(with appologies for cross-posting)
Call for Papers
International Conference
“The Languages of Popular Music:
Communicating Regional Musics in a Globalized World”
(29th September - 2nd October 2014, University of Osnabrueck, Germany)
Arbeitskreis Studium Populärer Musik e.V. (ASPM) and the University of Osnabrueck, Germany, are inviting scholars of all disciplines studying popular music to submit proposals for the international conference “The Languages of Popular Music: Communicating Regional Musics in a Globalized World”. The conference will take place at the Institute for Musicology and Music Education, University of Osnabrueck, Germany, from 29th September to 2nd October 2014.
The conference will discuss the manifold interactions between different regional cultures as well as between the regional and the global in popular music.
We welcome contributions to the following four fields of research:
1. Communication theory and discourse analysis: How can we describe the world wide communication between popular music cultures theoretically? Is there some-thing like a global, universally understood discourse of pop? The case of hip hop, being appropriated by musicians internationally, may confirm this assumption. Or should we rather construct a model of interacting regions fighting for dominance? This would be necessary if we could prove that the music leading the charts around the world never loses its local signifiers. Is it helpful to apply a single definition of what popular music might be in order to explain related phenomena on a global scale?
2. Analysis of music, lyrics and performance: How do global and local principles work in popular music? Local signifiers may help with the individuation of a pop star on the global market. But how local may a song sound without endangering its proliferation? Which role does language play as a sign for origin and belonging? Can we apply the terms of ‘exotism’ and ‘orientalism’ to the use of local signifiers in popular music? Are local signifiers in a certain song to be considered as mere em-bellishments or as its structural basis?
3. Sociology, economy, politics: Which social, economical and political conse-quences has the difference between the global and the regional in popular music? Like all communication systems the languages of popular music make a difference: Who is in and who is out and who has the power to define? Conflicts between the global and the local as well as between different regions themselves may be re-solved through laws, censorship or media control, securing the dominance of cer-tain sign systems. Regional symbolic systems like tradition, national identity, ‘race’, religion or moral may support foreign influences or work against them. In some societies using a musical language of a global or a certain local origin may be a seen as an act of rebellion and can therefore become a subject of repression. In some social groups foreign influences may be considered as an act of imperialism or as a sign of perdition of a certain culture. Migrants may cultivate the musical cul-tures of their regions of origin as a sign for belonging or adopt to the music of their new homes to demonstrate their degree of integration. Are melting pot cultures a model for the future or should we preserve traditional and regional popular cul-tures in their original form?
4. Typically German: ASPM’s 2013 conference discussed what German scholars considered to be “typically German” in popular music. For our 2014 conference we would welcome papers by non-German scholars discussing the Germanness of German popular music from an outside perspective.
Proposals are invited for:
Organised panels
Round-table discussion sessions
Individual papers
The conference will be organized along 90 minutes sessions.
Organised panels: We heartily invite themed panels with a clearly defined subject and a specialised issue. Our time slots of 90 minutes allow either two papers of 45 minutes each (a max. of 30 minutes plus at least 15 minutes for discussion) or three papers of 30 minutes each (15-20 minutes plus at least 10 minutes for discus-sion). Thus, a morning or an afternoon session (two times 90 minutes) may encom-pass four to six papers. Panels should not last longer then a day (eight to twelve papers). Convenors are requested to make sure that in their session enough time will be left for discussion.
Round tables are scheduled for one hour and a half and will encompass short presentations (not more than 10 minutes) plus the discussion of the relevant topic.
Individual papers should not exceed 25 minutes presentation plus 20 minutes dis-cussion. All sessions will be chaired.
Conference languages will be English and German. Individual papers can be held either in English or in German. Convenors of panels and roundtables should make sure that all participants can follow the discussion. Speakers presenting their pa-pers in German are requested to consider how to communicate their findings to anglophone participants (e.g. with the help of a power point presentation in Eng-lish).
Proposals: Session conveners for panels and roundtables should prepare a short abstract emphasising the relevance of the session topic (400 words), followed by short abstracts of individual papers (300 words) highlighting the main aspects of the contribution. They should also state the length of individual presentations (30 or 45 minutes).
Abstracts for individual papers should have a maximum length of 400 words.
All proposals should contain the full address of all participants (incl. email) and their affiliation.
Each abstract should point out the research topic and the theoretical and/or meth-odological approach.
Proposals should be sent as attachments to Dietrich Helms, [log in to unmask] The submission deadline is the 28th February 2014. See www.aspm-online.de for further information; a conference website is coming soon (www.popular-music.uos.de).
Prof. Dr. Dietrich Helms
Institute for Musicology and Music Education
University of Osnabrück
Schloss / Neuer Graben 29
D-49069 Osnabrück
[log in to unmask]
www.aspm-online.de
http://www.musik.uni-osnabrueck.de/
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