CfP: Popular music of the balkans, 17–18 June 2020, Belgrade, Serbia

Popular music of the balkans
Deadlines
Abstract submission: 15 November 2019
Notification to authors of abstract approval status: 15 January 2020

Further info: http://www.popmusicbalkan.com/en/index.html?fbclid=IwAR11VU1jJqAXSF6IR2y9sLHDIimoeVBhhVPiXYwZOXSMpp4rfJT7CE2gwQw

The term “popular music” is used in public discourse on a daily basis, hence its multiple meanings both on a global and on a local level. It is the term’s polysemic nature that has inspired this conference in an effort to explore popular music from the perspective of different disciplines with the research focus on the Balkans.
Given the interaction of diverse cultural contents, practices and identities, popular music emerges as a productive field of research for different social and humanities disciplines and sub- disciplines with their specific research traditions and perspectives. The Balkans, for its part, emerges as a particularly challenging region to research. On the one hand, the attribute “Balkan” refers to a geographical area whose boundaries are not always clearly defined. On the other hand, the Balkans, although highly diversified culturally, is often perceived, internally as well as externally, as a bearer of “authenticity”, a bearer of an authentic culture, an authentic sound included.
This international interdisciplinary conference is conceived as a platform for re- examining the importance and place of popular music in the context of the Balkan countries, for re-examining the interrelatedness between globality and locality using popular music as a lens, and also, for establishing whether, and which elements of, the popular music produced in the Balkans can be characterized as “authentic”. Given different understandings of the Balkans – a geographical area with often unclear and fluid boundaries but also a symbolic construct – the conference should also seek to examine whether and in what ways Balkan boundaries are being (re)defined by popular music.

Proposed topics

Contributions focused on but not limited to the proposed topics are encouraged:

  • Popular music as a cultural phenomenon

  • Popular music between the local and the global

  • Popular music on the Internet

  • Popular music and the media

  • Popular music and consumption

  • Culture of listening

  • Audiences and popular music

  • Balkan music stars as cultural heroes

  • Popular music and publishing

  • Music festivals as popular music practices

  • Popular music and the city

  • Popular music and risk behaviours

Presentation should not take longer than 15 minutes plus 10 minutes for questions and discussion.
Conference languages are English and all languages of the Balkans. Poster presentations, should there be any, should be in English.

Guidelines for abstract writing and submission

  • Abstracts in English should be sent to: popularnamuzikabalkana@gmail.com and accompaned by the following information: the name of the author (and co-author); the institutional affiliations of the author (and co-author); the e-mail addresses of the author (and co-author); the title of the paper; keywords.

  • Abstracts should not be longer than 300 words.

  • All abstract applications will be reviewed, and authors will be notified of their approval status by 15 January 2020.

CFP, Conference, NewsHelene Heuser