Experience, Engagement, Meaning

Biennial conference of IASPM-UK/Ireland

School of Music, Cardiff University

2-4 September 2010.



There are limitless ways in which people relate to music and
incorporate it into their lives. Music is used to structure routine
practices such as homework, shopping and exercise, and to delineate
special events such as weddings. Music has an uncanny knack of
bringing together the individual and the collective, the general and
the specific. The overall theme of this conference concerns the ways
in which people engage with music and make music meaningful, focusing
on three broad categories: musical experience, musical engagement and
musical meaning. Proposals for 20 minute papers or 90 minute panel
sessions are invited on these topics and any related issues of
popular music debate.  Proposals will be welcomed from any academic
perspective and addressing any kind of music.



Experience

To suggest that we experience music implies spatial and temporal
dimensions to the reception of sounds, that we are somehow ‘in’ the
music, physically, mentally, emotionally. But what is ‘a musical
experience’, what does it mean to experience something musically?
Does the nature of a musical work change the nature of musical
experience? How does the experience of a musical work change in
different contexts? How do our perceptions of the musical experience
change over time? Who is the ‘we’ in all of this and how does that
impact ‘our’ understandings of musical experience? How has musical
experience been described – by academics, fans, musicians, artists,
within musical works themselves? And what are the challenges of
describing musical experience for those studying popular music?



Engagement

Musical experience usually demands some kind of engagement on the
part of the listener, from the close textual analysis of the
afficionado to the collective singalong at the stadium rock concert.
In what kinds of engagement do listeners participate? How, if at all,
do these change according to musical genre or social context? How do
differing levels of knowledge affect musical engagement? How do
artists conceive of engagement? Do some forms of music encourage more
engagement than others? What about things like Muzak that
deliberately undermine the need for engaging?



Meaning

Everything that interests us about music, as academics and as fans,
does so because of the general and particular meanings that music can
generate. This broad statement raises fundamental questions of how
musical meaning is generated, by whom and in what ways. It also begs
the question of what ‘music’ itself means. How are particular genres
defined and given meaning? What about the broader category of music
itself? Proposals in this category could consider issues of performer
intent, definitions of music/genres/scenes, the role of listening and
fandom in the construction of musical meaning, and the meaning of
popular music in an academic context.



Keynote Speakers

A keynote address will be delivered by Harris M. Berger (Texas A&M
University).  Further plenary sessions to be announced.



Social Events

The conference will feature an opening reception hosted by Cambridge
University Press and the journal Popular Music, with the Friday night
entertainment to be announced at a later date.



Other Information

The conference will be located at Cardiff University, which is
located in the civic centre of the capital city.  Cardiff shares in a
vibrant Anglophone and Welsh-language popular music scene, which is
currently enjoying a position of national prominence in the National
Museum of Wales’ Music 09 Programme.



Organising Committee

The 2010 IASPM-UKI conference is being organised by:

Sarah Hill (Cardiff University)

Lee Marshall (Bristol University)

Keith Kahn-Harris (Birkbeck College)



Website

The conference website will be updated regularly, and can be found at
www.cf.ac.uk/music/conferences.



Submitting Proposals

Proposals should include the name, institution and contact details
(email) of the proposer, the tile of the proposal and an abstract of
no more than 150 words. Please send proposals to [log in to unmask]

All participants whose proposals are accepted must be members of IASPM.

The deadline for proposals is 15 March 2010.



-- 
Dr Lee Marshall
Department of Sociology
University of Bristol
12 Woodland Road
Bristol BS8 1UQ
(0)117 928 7504