Registration forms for the UK/Ireland conference in Limerick can now be
downloaded from the conference website.
http://www.mic.ul.ie/conference/registration.htm



If anyone was unaware of the details, please read the summary below.



Paul.

IASPM UK and Ireland Conference 2004
Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, 12-13 July

'Popular music: issues of culture and state'

The cultural field of popular music comprises a worldwide phenomenon
that can be said to transcend national boundaries. At the same time, the
ever-increasing interface between Anglo-American popular music forms and
various traditions of 'world music' suggests a plurality of relatively
distinct popular music cultures that have continuities with musical
practices at local, national and international levels.

Given the interplay of these levels, and particularly in the light of
the involvement of multi-national enterprises in domestic production and
consumption, what are the potential relationships between popular music
interests and statutory concerns? A key question here is the extent to
which symbolic and material significance is afforded to popular music by
nation states and/or regional authorities, and how this compares to
policy and provision for other musical forms. This relates to
dichotomous conceptions of popular music and traditional music, a
conventional distinction that is problematic in the contexts of
increased professionalisation, commodification and 'mediaization' in all
vernacular music practices. At the same time, non-commodity forms of
popular and traditional music-making continue to be adapted and/or
maintained by local communities or by 'communities of sound'. These less
spectacular aspects of music production and consumption tend to be
eclipsed by industry-oriented definitions of popular music and popular
culture, an imbalance that is reflected in statutory policy and
provision, and to some extent also in popular music scholarship.

The aims of the conference are to examine critically the potential
relationships between and among popular (vernacular) music practices and
forms, conceptions and articulations of culture at both macro and micro
levels, and the agency of industry interests and statutory and/or
regional authorities.



Dr Paul Hodkinson

Lecturer in Sociology

School of Human Sciences

University of Surrey

Guildford

Surrey

GU2 7XH



01483 683767



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