CfP: Challenge and Change in Popular Music - The 2022 IASPM-UK/Ireland Branch Conference

Challenge and Change in Popular Music
The 2022 IASPM-UK/Ireland Branch Conference
Liverpool, August 31st – September 2nd 2022

Deadline: 7 January 2022

Call for Papers

We are pleased to invite you to the 16th IASPM UK and Ireland Conference: Challenge and Change in Popular Music, on August 31st – September 2nd 2022. Hosted by the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Popular Music and Department of Music, the conference will take place in Liverpool, a UNESCO City of Music. It is intended that papers will be presented in-person, with the city’s new landmark building, The Yoko Ono Lennon Centre, providing a central venue.

Conference Themes

As the world continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting social and economic crises, proposals are invited for papers that respond to contemporary global challenges and changes. Whether informed by the experiences of individuals, cities, nations or global communities, papers might respond to:

  • Global Pandemics –their consequences for musical cultures and identities, and creative responses from popular music and the music industries.

  • Changing Technologies – the opportunities and challenges they present for novelty, innovation and revival in popular music, and for new ways of engaging with music archives and heritage.

  • Environmental Changes –Sustainability and the music industries, environmental concerns in popular music, and musical expressions of crisis and resilience. Responses to changes in the local environments for popular music, including policy responses such as Music Cities and Agent of Change.

  • Social Inequalities – Musical reactions to political oppression and displacement, and to social and political movements such as Black Lives Matter and #Me Too.

  • Structural Changes to the Music Industries – the challenges and opportunities they present for the global music industries, from Bollywood to K-Pop and Western classical music industries. Changing and emerging models for the ownership and sale of music rights, and debates about equitable remuneration for writers and artists.

  • Structural Changes in Higher Education – their impact on popular music and on debates in popular music studies concerning disciplinarity, employability, equality, curriculum change, canonisation and cultural diversity.

Proposals responding to other contemporary global challenges and opportunities are also welcome.


Submission Details
The deadline to submit proposals is 7 January 2022

The proposals can be for presentations in the following formats:

  • Individual Papers (20 mins + 10 mins for questions).

  • Musical and Multimedia Presentations (20 mins + 10 mins for questions)

  • Group Sessions (90 Minutes) based around a topic and involving three or four contributors.

For further details on submission requirements and to submit your proposal, please click here.

Please note that conference participants will need to be IASPM members.

Important Dates
* Deadline for submission: 7 January 2022
* Notification of acceptance: 4 March 2022

Registration details will be available in due course.

Organising committee
Simon Zagorski-Thomas
Catherine Tackley
Sara Cohen
Kenneth Smith
Freya Jarman
Simran Singh

For any enquiries regarding the programme, please contact Sara Cohen sara[at]liverpool.ac.uk

CFP, NewsHelene Heuser