Uploaded July 2019 | Updated September 2026, 22 minutes 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
Inhabiting pop as virtual environment: autoethnographic perspectives on everyday listening
Dr. Iain Findlay-Walsh
/// ABSTRACT
In recent years pop music productions have been theorised as virtual environments, which may imitate or play on the sonic-spatial characteristics of actual acoustic spaces. From Allan Moore’s ‘soundbox’ to Mark Fisher’s ‘party hauntology’, the virtual spaces of pop records have been proposed as culturally significant, that is, as spaces through which cultural meaning is produced. Perhaps less frequently discussed are newly emerging habits of engagement with pop’s virtual spaces within cultures of personal listening, or the roles that the ‘fake’ spaces of pop might play among the ‘real’ spaces of the auditory everyday. Bearing in mind the prevalence of pop playback in everyday life, how do its virtual environments layer, mask or merge with the everyday acoustic spaces in which they resound, and what does it mean for a listener to encounter and navigate multiple orders of auditory space simultaneously? This presentation explores perceptual issues around the reception of recorded music within the wider context of everyday soundscapes. A range of theories on sound and listening are discussed, including those by Brandon LaBelle, Salome Voegelin and Mark Grimshaw. These ideas are used to advance an understanding of listening as a relational, embodied process of self-location. Thereafter, record production and soundscape composition examples that use field recordings to re-present everyday music reception encounters are explored and proposed as forms of practice-research in everyday listening. Audio examples include tracks by Burial, Bjork, Marc Baron and Gabi Losoncy, as well as some of my own practice-research, which combines record production and field recording with autoethnographic methods. While seemingly disparate in style, I will argue that each audio example can be understood to generate productive ambiguities between music production and reception, and between actual and virtual auditory environments, thereby tracing the liminal spaces of present-day music reception.
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
Inhabiting pop as virtual environment: autoethnographic perspectives on everyday listening
Dr. Iain Findlay-Walsh
/// ABSTRACT
In recent years pop music productions have been theorised as virtual environments, which may imitate or play on the sonic-spatial characteristics of actual acoustic spaces. From Allan Moore’s ‘soundbox’ to Mark Fisher’s ‘party hauntology’, the virtual spaces of pop records have been proposed as culturally significant, that is, as spaces through which cultural meaning is produced. Perhaps less frequently discussed are newly emerging habits of engagement with pop’s virtual spaces within cultures of personal listening, or the roles that the ‘fake’ spaces of pop might play among the ‘real’ spaces of the auditory everyday. Bearing in mind the prevalence of pop playback in everyday life, how do its virtual environments layer, mask or merge with the everyday acoustic spaces in which they resound, and what does it mean for a listener to encounter and navigate multiple orders of auditory space simultaneously? This presentation explores perceptual issues around the reception of recorded music within the wider context of everyday soundscapes. A range of theories on sound and listening are discussed, including those by Brandon LaBelle, Salome Voegelin and Mark Grimshaw. These ideas are used to advance an understanding of listening as a relational, embodied process of self-location. Thereafter, record production and soundscape composition examples that use field recordings to re-present everyday music reception encounters are explored and proposed as forms of practice-research in everyday listening. Audio examples include tracks by Burial, Bjork, Marc Baron and Gabi Losoncy, as well as some of my own practice-research, which combines record production and field recording with autoethnographic methods. While seemingly disparate in style, I will argue that each audio example can be understood to generate productive ambiguities between music production and reception, and between actual and virtual auditory environments, thereby tracing the liminal spaces of present-day music reception.
