CFP: IASPM-Norden conference 2020, Music in the Age of Streaming – Nordic Perspectives
IASPM-NORDEN CONFERENCE
PITEÅ, SWEDEN; 15–17 JUNE 2020
The IASPM-Norden conference aims to shed light on various aspects of streaming of/in popular music within the Nordic context. The Nordic popular music scene is an active arena of ambitious artists, music producers and entrepreneurs, all striving for success at the national as well as the international level. More broadly, listening to popular music has become an evermore important part of people’s everyday life, and so have the “streams” of music flowing across many borders – geographical, ideological, socioeconomic, cultural, disciplinary, etc. In addition to the everyday distribution and listening of music through digital networks, we contend specifically that “streaming” may also be used to conceptualize musical cultures beyond the scope of Spotify or other streaming services. Indeed, even an analysis of a platform like Spotify may benefit from an approach that investigates the deeper currents and flows of its streams. With this conference we wish to engage with the many intersections of musical streams and invite papers that highlight the ways in which “streaming” characterize music and musical culture.
The conference welcomes investigations across a wide range of disciplines, including, but not limited to, musicology, ethnomusicology, sociology, anthropology, diaspora and transnational studies, gender and queer studies, cultural, media and communication studies. We invite submissions on, but not limited to, the following themes:
Streaming as mode of distribution: Streaming services, the music industry, and the political economy of streaming.
Streaming as a cultural technique of power: Data mining, gendered streaming, racialized streaming, platform politics, marketing.
Streaming as a mode of listening: Everyday streaming and mobile music.
Stream/ström/strøm (Scandinavian for electricity): Electronic music and digital music; political ecology of streaming and the environmental aspects of electric power generation that enables streaming.
Streams as movements: Genres, styles, histories, and aesthetic/political/cultural movements.
Geographic streams: From waterways to demographic movements; music, space/place, environment, climate, migration and diaspora.
Stream = the current: The contemporary in popular music/contemporary popular music.
The conference committee welcomes individual papers and proposals for panels and roundtable discussions. Please use one of the following formats when submitting an abstract proposal:
For individual 20-minute contributions: Abstracts of up to 300 words.
For themed paper sessions or panel discussions: Up to 300 words per contribution plus 300 words outlining the rationale for the session.
For sessions of up to 120 minutes in innovative formats such as work presentations, artist talks/readings, sound essays, composition workshops, and other presentations not covered by the usual format of academic papers: Up to 750 words outlining the form, content and rationale for the session.
Please include a list of key terms, a biographical by-line of no more than 50 words, and specification of any AV-technology and/or other equipment needed.
Important dates:
Deadline for abstract submission, with a clear specification of the format, is 30 November. The abstract proposal should be sent to iaspmnorden.ltu.2020 @gmail.com
Last date for the registration is 20 April 2020.
Conference is jointly organised by the Nordic branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM-Norden) and the research project Evolving Bildung in the nexus of streaming services, art and users – Spotify as a case at Luleå University of Technology (LTU).
More information: iaspmnorden@ gmail.com