Uploaded June 2019 | Updated September 2026, 15 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
SNUB TV – No Remote Control
Brenda Kelly
(Brenda Kelly is a member of MeCCSA, and a lecturer in media, visual culture & broadcasting at FIE – Foundation for International Education)
Email: brendakelly@sky.com
/// ABSTRACT
SNUB TV was a critically acclaimed series that chronicled the thriving independent music sector over three BBC series, from 1989 – 1991. On the eve SNUB TV’s 30th anniversary, co-creator and producer Brenda Kelly explores the special combination of factors that produced SNUB TV. Are there lessons to be learned for other media representations of music? What can theorists and other practitioners add to this understanding. How can music be meaningfully represented in the media?
A number of things made SNUB TV different. Reflecting the DIY spirit of the times, SNUB was a television debut for its producers, Brenda Kelly and Peter Fowler, whose professional background was not in television, but the independent music sector. Their aim was to present a passionately curated survey of unrepresented independent music, and produce a show that disrupted the conventions of music television. SNUB was not a commissioned programme, it was an acquisition for the BBC. This meant editorial autonomy, and their own archive. There was no remote control. Against TV tradition – and the BBC’s preference – SNUB was presenter-free, foregrounding the music and the artists. Arguably, the series pre-figured internet media production in its spirit of independence and control.
The independent music sector created its own parallel universe, away from the mainstream, creating and distributing music on its own terms, in its own way. Embodying this, SNUB – on a tiny budget, produced much of its own material: live footage, videos and interviews. SNUB was musically democratic: hip hop, trip hop, guitar bands and the avant-garde all found a place on SNUB. It commissioned original theme music from dub music producer Adrian Sherwood of ON-U- Sounds, and graphics from designers on the independent scene, Me Co and 23 Envelope. All this is what gave the series an authenticity and an aesthetic that mirrored the music and wider sector.
This paper involves various of the interdisciplinary categories of Crosstown Traffics including: popular music theory and practice, practice-based or practice-led research, interdisciplinary approaches, performative or embodied understandings, and in addition, media representations of popular music.
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
SNUB TV – No Remote Control
Brenda Kelly
(Brenda Kelly is a member of MeCCSA, and a lecturer in media, visual culture & broadcasting at FIE – Foundation for International Education)
Email: brendakelly@sky.com
/// ABSTRACT
SNUB TV was a critically acclaimed series that chronicled the thriving independent music sector over three BBC series, from 1989 – 1991. On the eve SNUB TV’s 30th anniversary, co-creator and producer Brenda Kelly explores the special combination of factors that produced SNUB TV. Are there lessons to be learned for other media representations of music? What can theorists and other practitioners add to this understanding. How can music be meaningfully represented in the media?
A number of things made SNUB TV different. Reflecting the DIY spirit of the times, SNUB was a television debut for its producers, Brenda Kelly and Peter Fowler, whose professional background was not in television, but the independent music sector. Their aim was to present a passionately curated survey of unrepresented independent music, and produce a show that disrupted the conventions of music television. SNUB was not a commissioned programme, it was an acquisition for the BBC. This meant editorial autonomy, and their own archive. There was no remote control. Against TV tradition – and the BBC’s preference – SNUB was presenter-free, foregrounding the music and the artists. Arguably, the series pre-figured internet media production in its spirit of independence and control.
The independent music sector created its own parallel universe, away from the mainstream, creating and distributing music on its own terms, in its own way. Embodying this, SNUB – on a tiny budget, produced much of its own material: live footage, videos and interviews. SNUB was musically democratic: hip hop, trip hop, guitar bands and the avant-garde all found a place on SNUB. It commissioned original theme music from dub music producer Adrian Sherwood of ON-U- Sounds, and graphics from designers on the independent scene, Me Co and 23 Envelope. All this is what gave the series an authenticity and an aesthetic that mirrored the music and wider sector.
This paper involves various of the interdisciplinary categories of Crosstown Traffics including: popular music theory and practice, practice-based or practice-led research, interdisciplinary approaches, performative or embodied understandings, and in addition, media representations of popular music.
