Hello world!

Welcome to the Popular Music Study Group Homepage!

The Popular Music Study Group has been founded 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.

We welcome input from makers, musicians, thinkers and writers on popular music from all genres and geographic locations.

But what does it mean?

We propose this inclusive, forward-looking, representative, responsive and scholarly study group in the context of continuing change, growth and development not only for music and the arts but for culture and society as a whole. 

In the near future, we look toward the development of multi-media engagement with popular musicians from all fields of the discipline.

We draw our 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.

Our initial membership is drawn from a small group of established academics who are research-active in the field as scholars and practitioners. 

• Dr Tom Attah (Leeds Arts University)
• Dr D Marie Ferrett (Falmouth University)
• Dr Christian Lloyd (Queen’s University Bader International Study Centre)
• Dr Jon Stewart (BIMM Institute Brighton)

We are tenured HE popular music scholars & practitioners, and actively seek to recruit other music-makers, scholars, early-career researchers and thinkers to the study group. 

We seek to grow our membership over time and to propose new study-group events and publications.  We welcome the opportunity to establish this new and inclusive group of popular musicians and scholars within the framework of the Royal Musical Association in these culturally exciting and creative times!