New Perspectives in Popular Music Research: Changes and Turmoil

1. Genevieve Allotey-Pappoe (PhD Candidate at Princeton University, USA): The Music Business and Social Media. Participates in Zoom g.allotey-pappoe@princeton.edu
2. Håvard Kiberg (PhD candidate at the Kristiania University College, Oslo): One more turn after the algorithmic turn? A case study of Spotify and the inclusion of non-musical content as a platform strategy. Coming to UiA Havard.Kiberg@kristiania.no
3. Jon Mikkel Broch Ålvik (Senior lecturer in musicology, Örebro University, Sweden): Framing Tix: Musical persona and meaning-making within and across genres. Coming to UiA mikkel.broch-alvik@oru.se
4. Julijana Papazova (PhD Postdoctoral researcher, European Scientific Institute-ESI): From live to digital and vice versa: Alternative rock music scene at the Balkans during the pandemic period of COVID-19. Participates in Zoom jzabeva@yahoo.com
5. Matthias Jung (PhD Research Fellow, University of Agder): Made for humans: Exploring the design of co-creative performance technologies. matthias.jung@uia.no
6. Martijn Mulder and Erik Hitters (Martijn Mulder, Senior Lecturer at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences and PhD Candidate at Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands. Erik Hitters is Associate Professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands): (de)Festivalisation and its impact on the music industries: a quantitative analysis of twelve years of live music in the Netherlands. Coming to UiA mulder@eshcc.eur.nl and hitters@eshcc.eur.nl
7. Samantha Talbot (Doctoral Candidate in Music, University of Glasgow): ‘Blue Valentine’: Music Video, Body and Space. Coming to UiA s.talbot.1@research.gla.ac.uk
8. Roderick Udo (Senior lecturer, HU Business School, Netherlands and PhD candidate at the Erasmus School of Economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands): Using entrepreneurship theories to understand career decisions of popular music artists and their managers. Coming to UiA roderick.udo@hu.nl
9. Guy Morrow, Daniel Nordgard, and Petter Tschmuck (Dr. Guy Morrow, University of Melbourne; Dr. Daniel Nordgård, University of Agder; Peter Tschmuck, Professor, University of Music and Performing Art, Vienna.): Rethinking the Music Business: Music Contexts, Rights, Data and COVID-19. PS! Hybrid online presentation guy.morrow@unimelb.edu.au
10. Ben Morris (Doctor of Musical Arts Candidate, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA): Genre Syncretism and Nationalism in Norwegian Jazz, 1970-Present: The Influence of Folk and Contemporary European Art Music. Coming to UiA bmorriscomposer@gmail.com
11. Reinhard Kopanski (Research Associate, University of Oldenburg, Germany): New Alliances: COVID-19 and Alternative Realities in German Popular Music. Coming to UiA reinhard.kopanski@uni-oldenburg.de

In addition, some master students, and research fellows in popular music at UiA will also participate in the conference. 

Guy Morrow, Daniel Nordgård, and Peter Tschmuck: Rethinking the Music Business: Music Contexts, Rights, Data and Covid-19

Covid-19 had, and is having, a global impact on health, communities, and the economy. As a result of Covid -19, music festivals, gigs and events were cancelled or postponed across the world. This directly affected the incomes and practices of many artists and the revenue for many entities in the music business. Despite this crisis however, there are pre-existing trends in the music business – the rise of the streaming economy, technological change (virtual and augmented reality, blockchain etc.), new copyright legislation etc. Some of these trends were impacted by the Covid-19 crisis while others were not.

Our paper will provide an overview of a forthcoming contributed volume we have edited together entitled ‘Rethinking the Music Business: Music Contexts, Rights, Data and Covid-19’ (forthcoming, Springer 2022). In doing so, our paper will provide insights into a number of new perspectives in popular music research. Our contributed volume is structured in two parts. The first part focuses on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns on the music business. The second part features more general perspectives from within the field of popular music research. Our paper will therefore provide an overview of a number of chapters that address issues within the music business before, during and after Covid-19.

Biographical notes

• Dr Guy Morrow is a Senior Lecturer in Arts and Cultural Management and is the Director of Graduate Coursework for the School of Culture and Communication. He joined the University of Melbourne in 2017 and has expertise in artist management and a research focus on the music business. guy.morrow@unimelb.edu.au
• Dr Daniel Nordgård is an Associate Professor in music, digitalisation and music business and teaches music business within the master's program for Music Management at the University of Agder. He conducts research on international music industries and changes in relation to the digitization process. daniel.nordgard@uia.no
• Peter Tschmuck is Professor for Cultural Institutions Studies at the University of Music and Performing Art Vienna. He also teaches courses at the University of Economics and Business Administration in Vienna, Peter Tschmuck is Professor for Cultural Institutions Studies at the University of Music and Performing Art Vienna. He also teaches courses at the University of Economics and Business Administration in Vienna, the University of Basel, and at the SAE Institutes in Germany and Austria. tschmuck@mdw.ac.at

Reinhard Kopanski: New Alliances: Covid-19 and Alternative Realities in German Popular Music

Since early 2020 the Covid-19 pandemic presented a major social disruption, with the resulting uncertainty causing a boom of alternative explanations (including conspiracy theories) on origin and spread of the pandemic. The movement against the Covid-19 measures lead to a blurring of boundaries between ideological camps. Subsequently, demarcation mechanisms separating public discourse from the extreme-right became less efficient (Nachtwey et al. 2020).

An example of the transformation of the aforementioned mechanism can be found within the song ‘Heimat’ (Eng. ‘Homeland’) (Die Konferenz [Eng. The conference], 2021). In this paper, I would like to highlight how populist discourses are reflected in said song written by Xavier Naidoo – one of the most popular mainstream musicians in Germany in the early 2000s – and performed by an ensemble of twenty people with a diverse ideological background (e.g., right-wing YouTubers, esoterics, sectarians).

Using a combination of close readings (lyrics, discourses) in conjunction with results from musicological group analyses conducted in late 2021, I will highlight the extent to which elements of populism are connected to other discourses such as nationalism and conspiracy theories allowing a small group of people to present themselves as the representatives of the (assumed) ‘homogeneous’ people in a constant struggle with the ‘corrupt elite’ (e.g., Moffit 2020, p. 10). Finally, I will showcase how musicians from the movement of ‘Corona deniers’ increasingly turn to alternative social networks, thus opening up new distribution channels.

References:

• Moffit, B. (2020): Populism. Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Nachtwey, O., Schäfer, R. & N. Frei (2020): Politische Soziologie der Corona-Proteste. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/zyp3f (10 October 2021).

Biographical note:

Reinhard Kopanski, PhD in Musicology in 2019 at the University of Siegen, Germany, is the scientific coordinator of the research project “Popular Music and the Rise of Populism in Europe” (Volkswagen Foundation, www.musicandpopulism.eu) at the University of Oldenburg (Germany). Research fields: music and politics/ideology, metal music, music and technology, amongst others. He is associated member of the Collaborative Research Centre SFB 1472 “Transformationen des Populären” (https://sfb1472.uni-siegen.de) at the University of Siegen and executive board member of the International Society for Metal Music Studies (www.metalstudies.org). reinhard.kopanski@uni-oldenburg.de

Julijana Papazova: From live to digital and vice versa – Alternative rock music scene at the Balkans during the pandemic period of COVID-19.

This research focuses on a theme that is experienced worldwide, that is, the effects, consequences and challenges imposed by the pandemic of COVID-19. The two important aims of this research is to analyze and understand the challenges imposed by the pandemic on artistic activities, both at the

level of consumption spaces and in terms of music-making processes. This is connected with analyses the music scenes and the alternatives that have develop to face the challenges imposed, with special attention also being given to the role played by digital media. The general objectives for analyses are approaching the following topics:

• Concert performances and experiences on two levels live and online; the accent of analysis will be put on individual and collective practices, the role of online communities during a time of crisis. I will explore the role of alternative rock music as digital scene; music as a social surrogate whereby nostalgia or memories are evoked, and music is examined as an emotional coping strategy for troubling times.
• The process of music-making - here the accent will be put on making interviews with musicians and define the new ways of working, communicating in the virtual vs real space.

Biographical note:

PhD Julijana Papazova is postdoctoral researcher at European Scientific Institute-ESI. Papazova finished her PhD studies in musicology at the Institute of Art Studies-Bulgarian Academy of Science in Sofia. Her main areas of research are popular music studies, alternative rock in Central and Southeast Europe. jzabeva@yahoo.com

Genevieve Allotey-Pappoe: The music business and social media

It is an indisputable fact that the internet and social media have transformed the way people interact globally, but it was not until 2020 that the power of social media in sustaining and shaping human interaction, public discourse, and cultural production became evident. Social media became a site for interaction as various people took to social media to share, curate, promote and market music in various ways. From Instagram live concerts to TikTok challenges, music became an important factor in human interaction as it was and could only be carried out online during the covid-19 lockdown in many countries. By highlighting the mechanisms and effects of social media on the music business and vice versa, this paper interrogates the sociocultural and economic implications of music’s role as an important content on social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok as well as the influence of social media on the music economy by creating new forms on marketing and dissemination. We now understand virality as a marketing tool for music and these platforms are on-hand sites for music promotion and discovery. This virality marketing system has added a new factor to the popular music business and interactions surrounding the music.

Biographical note:

Genevieve Allotey-Pappoe is a Musicology PhD candidate at Princeton University, USA with an MPhil in Ethnomusicology and Composition from the University of Ghana, Legon. Her research focuses on the production and circulation of African music and music of the Black diaspora using race, sound, and digital technology as critical categories. Her other research interests include the popular music industry, the embodiment of music, and music technology. g.allotey-pappoe@princeton.edu

Martijn Mulder and Erik Hitters: (de)Festivalisation and its impact on the music industries: a quantitative analysis of twelve years of live music in the Netherlands

Until recently, the trend of festivalisation has been subject to debate in the music industries, as a result of the rapid growth of music festivals and its impact on venues, artists and consumers. Festivalisation implies that allegedly, festivals have come to dominate the distribution of live music, compete with fixed venues and have resulted in scarcity of headline acts, raising fees and competition over visitors. However, even before COVID, between 2017 and early 2020, the number of music festivals declined in the Netherlands. In this paper we explore the causes and effects of the growth and decline of the music festival supply in the Netherlands between 2008 and 2019, based on a national database including 292.615 gigs that took place both in music venues and at music festivals. Our analyses include the role of festivals in the overall supply of live music, the relation to brick-and-mortar venues, the supply of music genres and national/international repertoires. Our study contributes to the understanding of live music in the (pre-pandemic) era of music streaming and globalisation / commercialisation of the live music industry.

Biographical notes:

• Martijn Mulder (mulder@eshcc.eur.nl) is Senior Lecturer in Leisure, Culture & Live Music at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences and PhD Candidate in the POPLIVE project (www.poplive.nl) at Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands.
• Erik Hitters (hitters@eshcc.eur.nl) is Associate Professor of Media & Creative Industries at Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands and project leader of POPLIVE, funded by the Dutch Research Council.

Samantha Talbot: “Blue Valentine” – Music video, body and space

In Chronicles, Volume One (2004: 51), Bob Dylan reckons that songwriting which is a case of ‘convert[ing] something’. But what gets converted? How and why?  

This 15-minute presentation is a screening of my new music video “Blue Valentine” – track 8 on my 2019 studio album Body Down (Live) and a short autoethnographic reading. I advocate ‘passionate scholarship’ and performative and poetic autoethnography as a timely antidote to the harm of systemic power structures. The music video was made in collaboration with, and directed by Glasgow-based filmmaker, Simone Smith. I deploy a gendered lens to critique the use of body and space in the video, in which I also perform, in character, revealing a shifting physical and emotional hinterland. The video occupies a liminal space between music video and film. In its shift from dream to reality, it uncovers hidden truths and produces song worlds which embody new creative possibilities and modes of presentation in popular music materialities.

I will be screening the music video at around 4-5 minutes, then giving a brief autoethnographic talk. I would welcome feedback/questions on the video.

Biographical note:

Samantha Talbot is Doctoral Candidate in Music at University of Glasgow. s.talbot.1@research.gla.ac.uk More information at https://glasgow.academia.edu/SamanthaLTalbot

Jon Mikkel Broch Ålvik: Framing Tix: Musical persona and meaning-making within and across genres

My focus in this paper falls on the Norwegian artist Andreas Haukeland, who performs under the stage name Tix. In 2021, Haukeland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest, employing his various on-stage idiosyncrasies to great effect. In interviews, he has told of his struggles with Tourette syndrome, blurring the line between the Tix persona and his own private life.

Building on recent work by Stan Hawkins (2020) and Philip Auslander (2021) on artist personas, I interrogate Haukeland’s self-reflexive discourse and how assertions of authenticity are substantiated through his persona. Crucially, I employ Auslander’s tripartite approach of frame, genre and persona in analysing how Haukeland builds his relationship with his audience. This approach enables a close look at how expectations are met in the listener’s encounter with the artist’s musical persona, and how Haukeland/Tix creates meaning within and across genres.

Investigation into how genres offer frames for interpreting Haukeland’s Tix persona, and how this persona is always in a close interplay with but never identical to the person behind it, also enables a discussion of the complex and carnevalesque Norwegian russelåt genre. In unpacking this musical category, I also make the case for research into popular music in a Nordic context.

Biographical note:

PhD Jon Mikkel Broch Ålvik is senior lecturer in musicology in the School of Music, Theatre and Art at Örebro University, Sweden. He specialises in critical musicology and popular music studies, with Nordic music and identity as his chief area of interest. mikkel.broch-alvik@oru.se

Ben Morris: Genre Syncretism and Nationalism in Norwegian Jazz, 1970–Present: The Influence of Folk and Contemporary European Art Music

At the University of Adger’s New Perspectives in Popular Music Research: Changes and Turmoil conference, I will present on my dissertation research, which examines the influence of Norwegian folk and contemporary European art music on the Norwegian jazz scene.

I cross-reference historical trends since 1970 with contemporary jazz performances in Oslo and investigate the role of nationalism and Norwegian national musical identity in the face of globalizing jazz influences and how notions of local musical character blend and conflict with conceptions of international European identity. I provide historical context by examining the role of Edvard Grieg in defining Norwegian national musical character and reflect on the current political and cultural position of Norway. Through important records including Torgrim Sollid’s 1975 Østerdalsmusikk, and Jan Garbarek’s 1972 Triptykon, the music on the ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) record label, and the music performed at contemporary jazz festivals including Ultima, Punkt, and Dølajazz, I explore how notions of Norwegian identity manifest in contemporary compositional and improvisational approaches and reflect ideas about Norwegianess in the face of globalization.

Biographical note:

Ben Morris is an American Colorado-based composer and jazz pianist. Ben completed his studies at Rice University, University of Miami, and the Norwegian Academy of Music and graduated with a doctorate at the University of Colorado Boulder as an ATLAS Fellow in May 2022. bmorriscomposer@gmail.com

Håvard Kiberg: One more turn after the algorithmic turn? A case study of Spotify and the inclusion of non-musical content as a platform strategy

Spotify is changing. ­From being a dominant premise provider and content distributor of music the past decade, the service is moving towards a more universal domain as an audiovisual platform. As early as 2015, Spotify announced that podcasts and other «self-produced content» would be included on their platform, and in 2018 the service made its first exclusive distribution agreements with well-known names in podcasting (such as Joe Rogan and Michelle Obama). In February 2019, CEO Daniel Ek declared that the service's priority goal was to become «the world's number one audio platform». Following later acquisitions of and collaborations with providers of film, television and videogames, the service that once was exclusively reserved for music is increasingly targeting a more general entertainment market, unchaining the limitations of what can and cannot be included on their platform.

Building on ongoing research – including 12 interviews with Norwegian music industry executives and an analysis of four years of Spotify press releases (2018–2021) – this paper maps Spotify’s recent audiovisual turn and discuss what consequences (both key challenges and key opportunities) such as shift in focus might have in a music industry perspective. Following contemporary discourses in streaming research (e.g., Maasø & Spilker, forthcoming; Spilker & Colbjørnsen, 2020) and platform theory (e.g., Hracs & Webster, 2021; Nieborg & Poell, 2018), the paper explores the dynamics and magnitudes of the streaming platforms' business movements and strategies, including the growing importance of exclusive content, the distribution of royalties, and the intensified competition between both platforms and various types of media and entertainment content (such as music, podcasts and television). Using Spotify as a case, the paper will address the following research questions: What are the emerging logics within platform-based music streaming? And what are the consequences of these for music industry actors?

References

• Hracs, B. J., & J. Webster (2021). From selling songs to engineering experiences: Exploring the competitive strategies of music streaming platforms. Journal of Cultural Economy, 14(2), 240–257. https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2020.1819374
• Maasø, A., & H.Spilker (forthcoming). The Streaming Paradox: Untangling the hybrid gatekeeping mechanisms of music streaming.
• Nieborg, D. B., & T. Poell (2018). The platformization of cultural production: Theorizing the contingent cultural commodity. New Media & Society, 20(11), 4275–4292. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818769694
• Spilker, H. S., & T. Colbjørnsen (2020). The dimensions of streaming: Toward a typology of an evolving concept. Media, Culture & Society, 42(7–8), 1210–1225. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443720904587

Biographical note:

Håvard Kiberg is a PhD candidate at the Kristiania University College (Department of Communication), Oslo, Norway, and the University of Bergen (Department of Information and Media Studies). His PhD project is called The Platformization of Music and examines how streaming and platform distribution interact with the production, organization, and monetization of music – using the Norwegian music industry as a case. Havard.Kiberg@kristiania.no

Matthias Jung: Made for humans: Exploring the design of co-creative performance technologies

Co-creative performance technology, often involving artificially creative elements, has been changing the live concert experience for both musicians and audiences in recent decades.

This paper proposed to look into current developments within the field of performance technologies that afford novel ways of interaction between musical performers, artificially creative agents and concert audiences. The aim is to establish a model for categorization of this subset of interactive musical

systems by studying a small number of recent cases in detail. More specifically, the conceptual design of the systems will be analyzed as they will be tested practically with a focus on musical application and accessibility of their use.

The central question of the study is steered towards the underlying ideas of creative performance that prevail their design and development, which in turn will afford certain modes of their co-creative use during performance. It is also considered a relevant concern, to what extend the interactive music systems take social aspects among musicians and audience members into consideration and how these modes of use are conceptualized. Lastly, a special focus shall be paid to autonomous elements within the interactive performance systems, since these afford ways of interaction that surpass these of traditional musical instruments.

Biographical note:

Matthias Jung is PhD Research Fellow at the Department of Popular Music, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Agder, Kristiansand (Norway). matthias.jung@uia.no

Roderick Udo: Using entrepreneurship theories to understand career decisions of popular music artists and their managers

The purpose of this study is to explain what drives career decisions of artists and their managers as key decision-makers in popular music production and performance. The study is based on a sample of 303 representatives of music acts that performed at the 14 largest music showcase events in Europe, North America and Australia in 2019 (last pre-covid edition) and 2020 or 2021 (online or hybrid). All respondents provided information about their music act and latest music release, the majority of respondents also completed questions about financing preferences, the influence of other stakeholders such as record companies, publishers and financial advisors, their own entrepreneurial orientation and the self-perceived entrepreneurial success of their music act. The in-depth data from the 20-minute online survey show the impact of the attitude of individual musicians and managers on the preferred financing of key career decisions such as record releases and tour planning. The study enriches music management research with insights from entrepreneurship theory, thereby focusing on the preferences of individuals around their career plans. It shows that theories from the field of entrepreneurship, particularly regarding the preferences of individuals, are important in understanding career success in the dynamic environment of the popular music industry.

Biographical note:

Roderick Udo is a senior lecturer and curriculum developer at the Institute for Finance & Accounting of HU Business School in the Netherlands and a PhD candidate at the Erasmus School of Economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He combines a finance and entrepreneurship background with over 15 years of experience in the popular music industry as an artist manager and festival director. roderick.udo@hu.nl

Organizers

• Department of Popular Music, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Agder (UiA): https://www.uia.no/en/about-uia/faculties/faculty-of-fine-arts/institutter/department-of-popular-music
• Popular Music Research Unit at UiA: https://www.uia.no/en/centres-and-networks/popular-music-research-unit
• Popular Music Studies (research group at UiA): https://www.uia.no/en/research/kunstfag/popular-music-studies

Organizing committee

• Professor Tor Dybo tor.dybo@uia.no
• Research Fellow Jelena Mijatovic jelena.mijatovic@uia.no
• Research Fellow Zachary Bresler zachary.bresler@uia.no

Advisory board

• Professor Michael Rauhut michael.rauhut@uia.no
• Dr Daniel Nordgård daniel.nordgard@uia.no

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