CfP: Special Issue: Mental Health in Popular Music (IASPM Journal)

Special Issue: Mental Health in Popular Music

This Special Issue is motivated by the increasing visibility of mental health discourses in popular music. From long-standing myths of “sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll”, the “27 Club”, or the “tortured genius”, to recent disclosures by artists across genres, health-related themes have shaped the history of popular music cultures around the world. The tragic deaths of Avicii, Lil Peep, Amy Winehouse, Kim Jong-Hyun, Liam Payne, and others have placed mental health at the centre of public and industry debates. At the same time, contemporary stars such as Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, Kendrick Lamar, and Justin Bieber have significantly altered the visibility of how psychological struggles are communicated and negotiated – both artistically and through practices of self-representation in online and offline contexts. Their work reflects and, in turn, influences wider societal debates and experiences of mental health.

 

We understand mental health as a dynamic and contested cultural discourse that takes on specific forms within the popular music landscape: it encompasses personal struggles, structural pressures, and precarious labour conditions, but also possibilities of solidarity, empowerment, and change. This Special Issue aims to gather a broad range of scholarly perspectives on how mental health is aesthetically represented, socially negotiated, and economically instrumentalised in popular music.

 

This Special Issue is interested in, but not limited to, any of the following themes:

  • Aesthetic strategies and representations of mental health in lyrics, production, sound design, visuals, performances, and media coverage;

  • Creative crisis, resilience, and well-being in music-making;

  • Gendered and intersectional framings of psychological struggle;

  • Celebrity branding, intimacy, authenticity, and vulnerability;

  • Fan practices, digital communities, and collective storytelling on mental health;

  • Genre-specific discourses: how musical conventions and communities frame, stigmatise, or enable discussions of psychological wellbeing;

  • Precarity, labour, and structural burdens in the creative industries;

  • Historical perspectives on music, health, and crisis;

  • Global and comparative approaches to health narratives and discourses in popular music.

 

We are looking for scholarly contributions. The Special Issue also aims to provide a global outlook and, therefore, invites submissions that highlight regional and genre-specific dynamics.

 

Full articles will be between 6,000 and 8,000 words and follow IASPM Journal’s Style Guide and Template and will be subject to double-blind peer review.

 

To be considered for this Special Issue, please submit an abstract of 150-250 words (plus references, if necessary) by 15 March 2026; along with author name(s), institutional affiliations, contact details, and a brief bio of no more than 150 words which includes the author’s positionalities in relation to their topic to: melanie[dot]ptatscheck[at]leuphana[dot]de. Please indicate “IASPM Mental Health in Popular Music” in the subject line.

 

If your abstract is accepted, we expect to receive the full submission uploaded into the online submission by 1 August 2026 at https://iaspmjournal.net/index.php/IASPM_Journal/about.

See the journal site for further information regarding Submissions.

 

NOTE: In order to submit to IASPM Journal you must be an IASPM member and registered as an author on the site. If membership is a financial barrier for any contributor, please discuss this with the editors and we could perhaps try to arrange some sort of funding.

CFPHelene Heuser