Popular Music Methodologies Conference 18th -19th June, 2026

Following the publication, in 2025, of The Intellect Handbook of Popular Music Methodologies, edited by Mike Dines, Shara Rambarran and Gareth Dylan Smith, a hybrid conference will be held at Middlesex University in June 2026 to continue the discussion. The Popular Music Methodologies Conference will address the diverse ways we study, interpret and engage with popular music methodologies, bringing together researchers, scholars, practitioners and students across the disciplines and field that enable us to reflect on the tools, theories, and practices that currently shape the research of popular music.

 

Popular Music Studies resists easy categorization, drawing upon a broad range of research methodologies, from ethnography, archival research and oral history to computational analysis, performance studies, and a wide variety of practice-based research. Within this set of activities, the application of approaches from sociology, cultural studies, critical race theory, sound studies, gender and queer theory and global media studies continue to transform how popular music may be understood.

 

To address such diversity in methodologies, the conference aims to create an inclusive space where these can be interrogated.