Regional experiences and external influences: reclaiming identities by popular music in the digital era
18.06.2020 - 20.06.2020 - Toruń
Katedra Komunikacji Mediów i Dziennikarstwa
Wydział Filozofii i Nauk Społecznych Toruń, ul. Fosa Staromiejska 1a
56-611-2121
Wydział Humanistyczny
International Association for the Study of Popular Music
dr hab. Dariusz Brzostek
e-mail: darek_b@umk.pl
prof. dr hab. Marek Jeziński
e-mail: jezmar@umk.pl
mgr Aleksandra Brzostek
e-mail: 502760@doktorant.umk.pl
telefon: 56 611-35-10
dr Małgorzata Lisecka
e-mail: malise@umk.pl
telefon: (56) 611-31-33
dr Łukasz Wojtkowski
e-mail: wojtkowski@umk.pl
telefon: (56) 611 21 32
The main objective of the conference is to exchange the experiences on studying popular music regional scenes. Such panorama tends to functionally and structurally reflect specific and diversified character of cultural regionalism itself, including music and its social functions. We shall examine local popular music scenes in three varied but overlapping perspectives located mainly in the fields of musicology, sociology, anthropology, literary studies, cultural studies, political science, but we do not limit the academic areas of research. Thus, the experts of the enumerated fields covering the research on popular music are welcome. We encourage discussion on, firstly, the interpretation of popular music in the context of recent changes in the modes of music production and consumption in the area of regionalism. During two last decades scholars studying popular music witnessed general change in the modes of music consumption. To a large degree music, traditionally and usually subjugated to the record companies and the “old” media, is no longer subject of the marketing and promotional decisions imposed from above by the managements and corporations. It allowed the artists / performers / composers to liberate themselves from the institutional dependencies and plan their careers across the firmly established business and cultural boundaries, as well as start their own modes of music promotion. More importantly, at the same time, the internet turn unshackled the regional scenes and artists and made their visibility worldwide possible. Accordingly, the regional music scenes in Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Honduras, Uruguay, Indonesia, Korea, Iran, Malaysia, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Greece, Italy, Denmark, Poland, The Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and many more started to reclaim their position in the quest for trans-regional recognition and visibility. Following the above, the international scholars studying popular music reflected the tendencies in their research, promoting the regional issues in the worldwide forums. Secondly, with this contextual approach, we intent to interpret the Western influences on popular music in the Eastern bloc as the internet as a medium made certain influences visible and accessible to scholar debate. This form of acculturation (in the anthropological and political science theory called Americanization or Westernization) was and still is visible not only in popular music in particular but also covers tendencies in popular culture or entertainment industry in general, including film, TV production, masses-oriented literature or comics. In the field popular music, the works of some of the East European artists relatively easily reflected the Western patterns, while simultaneously the performers were active in social, political, and cultural contexts of their regions with the problems dependent on the local conditions. We also imply, that in this particular context equally important were the patterns of resistance towards the Westernization: apart from the Western or “global” influences popular culture in the Eastern Europe was saturated with local surroundings and reflected some inclinations deeply rooted in particular cultural systems. Thirdly, the special attention will be paid to both regional scenes and popular music research in the post-communist countries as the advent of democratic political regime at the turn of the 90s was followed by transformations in economy, social systems, political power, and – more importantly – changes in the modes of music production, publication, and consumption. Undoubtedly, popular music reflected all these aspects of cultural changes observable in the diversified fields: history provides us with epitomes of the power of popular music and its impact on people or cultural systems. Thus, the researches tend to identify, observe and interpret the shifting paradigms of socially defined place of popular music in the region.