Popular music and gender studies

Popular Music Studies deals with various concepts of popular music that are not always congruent. From Afrobeat(s) to bossa nova, hardcore punk, hip hop, jazz, pop, soul and much more, music that belongs neither to classical Western art music nor to so-called traditional music is assigned to the meta-genre 'popular music' in specialist discourses. At the same time, all music that is listened to by many can be considered popular. Because we start from a broad concept of the popular, we deal with mainstream pop as well as metal or Schlager. And because we look at popular music in its global dimensions, we research West African highlife, among other things.

Popular music is socially relevant in many respects. This has to do with the great attention that popular music receives, but also with socio-political aspects that are negotiated in and with music. Popular music in particular challenges us to engage with social negotiation processes on topics such as migration, sustainability and social inequality. Our focus in the field of gender studies includes dealing with discourses on and performative representations of gender identities in connection with music. We consider the category of gender in its intersectional relations to other categories of difference such as 'class' or 'race' as well as with regard to its socio-cultural significance in diverse societies and its historicity.

Starting from a position in musicology, our work has an interdisciplinary orientation through Popular Music Studies and Gender Studies as well as through collaborative research at the SFB 1472 "Transformations of the Popular". Our broad methodological spectrum includes cultural-historical and ethnomusicological approaches, discourse analyses, analyses of media, intermediality and performances with a special focus on sound, as well as approaches from environmental humanities and qualitative social research. For us, research is a collaborative process that benefits from networking with other disciplines, locations and international partnerships, e.g. through collaboration with Gestu_S and cooperation with the Music Department of the University of Ghana.

In addition to established discursive forms of teaching, we offer various workshop formats in which theoretical-reflective and artistic-practical elements are combined. Our courses are aimed at all music teacher training courses, students studying cultural education in the BA Social Work and MA Educational Science, as well as anyone wishing to obtain the "Gender Studies" certificate. In the Popular Music Research Forum, we work together with lecturers, staff and students at the University of Wuppertal and the Cologne University of Music and Dance to create a space to support qualification work and academic networking.