About

The Popular Music Study Group was established in 2020 for the investigation and discussion of subjects connected with the art and science of popular music within the well-established framework of the Royal Musical Association (RMA).  

We present this inclusive, forward-looking, representative, responsive and scholarly study group in the context of continuing positive change, growth and development, not only for music and its associated arts, but for the operation of popular musical cultures within society as a whole.

 

The Popular Music Study Group draws its broad-ranging definition of ‘popular’ from Cutler (1989, pp. 4-17);

  • ‘popular’ by numbers, that is, in terms of contemporary market forces;
  • ‘popular’ as ‘folk’, in other words ‘the music of the people’;
  • ‘popular’ as genus, describing a loose demotic musical language, definable by its means and relations of production, circulation and consumption.

Taking inspiration from within the RMA and fellow Popular Music Study organisations, our aims are to:

  • provide both an online and physical forum within the RMA where those involved in the study of popular music can meet and exchange information about their work;
  • organise regular conferences;
  • disseminate information about popular music studies and styles;
  • encourage the development of research and systematic study in topics and in areas of popular music which may not have received attention from the RMA;
  • encourage recognition of popular music as a key area for scholarly research;
  • provide and publish information and original research on popular music sources and resources in the form of recognisable scholarly and artistic outputs, and
  • encourage developmental collaboration in both scholarly research, discourse and musical practice with members of the RMA.

the Team

Our initial membership is drawn from a small group of established academics who are research-active in the field as scholars and practitioners.  We are tenured as HE, UG and PG popular music teachers and practitioners, and actively seek to recruit early-career researchers to the study group.
Dr Tom Attah (Chair)
Dr Tom Attah is a musician, teacher and published author who leads the BMus (Hons) Popular Music Performance degree at Leeds Arts University. His research focuses on the effects of technology on popular music and culture, particularly the blues.

As a guitarist and singer, Tom performs solo, with acoustic duos and as leader of an electric band. Tom’s solo acoustic work includes his own original blues compositions and has led to international theatre tours and performances at major music festivals.

Tom’s media appearances as a subject matter expert in blues include multiple performances and documentaries for BBC Radio and Sky Arts.

Dr Jon Stewart
Dr. Jon Stewart is Course Leader for the BA (Hons) Music Business and MA Popular Music Practice at BIMM Institute, Brighton. He is also the guitarist for platinum-selling Britpop band Sleeper and, since 2019, semi-legendary indie band The Wedding Present. 

Other session credits include K D Lang and Mel C from the Spice Girls. He has published work in peer-reviewed journals and edited collections of academic essays on subjects such as anti-war and pro-war protest music, arena concerts, Brian Eno and Devo, coffee and popular music, memory and memoir, Robert Johnson, and YouTube. 

Jon's current research interests focus on popular music and social psychology.
Dr D Ferrett
Dr D Ferrett is a writer, singer and philosopher based in Cornwall where she lectures in popular musicology, sound studies, cultural studies and philosophy at AMATA, Falmouth University. Before moving to Cornwall, D was a singer in a number of bands that formed part of the Leeds DIY music scene and also co-edited the journal 'Parallax' based in the Centre for Cultural Studies at The University of Leeds. 

 Since then, as Course Leader and Senior Lecturer in Music, D has written and leads a Popular Music degree that encourages interdisciplinary thinking and practice. She is the author of Dark Sound: Feminine Voices in Sonic Shadow (Bloomsbury 2020) which adopts a critical feminist approach to music discourse and to the study of ‘dark sound’, developing a darkfemphonosophy through listening to artists whose music embodies dark themes.
Dr Christian Lloyd
Dr Christian Lloyd is the Academic Director at Queen’s University (Canada) Bader International Study Centre in East Sussex. His PhD, taken at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, centred on contemporary Irish Poetry and cultural theory, but he later began to write about Popular Music with the encouragement of Prof Sheila Whiteley. 

In 2016, his monograph 'Hendrix at Home: a Bluesman in Mayfair' was published by Handel House. This book accompanies the recreation of Hendrix’s London flat, and was followed up with several public lectures at that site and elsewhere in the UK. 

Christian is currently working on a longer book about Hendrix. He has taught or co-taught courses on poetry, cultural theory, urban studies, British studies, and Anglo-Jamaican cultural exchanges. 
The Royal Musical Association was founded in 1874 and is concerned with the investigation and discussion of subjects connected with the Art and Science of Music. You can find their home page here.

The Popular Music Study Group is one of several specialist study groups within the RMA, and the complete list of these can be found here.
© RMA Popular Music Study Group
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