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SITES OF POPULAR
MUSIC HERITAGE – SYMPOSIUM
Institute of Popular Music, University of Liverpool
8–9 September 2011
CALL FOR PAPERS
We invite proposals from a broad range of academic disciplines for a 2 day symposium examining sites of popular music heritage: from institutions such as museums, to geographic locations, websites and online archives. Papers are welcomed that explore popular music within narratives of heritage and identity, real and imagined geographies, cultural memory and contested histories. The event will focus on three thematic areas:
Popular
Music Heritage in the Museum
In recent years museums have increasingly engaged with
popular music heritage, as evidenced in a proliferation of
exhibitions including those in the UK such as Kylie: The
Exhibition at the V&A and the British Music Experience
at the O2. Museum interaction with popular music heritage
enables methods of narration beyond traditional written
histories, engaging visitors with objects, sounds and
images. The place of popular music in the museum raises
issues of how music is both represented and used to
represent and explore social histories, personal and
collective identities, memories, and geographies. Possible
themes for papers include:
• Popular music and locality in the museum
• Disseminating popular music heritage in museums beyond text
• History and memory in popular music exhibitions and collections
Heritage,
Place and Local Identity
While ideas of heritage and cultural memory play an
increasingly important role in popular music
historiography, the spatial and geographic frameworks
underpinning the production of popular music histories
remain comparatively under-examined in studies to date.
The spatial embedding of popular music heritage raises
questions as to the ways in which ideas of local, regional
and national identity are shaped by geographies of music
and place; the role of mobility practices in the
production of local music histories; and the capacity for
popular music memoryscapes to stimulate (and sustain)
embodied and emotional attachments to places and
localities. Possible themes for papers include:
• Contested geographies of popular music heritage
• Routes of popular music heritage: mobility, migration, wayfinding
• Cartographies of popular music history
Digital
Archives and Online Practice
Heritage practices have proliferated in the digital
age and a large part of related activity online is devoted
to popular music. ‘Authorised’ or otherwise, social media
groups, blogs and web pages are organised and defined by,
amongst other things, genre, artist, period and geography.
Sites dedicated to the popular music of Birmingham,
Manchester, Sheffield, Coventry, Bristol, Woolongong,
Brisbane or Detroit speak simultaneously to the
hyper-local and global quality of popular music culture.
The nature of such online practices raise questions about
the ontology of the archive, the digital ‘artefact’ and
collective memory. In light of the challenges presented to
the music industries by digitisation, key questions
concern the role of music and related intellectual
property in online ‘folk’ histories. Possible themes for
papers include:
Contested geographies of popular music heritage
•
Authorising popular music
heritage and archiving practice online
•
Building music cultures and
communities of memory online
•
Online music heritage,
music industries and ownership
Deadline for
abstracts:
30 April 2011
Date for registration:
30 June 2011
Deadline for submission of draft papers:
01 Aug 2011
· Further information and registration details will be posted shortly at www.liv.ac.uk/music/
· Papers presented at the symposium will be considered for publication.
This event is co-organized with the Centre for Media and Cultural Research at Birmingham City University.
-- Dr Les Roberts Research Associate Institute of Popular Music School of Music University of Liverpool 80-82 Bedford Street South Liverpool L69 7WW Tel: 0151 794 3102