- Popular music and society: culture, technology and industry
- Popular music in academic discourses
- Popular music: history, identity and ideology
- Analysis of popular music
- Popular music and globalization
- Digitisation: new markets, financial flows and copyright issues
- Entrepreneurship, music business and management
Projects
The research group Popular Music Studies is involved in various projects. Some over many years and involving international partners, others are shorter and with national/regional focus.
Selected current projects (for past project, see "Previous Projects"):
MishMash (2025–2030): Centre for AI and creativity is a five year project funded by the Norwegian Research Council comprising more than 200 researchers from higher education institutions in Norway, in collaboration with numerous public and private sector partners.
CreaTeME-Talent: Music and technology, innovation and artistic collaboration.Project leader Andy Harrison (2026–2030), financed by Cultiva.
MishMash-Kristiansand: A collaboration between UiA and MishMash’ non-academic partners on consolidating activities and networks within AI and the arts. Project leader Roderick Udo, (2026–2030), financed by Cultiva
Popular Music behind the Iron Curtain (ongoing): Michael Rauhut: This project is focused on the role popular music has in dictatorial systems. The main issues include: youth cultural dimensions, art and subversion, socialist production conditions in the field of popular music. The number of cooperation partners is constantly growing; it mainly includes Eastern European colleagues and IASPM CESE, the branch of Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. A continuous and long-term cooperation exists with: Departments of Musicology at Palacký University Olomouc and Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main, Popakademie Mannheim.
The Kristiansand Roundtable Conference: In the period of 2007–2012, Kristiansand and the University of Agder hosted the annual Roundtable Conference, lead and initiated by Peter Jenner and Bendik Hofseth. The events offered an arena for debate and discussion among people with insights and positions to influence the music industries digital progressions. The Kristiansand Roundtable Conferences were by invitation only and the talks were held under Chatham House Rules. The Chatham House Rule simply states that while everything in the talks can be used for further work and debate, nothing of what is being said can be attributed to any participants. These frameworks have been critical for allowing discussions on sensitive and difficult matters and it has been an important premise for why the Kristiansand Roundtable Conferences became an important meeting-place for people in the music business, digital tech-companies, academic researchers and policy makers and legislators. After a break for three years, the conference has started up again in 2016, successfully located prior to Sørveiv In 2017, Billboard Magazine was represented, reporting back from the event with this piece.
New Perspectives in Popular Music Research: An international conference on new perspectives in popular music will be held in 2027 by the Department of Popular Music, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Agder.
Background
The research group’s main objective is to facilitate research and academic excellence within the field of popular music studies. It serves as a forum for academic discussions, the development of and cooperation around research projects, and the dissemination of research in the field of popular music. The approach is interdisciplinary: We understand Popular Music Studies (PMS) as a multi-faceted arena including different research disciplines, strategies and traditions. Popular music is considered as a complex aesthetic and social phenomenon which is inextricably linked with industrial processes. This entails the study of the aesthetics of music, as well as the economic and technological frameworks which music is created within. PMS is an international research group where focus of research, the networks of our members, and the impacts of our work are primarily international.
Our ambitions are (1) to have a growing academic impact on the research field by publishing state-of-the-art research through top-level academic journals and book series. And (2) to have growing relevance to society by increasingly being a favored partner in projects, host for events and source of knowledge and analyses.
Previous projects
ETEM (2024–2025)
Online resource for competence dissemination and sharing, funded by Cultiva.
International Conference: "New Perspectives in Popular Music Research: Changes and Turmoil", University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway, 1–2 June 2022
Topics: 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
COST – Dynamics of Virtual Work
Since 2014 Daniel Nordgård and the University of Agder has been part of the COST network Dynamics of Virtual Work, which researches the impacts from digitalization on work conditions and framework. The project can be looked at on the Cost.eu homepage and here: http://dynamicsofvirtualwork.com/
The project’s final conference was held in Vilnius, Lithuania the 14-16th of September: http://dynamicsofvirtualwork.com/final-conference-vilnius-14-16-septembre-2016/
Selected publications
- Iveland, K. (2026) Sounding the Voice: Identity, Lyrics, and Vocal Recognition in Popular Music, London: Bloomsbury Academic
- Rauhut, M. (2026) Silly's Februar, London: Bloomsbury Academic
- Dybo, T. (t.b.p. 2026) An Ethnographic Study of Fairport Convention: Folk Rock and Globalization, London: Routledge
- Nordgård, D. et al. (eds.) (t.b.p. 2027) The Intellect Handbook of Global Music Industries, Bristol: Intellect Books
- Fredheim, Å. (2026) Playing Field Recordings in Music Production, in: J. O. Gullö et al. (eds.) , Innovation in Music: Innovative Creative Practice. London: Routledge
- Fredheim, Å. (t.b.p. 2026) Guldalit: Transactional Resonance and Indigenous Perspectives on Listening, in: Ø. Varkøy et al. (eds.) Music and Resonance, Oslo: Cappelen Damm Forskning
- Koksvik, I. (2025) Metaphors and Multimodal Mental Imagery in Immersive and Stereo Record Production, in: Journal of Music Production Research, 29 October
- Koksvik, I. et al. (2025) Finding the "Better" in Music Production, in: B. Anthony et al. (eds.) Music Production Pedagogy, London: Routledge
- Fosseli, L. and D. Nordgård (2025) The Skills to Pay the Bills: New digital skills in a digital and global music market”, in: S. Chen (ed.) Digital Globalization of Creative Industries, Cheltenham: Edward Elgars Publishing
- Nordgård, D. and E. Lazzaro (2025) Crowdfunding Visual Artists: Alternative or complementary financing mode?, in: E. Lazzaro et al. (eds.) Law and Finance in International Art Markets: Tools for the Future, London: Routledge
- Dybo, T. (2025) Gehørtradering: Uformelle Læringsarenaer i Populærmusikken”, in: Ø. Elle et al. (eds.) Musikkfagets Kompleksitet og Bredde: Nye Praksiser i et Sammensatt Samfunn, Oslo: Cappelen Damm Forskning
- Rauhut, M. (2025) Raus aus der Spur: Silly und die DDR, Erfurt: Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Thüringen
- Rauhut, M. (2025) Unter Brüdern: Die sozialistische Rock-&-Pop-Alternative”, in: D. Hüser et al. (eds.) Trans-Europe-Express – Zirkulation, Diffusion und Verflechtung populärer Musik im Europa der langen 1960er Jahre, Bielefeld: transcript
Read more at the Popular Music Research Unit