Apologies for cross-postings
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Royal Holloway-British Library Lectures in Musicology
ROCK AND BRITISH MUSICAL CULTURE 1995-2005
A series of six public lectures by
SMION FRITH (University of Edinburgh)
Sponsored by the Department of Music, Royal Holloway, University of
London, supported by the British Library
23 and 30 January, 6, 13, and 27 February, and 5 March 2008 from 6 pm to
7 pm at the British Library Conference Centre
Series Overview:
There are various ways to approach the social history of British music
in the last fifty years. We could consider the changing soundscape-how
the sound of everyday life has been transformed. We could describe the
trajectory of key musical institutions-the rise (and fall) of the record
album industry; the changing voice of the BBC. We could reflect on the
globalisation of the musical experience-not least on the ways in which
British popular music became unexpectedly valuable in the international
marketplace. We could explore the new role of music in shaping both
individual and collective identities, as technological changes in how
sounds are stored and carried gave listeners a new sense of 'their
music', enabled new kinds of cultural, national and ethnic expression.
Or, more polemically perhaps, we could map the changing relations of
musical power and status, as new demotic players drowned out established
authorities, as classical music became confined to the subsidised
sector, to the margins of media interest, while popular musicians
achieved unprecedented wealth and glamour and public presence. In this
series of lectures I will touch on all these issues but what most
interests me is the effect of such changes on British musical culture,
on what it means to be a musician or a music listener, on how people
make sense of and evaluate their musical experiences. In what ways, if
any, is this story specifically British?
For further details please visit
http://www.rhul.ac.uk/Music/Research/07-08distinguishedlectures.html
Admission is free, without ticket
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