here we might also mention creative revolutions: the composition-performance-production continuum, the central role of recording, the questioning of the status of the author/performer, and so on.

    New questions have come into play in the recording of popular music in recent years, and research has expanded to take in other, more contemporary, perspectives. These include postcolonial studies: how is music recorded around the world? Gender studies: how do recording practices reflect or shift power relations and gender stereotypes? Ecological issues also arise, through the question of the environmental footprint of recorded music, whether produced on physical media or in digital format.

    Moreover, in recent years, there has been a renewal of scientific curiosity regarding concerts and live performance as a central element within music production, as distinct from recordings. How distinct or different are they? It is often thought that the notion of live performance only exists because recordings dominate, and that the concept of liveness has only developed in relation to recordings, which are themselves mediated music.From an aesthetic and ontological point of view, there is a continuum between live music and recorded music (for example, when recorded music becomes the basis for new compositions or is used on stage). Cases range from hip-hop and trip-hop to electronic music; and beyond these, what should be said about the role of computers, artificial intelligence and the automatic production of recordings, in concerts and on record, and how these practices will evolve in the future?

    The revival of research on live performance parallels the re-emergence of the concert as the focal point of the music economy, in contrast to the situation in the second half of the 20th century, when live performance was little more than a means of promoting recordings and attracted little academic attention. We can therefore assume that the current interest in live music stems from the crisis in sales of recorded music seen in the first fifteen years of the 21st century. But more recently, with the advent of the global public health crisis from 2019 to 2022, the impossibility of going on stage or to a concert shook up live music habits and initiated new thinking and research into the live/recording bipolarity.

    There exists another aspect, and it is one of the most important: beyond recording as a process involving studios or various pieces of technical equipment, our conference is an invitation to look at the recording of popular music in global and cultural terms. Recording means keeping traces or tracks, a practice which can also be understood in a broader, anthropological sense: how are the traces kept or preserved? How are they also sometimes erased? How is socio-cultural diversity “recorded” or not in popular music? What role do field recordings play in this process? What is the logic behind this rendering invisible or this preservation, which facilitate the accessibility of certain genres or repertoires over others? How does the recording of music contribute to its semanticisation, its representation, the shaping of musical genres and the establishment of their aesthetic, economic, political, cultural and social value?

    The difference between musical genres is also in evidence in their relationship to recording. Here we see the tension perpetually created in popular music by the notion of authenticity, which varies according to popular music genre and often comes into play in the relationship between recording and live performance. The values associated with a live sound in recording are not therefore the same in all genres. This has an impact on recording techniques, and on the various illusions that such techniques are called on to create, or not, when they aim to obfuscate the fact that recording is always an artefact.

    How recordings are received and listened to is also a factor here: how do communities – audiences, but also critics and other professionals – judge recorded music? According to what criteria? Recording techniques have in turn led to changes in tastes, sensibilities, listening styles and habits. We have seen that the development of records as the predominant format for the consumption of music led to a habituation to sounds worked on in the studio and a resultant increased attention to timbre, for example. Listening has evolved in step with the habits and behaviours made possible by recorded music and its various formats, which are central to popular music. This also feeds into recent questions raised by sound studies and media archaeology in terms of soundscapes, sound archives, musical heritage and sound beyond music.

    The IASPM 2025 biennial conference invites the exploration of these questions across all popular musical genres, emphasising their multidisciplinary nature, a key characteristic of popular music studies. Perspectives are welcome from anthropology, economics, sociology, aesthetics, musicology, history, and political fields, from technical studies, etc. This list is not exhaustive, and the intention is also to encourage cross-fertilisation between all possible approaches to the subject. Proposals may fall within the following areas, without excluding other topics, as long as they correspond to the theme of the conference:

  • Recording as a medium
  • From recording to data and the predominance of streaming platforms (“platformisation”) in the consumption of popular music
  • Recording and liveness, recording and performance
  • Recording as a technique: equipment, media, electronic and digital technologies in signal processing
  • The recording studio and its different formats
  • Recording in sound studies
  • Recording practices and mediations, the status of intermediaries
  • Recording and related rights, remuneration models, international conventions
  • Recording and artificial intelligence
  • Recording and gender studies
  • Recording popular music and global cultural diversity. Traces or erasures of cultural diversity
  • Recorded music as heritage in exhibitions and museums
  • Recording and the music economy, the commodification of music
  • Sound recording as an investigative technique and/or as writing
  • Recording as a text for analysis
  • Recordings and their reception: how is recorded popular music listened to? What categories of evaluation are there? What are the links between recording and musical genres? 
  • Uses of recordings and dance practices

Submission

We invite abstracts, in English or in French, between 250 and 300 words, alongside a short list of bibliographical references (and/or sources if applicable). Please specify in which of the thematic areas the presentation falls (maximum three), and include a short bio-bibliography of the author, as well as specifying their IASPM branch. 

The abstract should be submitted on this page: https://iaspm-paris2025.sciencesconf.org/submission/submit 

Submissions will be accepted until October 30th, 2024.

Each participant must be a member of a branch of IASPM: www.iaspm.net/how-to-join

Individual paper presentations are 20 minutes long, to be followed by a 10 minute discussion.

Some sessions will be broadcast online. However, remote participation will not be possible.

Proposals for organised panels are encouraged (ninety minute sessions with three papers, or two papers and a discussant). Each session should leave at least 30 minutes for discussion or for comments by a discussant immediately following the presentations. The panel organiser should submit the panel abstract and all individual abstracts (250-300 words each) in one submission, with a full list of participant names, their biography and their IASPM branch.

UCR Invites Graduate Applications in Music

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The Department of Music at the University of California, Riverside, invites applicants for the PhD and MA/PhD programs in Ethnomusicology, Historical Musicology, and Digital Composition. Graduate students are prepared for careers in academia or the public sector. 

The Digital Composition graduate program at UC Riverside offers innovative approaches to acoustic, electronic, and electroacoustic music creation. This program is designed for composers and music-centered interdisciplinary artists interested in exploring cutting-edge techniques in composition and production. Students have opportunities to learn Max/MSP and create electronic instruments. Areas of focus include but are not limited to software development; music technology; and opera, musical theater, and works for stage. 

Graduate students in Historical Musicology at UCR receive a thorough grounding in the discipline’s methodologies and current trends.  Students pursuing a master’s degree are free to explore any area of research that is of interest to them.  Those pursuing a doctorate will benefit from the department’s conspicuous strengths in the Ibero-American music heritage.

The Ethnomusicology graduate program engages students in practice-based research across a wide variety of geo-cultural areas. With strong theoretical underpinning, it also draws from interdisciplinary strengths across UCR including in gender and sexuality studies, Latin American studies, hip hop studies, Indigenous studies, and Southeast Asian studies. Among the program’s longstanding assets is its innovative focus on public-facing research and practice.

UCR’s strengths include:

·      A unique program in Music Industry Studies

·      Innovative composition and performance opportunities

·      An interdisciplinary program in Southeast Asia: Texts, Rituals, Performance

·      A vibrant interdisciplinary community in Indigenous Studies; UCR hosts the California Center for the Native Nations

·      Hip hop faculty specialists in the Music Department and across campus, including in Critical Dance Studies and Theatre

·      Center for Iberian and Latin American Music

·      Strong interdisciplinary focuses on the level of individual faculty members as well as across the university more broadly

For more information and to apply, visit https://grad.ucr.edu/apply/

The application deadline is December 31, 2024

Faculty:

Rogério Budasz: Musicologist specialized in the music of Brazil and Portugal, lute and guitar cultures, and early opera. Interested in the transatlantic circulation of musicians and repertories between Brazil, Europe, and West Africa during the colonial period and nineteenth century.

Bradley Butterworth: Works with graduate and undergraduate students to develop professional skill sets in the music industry. Emphasis on music production, mixing, mastering, recording, live sound, audio networking.

Paulo Chagas: Music technologies, semiotics, new media, interactivity, Brazilian music.

Xóchitl C. Chávez: the first tenured Chicana in UC Riverside’s Music Department. She is an Activist Scholar, feminist, musician, and dancer who bridges academic research with Mexican Indigenous and Latino cultural practices, advancing Public facing and transborder scholarship.

Ian Dicke: Composer, musician, and software designer inspired by the intersection of technology and social-political culture.

Walter Clark: Musicologist specializing in the Ibero-American musical heritage, with a particular focus on Spanish composers, performers, and music of the last 150 years.

Dana Kaufman: Composer-librettist specializing in opera, musical theater, and other works for stage, as well as in the intersections between pop culture, queerness, and classical music.

Samuel Lamontagne: Ethnomusicologist of hip hop and electronic dance music in Los Angeles, and in the African diaspora more generally. Research in music as a medium of Pan-African solidarity that can help us trace Black radical genealogies. Alongside H. Samy Alim and Tabia Shawel, he co-leads the UCLA Hip Hop Initiative. 

Liz Przybylski: Ethnomusicologist and pop music scholar focusing on hip hop, gender in the music industry, and Indigenous popular music. Research and practice in hybrid digital-physical ethnographic methods.

Jonathan Ritter: Music in the Andes, memory, violence, performance, Afro-Hispanic and Indigenous cultures.

Leonora Saavedra:  Mexico, US-Mexico power relations, post-coloniality, strategic self-representation, constructions of the indigenous, theories of nationalism, Marxism.

Amy Skjerseth: Popular music and audiovisual media scholar with additional interests in sound studies, voice studies, technology, digital culture, avant-gardes, gender and sexuality, and practice-based research.

Located 50 miles east of Los Angeles, our 1,200-acre campus is equidistant from the desert, mountains, and ocean, and is within easy driving distance to most of the major cultural and recreational offerings of Southern California.

Job announcement

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The Department of Music at Davidson College seeks a tenure-track Assistant Professor for an appointment that would begin July 1, 2025. We seek an active music practitioner/scholar with a terminal degree in Composition, Music Production, Sound Design/Engineering, or related degrees as appropriate. Applicants must be dedicated to creating equitable and inclusive learning environments within our undergraduate, liberal arts curriculum. Previous college-level teaching experience is highly desirable.

This position requires multifaceted participation-based teaching, highly engaged student mentoring, and curricular innovation. The successful candidate will teach courses in acoustic and digital composition and music production. They must have expertise with audio and notation softwares, recording studio technology, DAWs and music production software/hardware. The successful candidate will also teach courses in sub-areas that may include, but are not limited to, songwriting, film/game/motion media music, popular music production, world fusion, commercial production, and machine-created music. The candidate may be asked to teach and re-imagine a 100-level course for both majors and non-majors that introduces music theory and analysis through mainstream musical styles such as pop, rock, R&B, country, etc. Applicants should be prepared to participate in re-envisioning and maintaining our state-of-the-art digital music creation space and recording studio. Applicants with global, interdisciplinary approaches are especially encouraged to apply.

This full-time faculty appointment comes with a competitive salary and generous benefits and carries a 5-course teaching load in each academic year (4 course teaching load in the first year). Tenure-track faculty are eligible for a one semester sabbatical (at full pay) every six years of service, with eligibility for the first sabbatical in their fifth year to explore new directions in teaching practice, and/or research. Davidson faculty members enjoy a low faculty-student ratio, emphasis on and appreciation of inclusive pedagogies, outstanding facilities and support resources, and access to public lectures, performances and exhibits, and NCAA Division I athletic events.  We uphold a collegial culture that honors academic achievement and integrity across the liberal arts, upholds inclusive excellence, and encourages student-faculty collaboration on research and creative works. Davidson College is an ideal workplace for those interested in interdisciplinary collaboration, building community, developing innovative pedagogical practices, and mentoring undergraduate students.

Applications must be submitted online at https://employment.davidson.edu. A completed degree is preferred, but ABD applicants will be considered if the terminal degree will be in hand by the start of the appointment. Applications must include 1.) a cover letter addressing professional interests and aspirations pertaining to teaching, compositional output, and maintaining a music creation space; 2.) a curriculum vitae; 3.) a Statement of Teaching Philosophy; 4.) one Artist’s Statement, Research Statement, or the equivalent; 5.) a 1-2 page Statement of Potential Contributions to further Davidson’s Commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in undergraduate education, outlining your understanding of the lived experiences of students belonging to groups historically excluded from higher education in general, and from music education in particular, as well as your approach to engaging students from diverse backgrounds in learning and creating; 6.) sample syllabi; and 7.) an annotated portfolio of at least 3 artistic works including, but not limited to, acoustic/digital compositions, examples of sound engineering or sound design, or scholarly publications on topics applicable to this job.

Three letters of recommendation will be solicited from candidates later in the process.

Applications completed by December 2, 2024 will receive priority consideration.

PhD Research Fellows in Popular Music

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About the position

The University of Agder, Faculty of Fine Arts, invites applications for up to 2 positions as PhD Research Fellow in Popular Music at the Department of Popular Music for a period of three years, or four years with 25% required duties. At present, the position is located at Campus Kristiansand. Starting date by appointment.

The Faculty of Fine Arts is comprised of 3 departments; The Department of Popular Music, The Department of Classical Music and Music Education, and The Department of Visual Arts and Drama. The Faculty has approximately 550 students and 90 members of staff employed in academic positions.

The Faculty offers several Master’s- and bachelor’s programmes within fine arts, among them a Master’s in Electronic Music. The PhD programme has two specialisations, one within Popular Music Performance and one within “Art in context”.

The Department of Popular Music has highly qualified faculty with musicology supervision skills specialised within Popular music/popular music research. Also, the Department offers strong artistic competency within the field of Popular Music Performance, and members of staff with a vast domestic and international network. These will offer the PhD Research Fellow support in the academic field/working environment and as possible supervisors.

The Department of Popular Music has established the laptop as a separate principal instrument, and it has over the last 25 years developed a strong academic environment within music technology. The Faculty of Fine Arts has invested considerably in recording studios of high international standard. 

Responsibilities

Applications are welcome within the following areas:

A) Popular music performance

We invite applicants who research and analyze their own artistic practices in the light of international discourses within popular music studies and/or popular musicology. The expected outcome of the dissertation project is a combined artistic-scientific thesis including both a written and a performing part.

B) Popular musicology

We invite applicants who contribute to the musicological discourse in the interdisciplinary field of popular music. This includes, for example, projects with music analytical and aesthetic approaches, gender and identity issues, references to media, culture, technology and industry, the development of academic discourses, challenges of globalization, the reception of popular music and historiographical reflections. The expected outcome of the dissertation project is a theoretical investigation presented in the form of a monograph or an article-based thesis.

The following pertains to both the positions:

It is a prerequisite for taking up the position that the Research Fellow is admitted to the university’s PhD – programme at the Faculty of Fine Arts, specialisation in Popular Music Performance. For more information: Specialisation in Popular Music Performance – English (uia.no)

It is required that the appointee joins, and contributes to, one of the research groups at the Department of Popular Music and the Popular Music Research Unit (PMRU). Popular Music Research Unit is a research unit at the Department of Popular Music at the Faculty of Fine Arts that is established to organise the research groups and promote research activity in Popular music both domestically and internationally. Further information on the research groups and the Popular Music Research Unit is available here: https://www.uia.no/pmru

For nærmere opplysninger se studieplan for ph.d.-program i kunstfag, informasjon om spesialisering i utøvende rytmisk musikk, og Forskrift for graden Philosophiae Doctor (ph.d.) ved Universitetet i Agder.

Required qualifications

Applicants must hold a master’s degree/second degree level, or the equivalent in relevant master’s studies. For details on education requirements and prerequisite knowledge of Popular music, see the supplementary regulations for the PhD programme at the Faculty of Fine Arts regulations-for-the-degree-of-philosophiae-doctor2015-(3).pdf (uia.no)

This year’s candidates/candidates who are in the closing stages of their master’s degree can also apply.

The working language at the University of Agder is Norwegian. In this position, Norwegian language skills are not required, but knowledge of Norwegian or another Scandinavian language is an advantage. A high level of proficiency in both oral and written English is required.

Additional evaluation of English language skills may be done during an interview.

Further provisions relating to the position as PhD Research Fellow can be found in the Regulations Concerning Terms and Conditions of Employment for the post of Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Research Fellow, Research Assistant and Resident.

Desired qualifications

In the assessment process, considerable emphasis will be placed on the applicant’s project description. In addition, emphasis will be placed on examination results, the relevance of the academic background, and possible published works and documented development work.

Personal qualities

The position requires that the appointee has the ability to work in goal-oriented, organised, focused and independent manner. In the expert assessment, personal suitability and good teamwork skills will also be emphasised.

We offer

  • professional development in an exciting and important organisation
  • a good and inclusive working environment
  • modern localities
  • versatile welfare benefits
  • membership in The Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund
  • The position is remunerated according to the State Salary Scale, salary plan 17.515, code 1017 PhD Research Fellow, NOK 532 200 gross salary per year. A compulsory pension contribution to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund is deducted from the pay according to current statutory provisions.
  • More about working at UiA.

General information

UiA is an open and inclusive university. We believe that diversity enriches the workplace and makes us better. We, therefore, encourage qualified candidates to apply for the position independent of gender, age, cultural background, disability or an incomplete CV.

The Faculty of Fine Arts aspire to engage more women in top artistic-/scientific positions, and from a long-term perspective, women are encouraged to apply for the position.

The successful applicant will have rights and obligations in accordance with the current regulations for the position, and organisational changes and changes in the duties and responsibilities of the position must be expected. Appointment is made by the University of Agder’s Appointments Committee for Teaching and Research Positions. For employees in PhD Fellowship positions at the Faculty of Fine Arts, there is a duty of residence during the period of employment in accordance with regulations concerning academic positions in the state sector.

Short-listed applicants will be invited for interview. With the applicant’s permission, UiA will also conduct a reference check before appointment. Read more about the employment process.

In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act § 25 (2), applicants may request that they are not identified in the open list of applicants. The University, however, reserves the right to publish the names of applicants. Applicants will be advised of the University’s intention to exercise this right.

Application

The application and any necessary information about education and experience (including diplomas and certificates) are to be sent electronically. Use the link “Apply for this job”.

The following documentation must be uploaded electronically:

  • Curriculum Vitae (use the “standard CV” in the electronic application)
  • Certificates with grades for all education exceeding upper secondary level
  • Certificate from graduate studies, including a list of courses completed
  • For education from institutions outside of Norway, please include the official description of the grade system of the institution
  • Master’s thesis
  • Letters of reference
  • A full list of Academic work and/or Artistic development work
  • Academic work and/or Artistic development work (maximum 5)
  • Project description with a maximum scope of 5 pages, including reference list. The outline should present and discuss possible research questions, theory perspectives, methods, material, and a progress plan with stipulated expenses within the given framework of NOK 75 000 in total.

The applicant is fully responsible for submitting complete digital documentation before the closing date. All documentation must be available in a Scandinavian language or English. Translated material must be attested.

Application deadline: 2nd February 2025

Digital seminar for applicants: 5th december 2024

If you wish to attend, please contact Ph.D-Coordinator Clare Hildebrandt, e-mail: clare.hildebrandt@uia.no before 3rd December 2024.

Contact

For questions about the position:

For questions about the application process:

Joint SMI and ICTM-IE Postgraduate Conference 2025

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Joint SMI and ICTM-IE Postgraduate Conference 2025

Trinity College Dublin

16–17 January 2025

Call for Papers

Deadline: Friday 8 November 2024

Email: smi.ictmd.2025@gmail.com

The Society for Musicology in Ireland (SMI) and the Irish National Committee of the International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance (ICTMD-IE) are pleased to announce their annual joint postgraduate conference will take place at Trinity College Dublin on Thursday 16 and Friday 17 January 2025.

Postgraduate students working in all areas of musical research are warmly invited to submit proposals for 20-minute papers or 30-minute lecture recitals of research conducted under supervision at a third-level institution. Poster presentations are also welcome. Areas of research include but are not limited to, historical musicology, ethnomusicology, music theory and analysis, composition, music technology, music pedagogy, popular music studies, performance studies, musical practice as research, psychology of music, and music and gender. Attendees should convey research findings and professional conclusions honestly and in alignment with established research integrity principles, including those relating specifically to the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI).

We are delighted to welcome Dr Méabh Ní Fhuartháin to give the 2025 keynote address. The conference will feature the presentation of the Harry White Doctoral Prize. As in previous years, the postgraduate conference will also include a Careers Forum and a dedicated session featuring prize-winners of the annual CHMHE competition for undergraduate dissertations.

To submit a proposal, please send an email attachment (.doc or .docx, not .pdf) to smi.ictmd.2025@gmail.com by 6pm on Friday 8 November 2024 with the following details:

  • Title of paper
  • Abstract (max. 250 words)
  • Full name and institutional affiliation
  • Short biography (max. 150 words)
  • Please state whether you are proposing a:
    • 20-minute paper
    • 30-minute lecture-recital
    • 30-minute film, audio, or other media presentation (to include introduction and any commentary)
    • 10-minute presentation (Master’s Students)
    • Poster presentation

Please submit all information in a single Word document. Proposals will be anonymised prior to peer review and applicants will be notified of the outcome of this process by 9 December 2024.

On behalf of SMI and ICTMD-IE we thank you for your engagement. We are looking forward to welcoming delegates to Trinity College Dublin for two days of intellectually and socially enriching scholarly exchange.

Assistant Professor of Music (tenure track), Ethnomusicology and/or Popular Music

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Faculty Search Advertisement

Assistant Professor of Music (tenure track), Ethnomusicology and/or Popular Music

Boston University, College of Fine Arts, School of Music

The College of Fine Arts at Boston University invites applications for two full-time, tenure-track Assistant Professor of Music positions in the Musicology & Ethnomusicology Department of the School of Music, with expertise in the areas of ethnomusicology and/or popular music studies. We aim to hire two scholars whose research complements our faculty’s current areas of focus. We are particularly receptive to emphasis on gender, technology and media, political economy, or critical theory as areas of scholarly focus but are open to any area. Above all, we seek scholars that are committed to excellence in scholarship and teaching, with an active agenda of innovative research and the promise of sustained future publishing. The desired start date for this appointment is July 1, 2025.

We seek two faculty members for the CFA School of Music who are making significant theoretical contributions to the musicological and humanistic disciplines, who are committed to research that engages with the broader world and to teaching that prepares young scholars and artists at the graduate and undergraduate levels to navigate it, and who show potential for faculty leadership. Ideal candidates will have a proven track record of successful teaching at the college level, a demonstrated publishing agenda, and a commitment to engaged institutional citizenship. Responsibilities for this position include mentoring graduate students and teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses within the department and the School. A terminal degree in music is required, and the positions are expected to be filled at the assistant professor level (tenure track).

The Boston University School of Music was the first institution in the United States to grant a degree in music. Today, the School of Music trains musicians, educators, composers, and scholars in strong undergraduate and graduate programs. The Department of Musicology and Ethnomusicology, located within the School of Music, is a prolific, supportive, and inclusive department, dedicated to the shared purpose of innovative, engaged, and rigorous scholarship. Our department features thriving PhD and MA programs with customizable concentrations in Musicology, Ethnomusicology, and Musicology/Ethnomusicology, and offer a BA in Music with Musicology/Ethnomusicology, Global Music Studies, and General tracks. These programs provides the disciplinary grounding, critical theoretical tools, methodological breadth and sense of engagement with the world needed to produce music scholars of the highest caliber.  Boston University is an AAU institution with a rich tradition dedicated to inclusion and social justice. We are proud to be the first American university to award a Ph.D. to a woman, and we celebrate our record of and commitment to inclusiveness. The College of Fine Arts includes diversity as one of its core strategic goals. The successful applicant will value being part of an inclusive school that values cultural, ethnic, and gender diversity.  Our university community welcomes differences, encourages open-minded exploration, and upholds freedom of expression.

Qualified applicants should submit:

  • Cover letter
  • Curriculum vitae
  • Phone and email contact of three (3) professional references who may be contacted.

All application materials should be sent via email to musicsearch@bu.edu and must be received no later than October 15, 2024. Anticipated date of appointment: July 1, 2025.

BU conducts a background check on all final candidates for certain faculty and staff positions. The background check includes contacting the final candidate’s current and previous employer(s) to ask whether, in the last seven years, there has been a substantiated finding of misconduct violating that employer’s applicable sexual misconduct policies. To implement this process, the University requires a final candidate to complete and sign the form entitled “Authorization to Release Information” after execution of an offer letter. 

We are an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, military service, pregnancy or pregnancy-related condition, or because of marital, parental, or veteran status. We are a VEVRAA Federal Contractor. 

RECORDING POPULAR MUSIC

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RECORDING POPULAR MUSIC

IASPM 23rd international conference

7-11 July 2025

Organized by Iaspm-branche francophone d’Europe and Université Sorbonne Nouvelle 

Paris, France

Call for papers

Recording played a central role in the establishment of the field of popular music research in the 1970s and 1980s: at a time when popular music studies was gaining traction as a field of study,the specific status of recording made it possible to distinguish three areas of study: popular music, art music and folk music.

Recording has also been seen as a symptom and a variable in the development of the music business. Having become a reproducible commodity, music evolved in new directions when, towards the middle of the 20th century, the record became the main medium of the music industry. At the same time, recording made music available for distribution across a broad range of media, including radio, cinema and later television and then the Internet. In the present era of the domination of streaming platforms in the consumption of popular music (known as “platformisation”), music rights and the creation of catalogues are taking on major importance for the cultural industries and the digital economy. 

The recorded medium, as a reproducible asset, is also becoming something that can be preserved, archived and restored (republished) as media change. In addition to commercial aspects – the renewing of home equipment, the sale of augmented editions, alternate takes, and so on – there is a creative dimension involved. Recordings can be a medium for creation (for example in the practices of turntablism, dj-ing or sampling), as well as having a heritage dimension (recordings can be traces or treasures of the past). 

The analysis of recordings as ‘texts’ of popular music has naturally been one of the main areas of research over the last forty years. This type of analysis, applicable to all recorded music, also has the advantage of problematising the barriers between musical meta-genres and blurring the boundaries between categories applied, sometimes too rigidly, to music. Research into music production and studio techniques has also seen considerable development over the last few decades. Scientific literature has long emphasised the importance of  the recording studio as a technical and artistic tool (the studio as musical instrument), as well as as a place of interaction, and an economic focal point, at the crossroads of the practical, the technical, the aesthetic and the social, with very specific characteristics in terms of space and time. It is also a place where certain production relationships have been seen to change. If we consider, for example, the relationship between musicians and production intermediaries, whose status has developed throughout the history of the recording studio. More recently, the growth of home studios since the 1980s has opened up new social and economic horizons. Here we might also mention creative revolutions: the compositionperformance-production continuum, the central role of recording, the questioning of the status of the author/performer, and so on.

New questions have come into play in the recording of popular music in recent years, and research has expanded to take in other, more contemporary, perspectives. These include postcolonial studies: how is music recorded around the world? Gender studies: how do recording practices reflect or shift power relations and gender stereotypes? Ecological issues also arise, through the question of the environmental footprint of recorded music, whether produced on physical media or in digital format.

Moreover, in recent years, there has been a renewal of scientific curiosity regarding concerts and live performance as a central element within music production, as distinct from recordings. How distinct or different are they? It is often thought that the notion of live performance only exists because recordings dominate, and that the concept of liveness has only developed in relation to recordings, which are themselves mediated music. From an aesthetic and ontological point of view, there is a continuum between live music and recorded music (for example, when recorded music becomes the basis for new compositions or is used on stage). Cases range from hip-hop and trip-hop to electronic music; and beyond these, what should be said about the role of computers, artificial intelligence and the automatic production of recordings, in concerts and on record, and how these practices will evolve in the future?

The revival of research on live performance parallels the re-emergence of the concert as the focal point of the music economy, in contrast to the situation in the second half of the 20th century, when live performance was little more than a means of promoting recordings and attracted little academic attention. We can therefore assume that the current interest in live music stems from the crisis in sales of recorded music seen in the first fifteen years of the 21st century. But more recently, with the advent of the global public health crisis from 2019 to 2022, the impossibility of going on stage or to a concert shook up live music habits and initiated new thinking and research into the live/recording bipolarity.

There exists another aspect, and it is one of the most important: beyond recording as a process involving studios or various pieces of technical equipment, our conference is an invitation to look at the recording of popular music in global and cultural terms. Recording means keeping traces or tracks, a practice which can also be understood in a broader, anthropological sense: how are the traces kept or preserved? How are they also sometimes erased? How is socio-cultural diversity “recorded” or not in popular music? What role do field recordings play in this process? What is the logic behind this rendering invisible or this preservation, which facilitate the accessibility of certain genres or repertoires over others? How does the recording of music contribute to its semanticisation, its representation, the shaping of musical genres and the establishment of their aesthetic, economic, political, cultural and social value?

The difference between musical genres is also in evidence in their relationship to recording. Here we see the tension perpetually created in popular music by the notion of authenticity, which varies according to popular music genre and often comes into play in the relationship between recording and live performance. The values associated with a live sound in recording are not therefore the same in all genres. This has an impact on recording techniques, and on the various illusions that such techniques are called on to create, or not, when they aim to obfuscate the fact that recording is always an artefact.

How recordings are received and listened to is also a factor here: how do communities – audiences, but also critics and other professionals – judge recorded music? According to what criteria? Recording techniques have in turn led to changes in tastes, sensibilities, listening styles and habits. We have seen that the development of records as the predominant format for the consumption of music led to a habituation to sounds worked on in the studio and a resultant increased attention to timbre, for example. Listening has evolved in step with the habits and behaviours made possible by recorded music and its various formats, which are central to popular music. This also feeds into recent questions raised by sound studies and media archaeology in terms of soundscapes, sound archives, musical heritage and sound beyond music.

The IASPM 2025 biennial conference invites the exploration of these questions across all popular musical genres, emphasising their multidisciplinary nature, a key characteristic of popular music studies. Perspectives are welcome from anthropology, economics, sociology, aesthetics, musicology, history, and political fields, from technical studies, etc. This list is not exhaustive, and the intention is also to encourage cross-fertilisation between all possible approaches to the subject. Proposals may fall within the following areas, although proposals that fall outside the conference theme will not be exluded from the process, and will also be considered:

  • Recording as a medium
  • From recording to data and the predominance of streaming platforms (“platformisation”) in the consumption of popular music
  • Recording and liveness, recording and performance
  • Recording as a technique: equipment, media, electronic and digital technologies in signal processing
  • The recording studio and its different formats
  • Recording in sound studies
  • Recording practices and mediations, the status of intermediaries
  • Recording and related rights, remuneration models, international conventions
  • Recording and artificial intelligence
  • Recording and gender studies
  • Recording popular music and global cultural diversity. Traces or erasures of cultural diversity
  • Recorded music as heritage in exhibitions and museums
  • Recording and the music economy, the commodification of music
  • Sound recording as an investigative technique and/or as writing
  • Recording as a text for analysis
  • Recordings and their reception: how is recorded popular music listened to? What categories of evaluation are there? What are the links between recording and musical genres? 
  • Uses of recordings and dance practices

Organizing committee

Catherine Rudent (convenor), Marion Brachet, Romain Garbaye, Gérôme Guibert, Emmanuel Parent, Cécile Verschaeve

Scientific Committee

Chair: Christophe Pirenne

Mike Alleyne, Alessandro Arbo, Samantha Bennett, Lori Burns, Céline Chabot-Canet,

Meng Tze Chu, Martha de Ulhoa, Oded Erez, Franco Fabbri, Patryk Galuszka, Elsa Grassy,

Line Grenier, Catherine Guesde, Laura Jordan Gonzalez, Olivier Julien, Serge Lacasse,

Amparo Lasen, Buata Malela, Isabelle Marc, Julio Mendivil, Sue Miller, William Moylan,

Richard Osborne, Sergio Pisfil, Laurent Pottier, Cécile Prévost-Thomas, Catherine

Provenzano, Oliver Seibt, Veronica Skrimsjö, Catherine Strong, Justin Williams, Masahiro Yasuda

Advisory board

Baptiste Bacot, Sarah Benhaïm, Rémi Boivin, Marion Brachet, Claude Chastagner, Salomé

Coq, Marianne Di Benedetto, Iulia Dima, Stephane Escoubet, Claire Fraysse, Romain

Garbaye, Vincent Granata, Elsa Grassy, Catherine Guesde, Gérôme Guibert, Guillaume

Heuguet, Jason Julliot, Marc Kaiser, Sébastien Lebray, Barbara Lebrun, Sangheon Lee, Julie

Mansion-Vaquié, Guillaume Mouleux, John Mullen, Emmanuel Parent, Christophe Pirenne, Laurent Pottier, Jean-Christophe Sevin, Jedediah Sklower, Florence Tamagne, Cécile Verschaeve

Submission

We invite abstracts, in English or in French, between 250 and 300 words, alongside a short list of bibliographical references (and/or sources if applicable). Please specify in which of the thematic areas the presentation falls (maximum three), and include a short bio-bibliography of the author, as well as specifying their IASPM branch.   The abstract should be submitted on this page: https://iaspmparis2025.sciencesconf.org/submission/submit  Submissions will be accepted until October 15th, 2024.

Each participant must be a member of a branch of IASPM: www.iaspm.net/how–to–join

Individual paper presentations are 20 minutes long, to be followed by a 10 minute discussion. Some sessions will be broadcast online. However, remote participation will not be possible. Proposals for organised panels are encouraged (ninety minute sessions with three papers, or two papers and a discussant). Each session should leave at least 30 minutes for discussion or for comments by a discussant immediately following the presentations. The panel organiser should submit the panel abstract and all individual abstracts (250-300 words each) in one submission, with a full list of participant names, their biography and their IASPM branch.

Conference webpage: http://www.univ–paris3.fr/iaspmparis2025

Organising committee e-mail address: iaspmparis2025@sorbonne-nouvelle.fr 

JOB: Indiana University, Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor of Music Theory (Popular Music)

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The Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University Bloomington seeks candidates for a tenured or tenure-track position in music theory to develop and teach in its new programs in music production and music business, with an expected start date of August 1, 2025. https://indiana.peopleadmin.com/postings/2543

The primary responsibilities for the position will initially involve developing and teaching undergraduate courses in music theory for the new degree program in music business and major in music production. Eventually, the candidate will also be expected to teach graduate and undergraduate courses in music theory; supervise research in their area(s) of expertise; and maintain an active program of research and scholarly publication. The candidate will be expected to participate in departmental committees, doctoral advisory committees, and other departmental activities, as well as serve on Jacobs School of Music committees.

A completed Ph.D. degree in music theory or its equivalent is required by time of appointment. Qualifications include a record of scholarly accomplishment, an active program of research, and experience in undergraduate teaching. We are particularly interested in candidates who can support the department in its continuing efforts to expand and diversify our curriculum as we envision the future of our field. Potential areas of interest include, but are not limited to, audio production, timbral analysis, the music business, or corpus studies, among other areas of specialty in popular music analysis. The music theory department is equally committed to excellence in teaching and to fostering scholarship in both new and existing areas in the discipline. Salary and rank will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.

A complete application consists of a letter of application; curriculum vitae; a sample syllabus for an undergraduate course in the analysis and theory of popular music for students without training in Western classical music; and the names, titles, and email addresses for each of three professional references. An email message with instructions about uploading letters of reference will be sent automatically to each of your reference providers immediately after you submit your completed application. Please do not send other materials until requested to do so. If you need help completing your application, please contact Cecilia Bass at (812) 855-5541 or ceciflem@indiana.edu.

Deadline: Screening will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled, with priority given to applications submitted by September 20, 2024.

Before a conditional offer of employment with tenure is finalized, candidates will be asked to
disclose any pending investigations or previous findings of sexual or professional misconduct.
They will also be required to authorize an inquiry by Indiana University Bloomington with all
current and former employers along these lines. The relevance of information disclosed or
ascertained in the context of this process to a candidate’s eligibility for hire will be evaluated
by Indiana University Bloomington on a case-by-case basis. Applicants should be aware,
however, that Indiana University Bloomington takes the matters of sexual and professional
misconduct very seriously.

Indiana University is an equal employment and affirmative action employer and a provider of ADA services. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment based on individual qualifications. Indiana University prohibits discrimination based on age, ethnicity, color, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, national origin, disability status or protected veteran status.

TENURED PROFESSOR IN AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSIC

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Harvard University

Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Department of Music and Department of African and African American Studies

Cambridge, MA

Position Description: The Department of Music and the Department of African and African American Studies seek to jointly appoint a tenured professor of African American Music. The appointment will be at the rank of Full Professor and is expected to begin on July 1, 2025. 

The successful candidate will work at the intersection of practice and criticism of African American music. He or she will have a distinguished record of scholarship in the history, philosophy, or theory of African American music, coupled with practical experience in the creation, performance, or artistic practice in one or more relevant musical traditions. A commitment to public scholarship and engaged ethics is desirable. The chosen candidate will teach three courses over two semesters, at the graduate and undergraduate levels, plus one teaching-equivalent contribution.

Keywords:

faculty, instructor, tenure, professor, senior

Boston, Cambridge, Massachusetts, MA, Northeast, New England

African American music, improvisation, performance, ethnomusicology, musicology, music theory

Basic Qualifications: Candidates are expected to hold a doctorate in a relevant field. 

Additional Qualifications: Demonstrated strong commitment to teaching, advising, and research is desired. Candidates should have a strong record of intellectual leadership and impact on the field, as well as the potential to contribute to both departments, to the University, and to the wider scholarly community.

Special Instructions: Please submit the following materials through the ARIeS portal (https://academicpositions.harvard.edu). Candidates are advised to apply by September 16, 2024. Applications will be reviewed until the position is filled. 

  1. Curriculum Vitae
  2. Research statement
  3. Teaching/advising statement that describes the candidate’s philosophy and practices as well as their approach to creating a learning environment in which students are encouraged to ask questions and share their ideas
  4. Service statement that describes efforts to strengthen academic communities, e.g., the candidate’s department, institution, and/or professional societies

5.   Authorization form

Harvard University is committed to fostering a campus culture where everyone can thrive and experience a sense of inclusion and belonging. Community members are encouraged to model our values of integrity, responsible mentorship, equity, and excellence no matter where they are.

To support this commitment to our values of inclusion and excellence, the external finalist for this position will be required to complete a conduct questionnaire – specifically regarding findings of violation, on-going formal complaint investigations, or formal complaint investigations that did not conclude due to the external finalist’s departure concerning: harassment or discrimination, retaliation, sexual misconduct, bullying or intimidating/abusive behavior, unprofessional relationship, or misconduct related to scholarship, research, teaching, service, or clinical/patient care.

Harvard will also make conduct inquiries to current and former employers of the external finalist regarding such misconduct. To facilitate these inquiries, Harvard requires all external applicants for this position to complete, sign, and upload the form entitled “Authorization to release information for external applicants” as part of their application. If an external applicant does not include the signed authorization with the application materials, the application will be considered incomplete, and, as with any incomplete application, will not receive further consideration.

The health of our community is a priority for Harvard University. With that in mind, we strongly encourage all employees to be up-to-date on CDC-recommended vaccines.

Harvard is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, age, protected veteran status, disability, genetic information, military service, pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions, or other protected status.

Contact Information:  Eli Bernhardt, Department of African and African American Studies, eli_bernhardt@fas.harvard.edu

PhD course “Analytical Theory and Methods of Popular Music Research”

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PhD course “Analytical Theory and Methods of Popular Music Research”

University of Agder, Kristiansand/Norway

Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Popular Music

October – December 2024

The University of Agder invites applications for the PhD course “Analytical Theory and Methods of Popular Music Research”. The course provides an overview of scholarly discourses and methods in the interdisciplinary field of popular music research. It consists of lectures, seminars and presentations by the participating PhD students.

The hybrid meetings (face-to-face at the Kristiansand campus and via Zoom) will take place on the following days, each from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.: 10 October, 13 November, 3 December, and 5 December 2024. Lecturers: Prof. Eirik Askerøi, Prof. Tor Dybo, Dr. Ingolv Haaland, Prof. Daniel Nordgård, and Prof. Michael Rauhut (course tutor).

The course is free of charge and equates 10 ECTS Credit Points. At the end of the course, each participant is required to submit a paper of approximately ten pages in which her/his own dissertation project is presented in relation to general discourses in the field of popular music research. The final schedule and reading list will be published in September 2024. The number of participants will be limited to a maximum of ten.

Please send your applications and inquiries to: michael.rauhut@uia.no