CfC: Queen: Sound and Vision, Deadline: 17. Dezember 2026

Following the publication of The Artistry and Legacy of Queen (Bloomsbury, 2025) and the Queen: Sound and Vision international online conference held in September 2026, we invite proposals for chapters for a new edited collection extending the developing field of Queen scholarship.

The title Sound and Vision provides a starting point rather than a limitation. Alongside work concerned directly with Queen’s music, production, performance and visual culture, we welcome contributions that explore the broader processes through which Queen’s work was conceived, created, mediated, preserved, reinterpreted and continually encountered by new audiences.

The collection therefore seeks to examine not only how Queen sounds and looks, but also how its music, albums, performances, images and creative identities came into being; how they have been sustained and recontextualised; and how Queen continues to generate cultural, technological and commercial possibilities.

We are particularly interested in work that helps us understand how and why Queen became so successful and distinctive, why its work continues to resonate, and what might be learned from its creative practices, cultural positioning and continuing reinvention.

The final structure of the collection will evolve in response to the chapters selected.

Possible areas of enquiry include, but are not limited to:

Sound, songwriting and musical construction

  • songwriting, composition and arrangement

  • instrumental sound worlds, including guitar, bass, drums, percussion, keyboards and synthesizers

  • vocal arrangement and performance

  • harmony, texture, timbre and musical architecture

  • close analysis of individual songs, albums or repertoire

  • live sound and the engineering of performance

Albums: conception, construction and meaning

  • albums as conceived and constructed creative works

  • recording histories and track-by-track reconstruction

  • sequencing, coherence, themes and narrative

  • recording technology, overdubbing and studio experimentation

  • production, engineering, mixing and mastering

  • the relationship between music, artwork, packaging and visual identity

  • changing interpretations of albums over time

Studio practice, production and creative labour

  • producers, engineers, arrangers and other collaborators

  • creative decision-making and working methods

  • recording technologies and innovation

  • the relationship between individual and collective creativity

  • archival evidence illuminating the making of recordings

Image, film and visual culture

  • music video

  • concert film and television

  • photography and photographic representation

  • portraiture, concert photography and iconic imagery

  • costume, styling and performance image

  • scenography, lighting and stage design

  • album artwork, typography, logos and graphic design

  • the construction and evolution of Queen’s visual identity

Queen together and separately

  • the creative relationships between Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon

  • solo careers and collaborations involving Queen members

  • work that extends, challenges or transforms ideas associated with Queen

  • significant collaborative projects, including Barcelona

  • the relationship between individual creative identities and the collective identity of Queen

Live performance, audiences and mediation

  • performance practice

  • concert production and spectacle

  • audience experience

  • live recordings and concert films

  • touring and international audiences

  • the mediation and reconstruction of historical performances

Fandom, tribute and cultural memory

  • Queen fandom and fan communities

  • tribute performance and reinterpretation

  • commemoration and memorialisation

  • monuments, heritage sites and place

  • anniversaries and ceremonial activity

  • cultural memory and the continuing representation of Queen and its members

  • the role of fan activity in sustaining and reshaping Queen’s cultural presence

Archives, catalogues and reinterpretation

  • archives and archival practice

  • previously unreleased material

  • reissues, remasters and deluxe editions

  • restoration of audio and film

  • surround, spatial and immersive formats

  • the changing meanings of recordings as they are repackaged and recontextualised

  • catalogue stewardship and the relationship between preservation and reinvention

Success, longevity and cultural value

  • how and why Queen achieved sustained global success

  • innovation and creative differentiation

  • the relationship between music, image, performance and audience

  • changing critical reception

  • intergenerational audiences

  • cultural and commercial longevity

  • processes through which popular music becomes heritage

  • what might be learned from Queen’s success and continuing relevance

Future forms and technological reinvention

  • artificial intelligence and music

  • AI-assisted restoration, reconstruction and analysis

  • holographic, virtual and digitally mediated performance

  • immersive and interactive experiences

  • digital archives

  • new forms of audience engagement

  • ethical questions surrounding technological representation of artists

  • future uses and reinterpretations of music catalogues

  • what Queen’s continuing development might suggest for the stewardship of other artists and creative catalogues

We welcome contributions from popular music studies, musicology, sound studies, film and media studies, photography and visual studies, performance studies, cultural studies, design history, heritage and memory studies, business and music industries research, audience and fan studies, and interdisciplinary approaches.

Submissions

Please submit:

  • a 250–300 word chapter proposal

  • a short author biography

  • a provisional chapter title

by 17 December 2026.

Chapter proposals will be reviewed by the editors. Invitation to submit a full chapter will not constitute a guarantee of final publication; chapters will be subject to editorial review and the requirements of the eventual publisher.

Please send proposals to:

Tony Rigg
TRigg[at]lancashire.ac.uk

and

Ewa Mazierska
EHMazierska[at]lancashire.ac.uk

Further guidance regarding chapter length, style and submission deadlines will be provided to authors whose proposals are selected.

Editors: Tony Rigg and Ewa Mazierska
University of Lancashire, UK

CfC, NewsHelene Heuser