Uploaded July 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
This Sounds Too Mainstream! Locating Record Production and Sonic Experience in Culturally Dominant Practices of Popular Music
Dr. Christofer Jost
/// ABSTRACT
The question of whether a piece of music is mainstream or not can be the subject of passionate conversation among listeners. Probably in the rarest of cases, the label “mainstream” is associated with positive characteristics. Surely, mainstream means commercial success, but for many people the latter is synonymous with superficiality, triviality, conformism and some other dubious traits. In addition, the mainstream is often juxtaposed with the underground as the other, the subversive and the emancipatory (and thus the ethically superior). While such evaluations undoubtedly accompany the everyday use of popular music, it needs to be questioned from an academic perspective whether a recording can actually sound mainstream or – to put it the other way round – whether the term characterizes a sonic, meaning aesthetic quality. The paper approaches the pop mainstream from a praxeological perspective by asking how the interplay of different institutions and actors turns the mainstream into an interpretative scheme; this includes, in detail, the spheres of artistic production (including music production as well as non-musical domains like artwork), media distribution and promotion, coverage and finally perception and appropriation in everyday life. In this way it shall be outlined which position record production and sonic experience occupy in the social constitution of the pop mainstream. With reference to theoretical concepts such as image, branding and crossmedia it can be shown that notions of “mainstreamness” also emerge in a network of performative, pictorial, filmic and textual events.
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
This Sounds Too Mainstream! Locating Record Production and Sonic Experience in Culturally Dominant Practices of Popular Music
Dr. Christofer Jost
/// ABSTRACT
The question of whether a piece of music is mainstream or not can be the subject of passionate conversation among listeners. Probably in the rarest of cases, the label “mainstream” is associated with positive characteristics. Surely, mainstream means commercial success, but for many people the latter is synonymous with superficiality, triviality, conformism and some other dubious traits. In addition, the mainstream is often juxtaposed with the underground as the other, the subversive and the emancipatory (and thus the ethically superior). While such evaluations undoubtedly accompany the everyday use of popular music, it needs to be questioned from an academic perspective whether a recording can actually sound mainstream or – to put it the other way round – whether the term characterizes a sonic, meaning aesthetic quality. The paper approaches the pop mainstream from a praxeological perspective by asking how the interplay of different institutions and actors turns the mainstream into an interpretative scheme; this includes, in detail, the spheres of artistic production (including music production as well as non-musical domains like artwork), media distribution and promotion, coverage and finally perception and appropriation in everyday life. In this way it shall be outlined which position record production and sonic experience occupy in the social constitution of the pop mainstream. With reference to theoretical concepts such as image, branding and crossmedia it can be shown that notions of “mainstreamness” also emerge in a network of performative, pictorial, filmic and textual events.
