21st-century music practice
summary
Most academic research events or publications that use the term 'music' in their title (without an epithet such as 'popular') refer to western art music, but that is a tiny subset of the music that is played and listened to in the 21st century.
The musical lives of contemporary musicians are far more interdisciplinary than the academics who study them.
The research network
This research network was established as a contribution to several recent trends towards more interdisciplinarity in the academic study of music.
By organising a series of events about quite broadly defined themes, the aim is to bring together academics and practitioners from a range of musical cultures - popular music, musical theatre, performance studies, music for visual media, recording, electronic and electroacoustic music, live sound, ethnomusicology and composition.
The focus on practice is also important as it highlights the idea that music is a process or an activity rather than a thing.
The London and SE 21st Century Music Practice Research Network was established by Professor Simon Zagorski-Thomas of the University of West London in 2016. In 2019 this was expanded to an international network which now includes 250 members from 30 countries.
The aim is to encourage and disseminate research and scholarly collaboration that includes all areas of contemporary musical activity. In particular, the network will seek to stimulate discourse between disciplines: bringing together scholars from popular music, musical theatre, performance studies, music for visual media, recording, electronic and electroacoustic music, live sound, ethnomusicology and composition to discuss broad themes that are relevant across subject boundaries.
Research events
The London College of Music has hosted a series of online and in-person 21st Century Music Practice network events in recent years. The largest of these were the 2020 Online Symposia, the 2023 one-day conference on Practice Research in the 21st Century at UWL, and the 2024 two-day conference on Commercial Electronic Musical Instruments in the 21st Century at UWL’s The Townshend Studio.
Contact us
For further details about the event or to be added to the JISC mailing list, please email simon.zagorski-thomas@uwl.ac.uk.
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