Conference: University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway, 1–2 June 2022

Recent years have resulted in extensive changes in popular music production, dissemination, reception, and perception. New technological developments within music production and performance have created new creative possibilities for artists and bands as they make music and engage with the global music market. Many of these changes have been greatly accelerated by, if not the direct result of, the Covid 19 pandemic that has fundamentally disturbed the relationships between artists, fans, modes of performance, and music distribution. More than ever before, it has become critical to examine digitization, virtuality, creativity, and the music business as a whole in the context of such tumultuous changes.

Thus, a two-day conference on new perspectives in popular music research will be held by the Department of Popular Music, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Agder (UiA) in cooperation with the Popular Music Research Unit at UiA. The overarching goal of this conference is to address new perspectives on popular music through the lens of these recent changes and the perceived turmoil (and benefits) that has resulted from them. This marks the fourteenth anniversary of our PhD programme in popular music performance and provides an opportunity to showcase work by former graduates, current PhD candidates, and scholars associated with music research within the broad field of popular music studies. Two international keynote speakers will frame and contextualize the event. Keynote speakers will be announced early January 2022. It is also envisaged that contributors will have the opportunity to have their papers published through an international peer review channel.

Proposals for 20-minute presentations consisting of 200 words and a brief biographical note (stating your qualifications and institutional affiliations) should be received by 3 February 2022 and addressed to: tor.dybo@uia.no

We welcome proposals that deal in particular with the following themes:

• Popular music and identity in the 21st Century
• Social media and popular music
• Virtuality, space, and place
• New music technologies
• Digitization
• Distribution
• Impact of Covid 19 in the live music sector
• Music business and management
• New technological developments in electronic music production
• New developments in music dissemination and performance

Organizing committee:

• Professor Tor Dybo
• Research Fellow Jelena Mijatovic
• Research Fellow Zachary Bresler

Advisory board:

• Professor Michael Rauhut
• Dr. Daniel Nordgård

Practical information:

• The seminar is free of charge and refreshments will be included.
• The venue is University of Agder in Kristiansand, Norway: https://www.uia.no/en
• The university has special rates with various hotels in Kristiansand.

Michael Rauhut

Michael Rauhut, Dr. phil., born in 1963, studied musicology at Humboldt University (HU) in Berlin, worked at the Research Centre for Popular Music Studies (Forschungszentrum Populäre Musik) at HU, at the Institute for Contemporary Historical Youth Research (Institut für zeitgeschichtliche Jugendforschung) in Berlin and at the Research Centre for Contemporary History (Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte) in Hamburg. Since 2008, Rauhut has been a professor of popular music at the University of Agder in Kristiansand, Norway. Book publications include: Beat in der Grauzone: DDR-Rock 1964 bis 1972 – Politik und Alltag (1993), Schalmei und Lederjacke: Rock und Politik in der DDR der achtziger Jahre (1996/2002), Rock in der DDR 1964 bis 1989 (2002), Das Kunden-Buch: Blues in Thüringen (2011), One Sound, Two Worlds: The Blues in a Divided Germany, 1945–1990 (2019). Alongside academic activities, Rauhut works as a radio journalist and filmmaker.

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