EMP Pop Conference 2012 -- NYC

Webpage just went live:

2012 Pop Conference

Save the date!
March 22 - 25, 2012

The 2012 EMP Pop Conference continues its road trip by traveling to NYU in New York City, March 22 - 25, 2012. Call for conference proposals will be announced in August.

EMP's Pop Conference, launched in Seattle in 2002, provides a platform for academics, critics, performers, and dedicated fans to join in a rare discussion. The 2012 EMP Pop Conference at NYU is jointly sponsored by The Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music and EMP Museum. Additional support is provided by The University of Alabama College of Arts and Sciences, on behalf of the American Studies department.

This year's Pop Conference is also held jointly with the annual conference of the US branch of IASPM: The International Association for the Study of Popular Music.

cool!

I do have a real concern in that it overlaps right with the end of an academic quarter where I work so I'm going to have to lay the groundwork for getting the time off starting...well, now!

And we've got formal details:

Sounds of the City

2012 EMP Pop Conference presented by NYU's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music

Jointly held with IASPM-US Annual Conference

New York City, March 22 - 25, 2012

Charlie Gillett's pioneering book The Sound of the City declared, with its title, that the electrified roots music of Elvis and Little Richard was an urban synthesis: "In rock and roll, the strident, repetitive sounds of city life were, in effect, reproduced as melody and rhythm." But the metropolitan modernities of popular music take many different forms: Nuyorican salsa, Ralph Ellison "living with jazz" in his apartment building, San Francisco open-air psychedelia, double dutch and breakdancing, Amadou & Mariam's "fast food Dakar," and beyond. So, for this year's joint EMP Museum Pop Conference, presented by New York University's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, and International Association for the Study of Popular Music-US branch gathering, we copyedit Gillett slightly and ask that presenters explore sounds of the city--the reverberations of people gathered en masse. Following are some suggested but not required sub-themes. All styles and eras of pop music are welcome.

Cultural Collisions. New York exemplifies urban notions of music made modern, disparate people tossed together in a structural blender. This takes multiple forms: immigrants and musical migrations; African Americans, Latinos, and others leaving rural areas for urban spots; taste formations of urbanity and cosmopolitanism; subcultures; Tin Pan Alley(s); large scale amusements. What are the micro-sites of city music, from artisan guitar pedal makers to crate diggers, to after-hours Korea-town karaoke bars? Do Shibuya-kei, kwaito, or baile funk suggest evolving paradigms?
The Global Metropolis. Can sentimental myths of the city as melting pot be critiqued? Do power relationships differentiate uptown and downtown grooves? Is hip-hop's reliance on the urban different from Gillett's rock and rollers? LA sprawl a rejoinder to NYC density? How do smaller hubs (Austin, Philadelphia, Manchester, Frankfurt, Osaka, Accra) remix global flows? What cuts hipsters off from a multicultural dynamic in places like Williamsburg? Does the glamor of the female or feminized pop star reflect the agenda of global capitalism? Has globalization rendered urban exchanges subsidiary?
Urban Listening. Does urban space alter the ways we register recordings and live performances? Are there larger effects to listening amid the daily hustle and bustle? Can the insights of sound studies inform pop analyses to show how city listening changes music making and fandom? What allows cities to acquire signature sounds? What listening creates identity within shared space, from the family gathered around the radio to the girl screamers at the Hollywood Bowl or a boom box in motion? Is our unexamined belief that certain sonic patterns are urban as much imaginary as material?
Women on the Town: Cities have always been sites of female empowerment and risk taking, where the village daughter becomes a Bollywood star, or a budding feminist forms an all-girl band. If this has stimulated fears of women adrift, free of small-town norms, from Dreiser's Sister Carrie to the girls who "need blinders" in Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind," it has also incited celebration: Beyonce's single ladies, "up in the club, doin' my own little thing." How, within music, has the city made women, and how have women made the city?
Sex and the City: From Detroit and Chicago in the 1970s -1980s, to Berlin in the 1990s -2000s, great cities have often developed signature dance music sounds around which urban queer (and often minority) cultures have gathered. Does the city still gather races, genders, and sexual orientations as "one nation under a groove"? Can country line dancing, as popularized by Urban Cowboy, be positioned alongside such legacies?

The Sounds of the City conference will offer a cultural collision of the best kind. Its program brings together two longstanding institutions. EMP's annual Pop Conference, launched in Seattle in 2002, joins academics, journalists, performers, and dedicated fans in an all too rare common discussion. IASPM-US publishes The Journal of Popular Music Studies and anchors American popular music scholarship. And thanks to NYU's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, they do so in the city called home by most of the music press, a group we hope to see amply represented.

This year's program committee includes Daphne Brooks (Princeton), Anthony Kwame Harrison (Virginia Tech), Hua Hsu (Vassar), Patricia Costa Kim (EMP), Jason King (NYU Clive Davis Institute), Karl Hagstrom Miller (University of Texas), Evie Nagy (Rolling Stone), Tavia Nyong'o (NYU), Caroline Polk O'Meara (University of Texas), Ann Powers (NPR Music), and Greg Tate (Village Voice, Burnt Sugar, and Coon Bidness).

Please send proposals to organizer Eric Weisbard (University of Alabama) at Eric.Weisbard @ gmail.com. The deadline for proposals is Tuesday, November 15. Individual proposals should be 250 words with a 50 word bio.Panel proposals should specify 90 minutes with three presenters, or 120 minutes with four presenters. They should also include a 125 word overview, 250 words for individual proposals, and a 50 word bio, or a 250 word overview with multiple 50 word bios for roundtable discussions.

We welcome unorthodox proposals and those that target a general interest audience. Registration is FREE for presenters and the public.

digging the theme this year - i'll most likely submit something

Thankfully I've got the time off to attend already set up.

these things are inspiring to me. i'm gonna give it a go. either way i might go. it being so close and all.

OK I've got something that might work as a proposal this time and will definitely attend. since it's in my backyard and all

one week left until abstracts are due (oh god)

Wish I had the time to prepare something.

I've had my idea set in stone for a while, I just need to remember to write it up...

Will write this weekend.

Finally will be able to go to one of these since NYC isn't miles away but life is too busy to write up a proposal. Regardless, excited. Yay EMP.

One of these years...

Finally will be able to go to one of these since NYC isn't miles away but life is too busy to write up a proposal. Regardless, excited. Yay EMP.

Awesome! Can't wait to meet! That's a large part of what makes EMP worthwhile.

The deadline is here, folks! Get 'em in by tomorrow (or tonight, depending).

And again, today is the CFP deadline...

Sent.

Almost finalized...hope to meet some of the ILM crowd face-to-face there next year. On a related note, is anybody else attending SEM 2011 in Philadelphia this week?

Sent my abstract in, 12 hours earlier than last year's.

omg, gotta flee.

Sent my proposal in last night.

omg, gotta flee.

Nope, you're attending every presentation. (Don't ask me how.)

if Alex in Montreal does all of them? :)

Amazing!

Sent!

sent! ~fingers crossed~

Eric W. on FB:

I am happy (now that I've slept) to announce that the combined EMP Pop Conference at the NYU Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music and IASPM-US conference, taking place next March, drew proposals from 500 people. That says something great about the number of folks devoted to intellectual work on popular music. Special thanks to host Jason King, whose response to the crazy figures was "We never do anything small, if you haven't noticed."

maria and i will be there for this. buy us beer every chance you get. leaving the kiddies at home.

I'll be there too hopefully. FAP!

Heck to the yes. Tickets bought, will be arriving with my sweetie early Wednesday morning and staying through Monday, so if people want to get together before or afterwards as well...

Also, yes, buy Scott and Maria beer. It's well deserved.

count me in!

Proposal was accepted. Will probably write the paper after I get back from giving a talk about 1980s German thrash bands in Berlin in mid-February.

i'm most likely coming home for this.

my proposal was accepted! see y'all there!

i promise not to #occupy anything.

it always ends badly when i do...

totally psyched to meet up w/y'all. also pleased & proud that my proposal was accepted. and nervous...

I am going to this I think

Is registration open yet?

this is going to be so much fun.

Whoa, weird, I'm going to this.

I mean, "NYC is so close! Weird!"

Planning to go even though my proposal didn't get accepted. I really, really, really wanted to present this year. Are all of you on the program?

I'm not this time but I always go because hey, it's fun.

Yeah, I definitely wouldn't want to miss this year like I did last (my first EMP was 2010 - I actually met you at that wine and cheese thing, Ned). And it's actually close and I actually have multiple options for free accommodations this time.

Can't wait to see the program...

Being in NYC this week for the first time has convinced me that there is no way I can miss this when it's so close. Hoping that my professors agree (assignment schedules released next week etc.)

For the first time since I was 16, rather

it was nice to meet you, alex!

i am always really happy to meet more ilxors.

Indeed! More than matching faces to names, it just feels like an extension of community.

Flying back in a few hours. Always so nice not to rush home.

Here's my talk, now with bonus video.

Tags: 60 minutes, a tribute to jack johnson, al foster, alicia keys, amandla, america eats its young, arsenio hall, art blakey, bill murray, bitches brew, black artists group, bomb squad, burning ambulance, cameo, chick corea, chuck brown, complete miles davis at montreux, coonskin, crime story, cyndi lauper, d train, dark magus, dave liebman, decoy, desmond tutu, devo, dingo, dizzy gillespie, doo-bop, down beat, earth wind and fire, easy mo bee, emp pop conference, fat albert, francis davis, funkadelic, furious five, get up with it, grace jones, grandmaster flash, heavy traffic, herbie hancock, human nature, in a silent way, isaac hayes, joe mcphee, john mclaughlin, joshua nkomo, kind of blue, live-evil, lou reed, miami vice, michael henderson, michael jackson, miles davis, mtume, notorious b.i.g., on the corner, pangaea, pete cosey, pharoah sanders, phil freeman, prince, purple rain, ralph bakshi, reggie lucas, rhino records, ricky wellman, robert mugabe, rolling stone, saturday night live, scritti politti, scrooged, shaft, sly and the family stone, sly stone, something on your mind, sonny rollins, soul searchers, spike lee, star people, sting, sun city, the complete jack johnson sessions, the complete on the corner sessions, there's a riot goin on, timbaland, time after time, tutu, we want miles, weather report, wynton marsalis, you're under arrest

i think i just read your paper via tags!

isn't that how you kids read everything these days?

whiney i didn't see you at this thing. were you hiding from me? i wouldn't hummus you, i swear.

I had a pretty brutal work week, so I needed Saturday to recoup. I was running around all Sunday though!

yeah we had to get back on sunday. which sucked cuz we missed so much good stuff.

Loved this conference, loved it - wish I hadn't gotten cold feet about introducing myself to people, but I always feel weird. "Hi, I post on this pne forum like twice a week." I was just psyched to hear so many great ideas and to be scurrying off to listen and read up on what I heard here - but fuck, I should've said what's up to more of yall.

yeah i know how it is. i think it was a lot easier for the panelists because we already had nametags, i could kind of float into the view of ilx people and they'd say hi. it was hilarious having ned point to me and expain to someone, i think m coleman, "he's some dude!"

xpost -- It happens! V. pleased to meet you, so just do more of that in future, I sez.

it was hilarious having ned point to me and expain to someone, i think m coleman, "he's some dude!"

Hahah yes, I was doing that kind of shorthand all week but actually saying that in your case was kinda funny. "Over there is that one guy..."

A wrap-up:

http://nyongo.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/emp-pop-conference-2012-wrap-up/

(And in my case, not a twitter impersonator -- I think -- but a guy who pretended to be me to get into the Pitchfork day party at SXSW. Not kidding!)

More praise for Skot!

http://rebeccacweibel.blogspot.com/2012/03/popcon-roundup.html

I stayed for the rest of the session, and heard an interesting paper on boombox culture, and an interesting postmodern rant about a compilation record.

Praise for m coleman too there.

Scott Seward, PoMo Ranter, is actually on my business card.

meanwhile, I totally forgot to buy that new EMP book when i was there. i would have gotten a 50% discount! that conference makes me so scatterbrained.

also, first review of the book that i've seen:

http://blog.kexp.org/2012/03/23/scribes-sounding-off-more-than-human-pop-when-the-world-falls-apart/

i wouldn't hummus you, i swear.

girl, i'll hummus you.

i'm sad that i didn't get to see more EMP stuff, but i swore to my family i'd make some time for them too. there are still so many of you i haven't met! maybe next year, if time/money allows.

I didn't get to see every ilxor's panel, but I'll cosign on Scott and Mark Coleman's lectures, both among the standouts I saw all weekend. Also great: Josh Kun on "maquiladora music" in Mexico's industrial border towns, Julianne Escobedo Shepherd on ball culture/vogue house, Greil Marcus's imagined Robert Johnson history, RJ Smith on James Brown's conflicted relationship with his hometown, Ben Sandmel on Ernie K-Doe, and of course the roundtable on Whitney Houston.

-s

Only being available for 9am-12pm lectures, 1am-4am drinks
Missing ?uestlove, Scott, all roundtables
Phasing audio in every lecture
Not meeting Ned

+s

Bf was really into it, was surprised at how class- and race- it was
Seeing Daphne Brooks do her thing in the flesh
Being condescended to in a Q&A
Fangirl moment w/Maura

Oh, another big + was Scott thinking Carl's Toronto lecture was a work of fiction

Not meeting Ned

Such a pity! I was looking around for you too. Also I inadvertantly startled Daphne Carr in that I thought you were looking forward to her collaboration with Douglas Wolk and might have made her nervous! (But yes, Ms. Brooks rocks, does she not?)

Bf was really into it, was surprised at how class- and race- it was

A good focus; there have always been strong voices on these matters but I think this was easily the broadest and strongest conference yet.

Owen - I realized in retrospect from Chris' tweets that we were both at the K-pop panel and apparently also at Daphne Brook's amazing paper, but I didn't spot you! Heh.

The class and race focus of a lot of the papers was something I appreciated. Given the focus on the cityscape and urban spaces, it didn't shock me, but I would have been disappointed if it wasn't a big part of the conversation.

that whitney thing was great. my fave thing was prob rob sheffield. he cracks me up.

this should go on the braggin' thread, but Gr#il M@rc^s sent me a rilly flattering email after this, and now i feel like i should really read one of his books. i've been meaning to! i mean i've been reading his stuff since the 70's so there is that. i'm sure some of it stuck through osmosis. just like xgau's stuff.

All you people havin' fun making me mad again.

Owen how did sat nite go with anony4 and j0hn?

Particularly glad that most of the papers on queer issues didn't ignore the class and race implications of their subjects.

i loved how "urban" this conference was. just lots of great black/rap/dance/electronic talk and i was way into that.

Owen how did sat nite go with anony4 and j0hn?

― Axolotl with an Atlatl (Jon Lewis), Tuesday, March 27, 2012 1:19 PM (30 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I didn't get tickets to this but BradNelson raved about it to me, so I'm assuming it was pretty awesome.

oh and i loved listening to alice bag talk a lot, but i could have done without beck's mom. sorry, beck's mom! okay, now i feel bad for beck's mom. its just that alice is so interesting all on her own...

I didn't get tickets to this but BradNelson raved about it to me, so I'm assuming it was pretty awesome.

Yeah been hearing similar. Was so hoping to catch it but tickets were long gone before I could put two and two together and go "Hey wait I'll be there at the same time..."

i just looked to see if he was coming around here but doesn't look like he is anytime soon. he's comin' atcha, australia! i had fun at the MG show maria and i saw in northampton when we first moved around here. and was completely in awe of everyone in the crowd who knew every word to every song. there are a lot of words in those songs!

and we FINALLY got a copy of the 33&third black sabbath book. sorry, J*$n!!!! i'm a bad pal....i just never go anywhere that has them. got douglas's book too and the carl wilson one. they sold out of geeta! before i could get one.

A4 and j0hn was awesome! Like, actually! Not in a "It is important to be positive about a client's work" way but in a "I may cancel my shit this weekend and see it again in London" way.

phil's miles davis thing is p cool

phil essentially wrote the reappraisal of '90s miles davis i've always wanted to see written

he's totally right about doo-bop

'80s-'90s miles davis*

^^^yeah, this is great! i've always meant to dig deeper into that stuff, only heard a handful of albums. should probably get this: http://www.amazon.com/Warner-Years-1986-Miles-Davis/dp/B005G4YE4S

we want miles is a killer live album. funky as hell

http://www.gpb.org/news/2012/03/31/crossover-appeal-the-pop-conference-in-new-york

mentions of various presentations including:

Jack Halberstam traced the sound of a scream through three songs performed by women with loose connections to punk, but little else in common: "The Boiler" by Rhoda Dakar & The Special A.K.A., a cover of Joy Division's "She's Lost Control" by Grace Jones and "Come Alive" by Janelle Monae. Noticing similar sounds is easily done. What made Halberstam's paper eye-opening was the idea that we can categorize songs by tracking their sounds through history just as effectively as we can using genre tags. Simple and bit magical, like opening a door into a room where things are messier than what you're used to, but somehow make a little more sense

I'm still a little too far inside comedown mode to say anything insightful about this year's conference, but it was my favourite one yet in pretty much every way. The only real disappointment was missing a few papers I really wanted to see (Daphne Brooks, Douglas Wolk) due to exhaustion. I'm grateful that people came to my panel and my party and the karaoke outing where I sang "Pussy Control" with Brad.

(also: http://critickittens.tumblr.com/post/20356066358/after-a-long-day-of-panels-at-last-months-pop)

where I sang "Pussy Control" with Brad

this was the best

i got a big laugh during my paper when talking about the Baltimore club song "Dic Control" and was later told that at least some of the laughter was due to "Pussy Control" being sung the night before

My biggest regret IS missing karaoke for sure. Next year.

is it a coincidence you said that right after some dude's 'dic control' post, or

In a word, yes. (My girlfriend and I had planned on going but we were just too wiped out from jet lag still.)

just posted my paper!

http://backtotheworld.net/2012/04/04/driving-freely-through-the-world-cosmopolitanism-in-k-pop/

:-D

raggett control