Uploaded August 2019 | Updated September 2026, 6 hours ago
crosstowntraffic2018.wordpress.com
This presentation took place as part of the conference Crosstown Traffic: Popular Music Theory and Practice, which was hosted by The University of Huddersfield from September 3 - 5 2018. This event combined the IASPM UK&Ireland Biennial Conference, the 13th Art of Record Production Conference (ARP), an ISMMS conference, and the additional participation of Dancecult.
A recurrent theme within popular music studies has been discussion of how the field can integrate different disciplines and professions, for example exploring both music and its context; involving both practitioners and researchers; and encouraging interdisciplinary and collaborative work. Many different issues make such approaches challenging, and various different popular music focused subject organisations have developed somewhat independently of one another. This conference brought four such groups together, to exchange knowledge, collaborate, and encourage crosstalk.
/// SUPPORT
Popular Music Studies Research Group (PMSRG), University of Huddersfield research.hud.ac.uk/pmsrg/#
Centre for Music, Culture and Identity (CMCI), University of Huddersfield
research.hud.ac.uk/institutes-centres/cmci
The International Association for the Study of Popular Music UK and Ireland Branch (IASPM UK & Ireland)
iaspm.org.uk
Association for the Study of the Art of Record Production (ASARP)
artofrecordproduction.com
Dancecult Research Network (DRN) studies into electronic dance music culture
dancecult-research.net
International Society for Metal Music Studies (ISMMS)
metalstudies.org
/// ORGANIZERS
IASPM UK&I: Rupert Till
ARP: Katia Isakoff, Shara Rambarran
ISMMS: Karl Spracklen
Dancecult: Graham St. John
University of Huddersfield: Jan Herbst, Austin Moore, Lisa Colton, Toby Martin, Catherine Haworth, Mark Mynett
/// CREDITS
This online project was edited, collated, and made available online by Chris McConnell, Jack Zissell, and Colin Frank.
/// PRESENTATION DETAILS
Music and the Subcultural Sacred
Antti-Ville Kärjä - Academy Research Fellow, Music Archive Finland
Email: avk@musiikkiarkisto.fi
/// ABSTRACT
Countercultural anti-religiosity of black metal, resurgence of pagan musical practices, and alternative spiritualities associated with electronic dance music, among other things, signal a recent change in the Western religious landscape that has been discussed for instance in terms of re-enchantment, re-sacralisation and post-secularisation, yielding attempts to “rescript the sacred” through popular culture. My aim is to participate in this discussion from another direction, by reconceptualising “the popular” through “the sacred.” This entails interrelating the two concepts in their multidimensionality; alongside the multiple dimensions of “popular culture” either as quantitative, aesthetic, sociological, folk, political or postmodern phenomenon, the idea of “multiple forms of the sacred” will be adopted. Thus, in addition to the religious dimension of the sacred, it is possible to consider its political, national(istic), economic and subcultural conceptualisations. My focus will be on the last of these, based on the pronounced role of popular music in subcultural theorisation.
crosstowntraffic2018.wordpress.com
This presentation took place as part of the conference Crosstown Traffic: Popular Music Theory and Practice, which was hosted by The University of Huddersfield from September 3 - 5 2018. This event combined the IASPM UK&Ireland Biennial Conference, the 13th Art of Record Production Conference (ARP), an ISMMS conference, and the additional participation of Dancecult.
A recurrent theme within popular music studies has been discussion of how the field can integrate different disciplines and professions, for example exploring both music and its context; involving both practitioners and researchers; and encouraging interdisciplinary and collaborative work. Many different issues make such approaches challenging, and various different popular music focused subject organisations have developed somewhat independently of one another. This conference brought four such groups together, to exchange knowledge, collaborate, and encourage crosstalk.
/// SUPPORT
Popular Music Studies Research Group (PMSRG), University of Huddersfield research.hud.ac.uk/pmsrg/#
Centre for Music, Culture and Identity (CMCI), University of Huddersfield
research.hud.ac.uk/institutes-centres/cmci
The International Association for the Study of Popular Music UK and Ireland Branch (IASPM UK & Ireland)
iaspm.org.uk
Association for the Study of the Art of Record Production (ASARP)
artofrecordproduction.com
Dancecult Research Network (DRN) studies into electronic dance music culture
dancecult-research.net
International Society for Metal Music Studies (ISMMS)
metalstudies.org
/// ORGANIZERS
IASPM UK&I: Rupert Till
ARP: Katia Isakoff, Shara Rambarran
ISMMS: Karl Spracklen
Dancecult: Graham St. John
University of Huddersfield: Jan Herbst, Austin Moore, Lisa Colton, Toby Martin, Catherine Haworth, Mark Mynett
/// CREDITS
This online project was edited, collated, and made available online by Chris McConnell, Jack Zissell, and Colin Frank.
/// PRESENTATION DETAILS
Music and the Subcultural Sacred
Antti-Ville Kärjä - Academy Research Fellow, Music Archive Finland
Email: avk@musiikkiarkisto.fi
/// ABSTRACT
Countercultural anti-religiosity of black metal, resurgence of pagan musical practices, and alternative spiritualities associated with electronic dance music, among other things, signal a recent change in the Western religious landscape that has been discussed for instance in terms of re-enchantment, re-sacralisation and post-secularisation, yielding attempts to “rescript the sacred” through popular culture. My aim is to participate in this discussion from another direction, by reconceptualising “the popular” through “the sacred.” This entails interrelating the two concepts in their multidimensionality; alongside the multiple dimensions of “popular culture” either as quantitative, aesthetic, sociological, folk, political or postmodern phenomenon, the idea of “multiple forms of the sacred” will be adopted. Thus, in addition to the religious dimension of the sacred, it is possible to consider its political, national(istic), economic and subcultural conceptualisations. My focus will be on the last of these, based on the pronounced role of popular music in subcultural theorisation.
