Popular Music and Gender in a Transcultural Context

Popular Music & Gender in a Transcultural Context has been an interdisciplinary project that links a musicological inquiry to the border disciplines of sociology, media studies, gender studies and anthropology. The project has been the first of its kind in Europe to focus primarily on popular music as a gendered activity within a mobile transcultural context. During the past years the project has achieved all its goals and received continued national and international recognition. The main event of the project, an international symposium, was held from 4-7 June 2013. In addition to our research team, a group of distinguished scholars presented papers at the event (among them Susan Fast (MacMaster University), Will Straw (Montreal University), Derek Scott(Leeds University) and Barbara Bradby (Trinity College). All delegates focused on artists from their own respective countries and localities, reflecting on the intersections of performance, culture and gender through music. Contributions from the delegates will be featured in an anthology by an international publisher. In addition, the researchers on the project have produced a number of articles, conference presentations and guest lectures that theorise the transcultural space in relation to popular music and gender from various vantage points. The project has also continued to receive a good deal of media exposure, with interviews and articles in Forskning.no, NRK Ytring, NRK Spillerom, Vårt Land, Ballade.no and Morgenbladet.On 3 June 2014 the project held its concluding seminar at the University of Oslo, with guest speakers Laudan Nooshin (City University London) and Antoine Hennion(Centre de Sociologie de l'innovation Paris). At this event the project's research team, Birgitte Sandve, Jon Mikkel Broch Ålvik, Mats Johansson and Stan Hawkins presented their findings. International exposure of the project was further achieved by an invitation to hold a plenary session at the Royal Musical Association Conference at Leeds University in September 2014. Jon Mikkel Broch Ålvik disputated with his PhD thesis in August, while Stan Hawkins was invited as a key speaker to address issues connected to his findings at the EuroMac 2014 Conference at the University of Leuvan in September. At the closure of the project Birgitte Sandve had delivered her PhD thesis and is awaiting a date for her disputas. Twenty-six peer-reviewed scientific publications have resulted from the project, contributing in numerous ways to new theoretical approaches and forms of thinking about transculturality in society. Truncated list: "When light turns into darkness: Inscriptions of music and terror in Oslo 22 July 2011"-Musikken etter 22. Juli (2014) "Virtually Utopian, Deceptively Normal: Structures of Norwegian Masculinity in Pop"-Popular Music in the Nordic Countries (2014) "'I'll Bring You Down, Down, Down': Lady Gaga's Performance in 'Judas'"- Lady Gaga & Popular Music: Performing Gender, Fashion, and Culture. (2014) "Who Owns an Interpretation?: Legal & Symbolic Ownership to Nordic Folk Music"- Ethnomusicology 58.2 (2014) "The Gendered Fiddle: On the Relationship Between Expressive Coding and Artistic Identity in Norwegian Folk Music"-International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music (2013) "Aesthetics and Hyperembodiment in Pop Videos: Rihanna's 'Umbrella'" -The Oxford Handbook of New Audiovisual Aesthetics-(2013) "Diva Worship and the Sonic Search for Queer Utopia" -Popular Music & Society 36.3 (2013) "Rap og iscenesetjing av maskulinitet"-I Dreamt I was a Real Boy (2013) "Det vi ser og det vi ikke ser: Nærhet og avstand hos Marit Larsen og Marion Ravn" -I Dreamt I was a Real Boy (2013) "Den skapende folkemusikeren: En dialog om begrepet autorskap I norsk og svensk folkemusikk"-Musikk og Tradisjon (2012) Special Issue: Michael Jackson-Popular Music & Society 35.2-2012-2 "You Rocked Our World, Michael: Your Moves, Your Look, Your Music, Everything!-Popular Music & Society 35.2 (2012) "Michael Jackson and the Expressive Power of Voice-Produced Sound"-Popular Music & Society 35.2 (2012) Critical Musicological Reflections: Essays in Honor of Derek B. Scott (2012) "'You Have Killed Me': Tropes of Hyperbole and Sentimentality in Morrissey's Musical Expression"- Morrissey: Fandom, Representations and Identities (2011)

The project considers the entry of gender studies into the field of musicology, and intends to open up the field for further research. It comprises three individual studies that are distinctive yet interrelated through a range of common theoretical and me thodological perspectives, as well as thematic concerns, that signify a breakthrough in musicological practice. The relevance of this project extends to all scholars engaged in gender theory across a range of disciplines, although the focus falls primaril y on music as a gendered activity. More precisely, the project intends to provide new theoretical insights into gendered performance in popular music, where the problematics of homosociality, management and organisation are debated. We intend to provide a range of case studies from Norwegian musical life,as well as international examples, to come up with a theoretical position that will help throw light on a number of general issues that directly concern gender equality, cultural space, social practice, a nd ethnicity. Through our international and national set of contacts, we intend to develop an exciting, interdisciplinary forum for integrating various perspectives in gender within the broader field of music research. While cultural and historical resear ch approaches will inform this project, the prime direction undertaken will be a reflective consideration of identity politics, as we believe there is an urgent need to incorporate aspects of culture and aesthetics into the public domain. Music's visual r epresentation is of particular importance in this project, as there is a general lack of research work in this field. Audiovisual performativity will therefore constitute a principal site for excavation when it comes to examining how structures of power m aintain a grip hold on gender-related norms connected to race, heteronormativity and class in Norway. To this end, all three studies will be integrated through their focus on local-global transcultural interactions.