Dr. Theresa Nink

Studied musicology, German language and literature, and international arts management at the University of Cologne and the Cologne University of Music and Dance. Since 2021, research assistant in the subproject “Low Pop: The Sentimental Ballad” of the SFB “Transformations of the Popular.” From 2018 to 2020, she was a research assistant at the Haus der Geschichte for an exhibition on music and politics. Prior to that, she held various positions in museums as well as in the concert and festival sectors. She works as a freelance organizer for the Week-End Festival and Brückenmusik, and is the editor of the fanzine Grapefruits.

Low Pop: The Sentimental Ballad (Subproject A04 in SFB 1472“Transformations of the Popular”) 

Using the sentimental ballad as its focus, this subproject examines an area of pop aesthetics that is axiologically classified as “Low Pop” and is characterized by extraordinary popularity. It examines the relationship between discursive devaluations of particularly popular sentimental music and its connotations with specific gender constructions—that is, to what extent the persistence of the high/low distinction within popular culture goes hand in hand with a feminization of such “Low Pop.” In doing so, the question of a discursively generated axiology and feminization is combined with the question of the aesthetic conditions of gender connotations. The sentimental ballad serves as a case study for an ambivalent phenomenon within pop aesthetics that, despite all the disparagement, appears to possess an affective content upon which a common ground of emotional-somatic experience is based. Accordingly, this subproject investigates the aesthetic and performative manifestations of sentimental affects across the wide range of song-based music genres in which ballads appear.

Academic Publications:

Nink, Theresa. 2024. “‘Best African Music Performance’—Categorical Questions.” POP. Culture and Criticism 13 (2), pp. 80–87. https://doi.org/10.14361/pop-2024-130211.

Nink, Theresa. 2023. “‘Baraye’: A Global Protest Song.” POP. Culture and Critique 12 (1), pp. 56–62. https://doi.org/10.14361/pop-2023-120109.

Nink, Theresa, and Florian Heesch. 2023. “Metal Ballads as Low Pop? An Approach to Sentimentality and Gendered Performances in Popular Hard Rock and Metal Songs.” Arts 12 (1), p. 38. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12010038.

Nink, Theresa. 2023. Article. “Grace Jones.” MGG Online, ed. Laurenz Lütteken, New York, Kassel, Stuttgart 2016–, https://www.mgg-online.com/mgg/stable/532581.

Other publications:

Nink, Theresa. 2024. “Minhwi Lee.” In *Grapefruits. A feminist fanzine on composers and sound artists* #8, Cologne.

Nink, Theresa. 2021. “‘Deutschlandlieder.’ A History of German Music.” In: Museumsmagazin 4/2021, Bonn, p. 34.

Nink, Theresa. 2021. “Punk, Feminism, and Archives.” In Grapefruits. A fanzine on female composers and sound artists #05, Cologne.

Nink, Theresa. 2021. “Natascha Sadr Haghighian.” In *Grapefruits*. A fanzine on female composers and sound artists #04, Cologne.

Nink, Theresa. 2020. “Matana Roberts.” In Grapefruits. A fanzine on female composers and sound artists #03, Cologne.

Nink, Theresa. 2020. “Phew.” In *Grapefruits*. A fanzine on female composers and sound artists #02, Cologne.

Nink, Theresa. 2017. “Bedtime Stories.” In *On Borders and Gaps*, a publication series of the LWL Museum of Art and Culture, edited by Moritz Baßler. Münster. pp. U2–U3.

Nink, Theresa. 2012. “Mind the Gap.” In *Positionen. Texte zur aktuellen Musik* No. 92, ed. by Gisela Nauck. Berlin.

Nink, Theresa. 2012. “First Biennale cresc...”. In *Positionen. Texts on Contemporary Music* No. 90, edited by Gisela Nauck, Berlin.

Presentations:

“Categories in the European/U.S.-American Music Critical Discourse on ‘7 Seconds’ (1994) by Youssou N’Dour & Neneh Cherry,” University of Cape Town, 2024. Presentation as part of the workshop “Towards More Variety in the Musical Canon”: The Intricacies of the “Popular” and “Non-Western” as Metaphors of Distinction. https://sfb1472.uni-siegen.de/veranstaltungen/towards-more-variety-in-the-musical-canon.

“Kuschelrock as Low Pop? Sentimental Ballads in Popular Music,” Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, 2024. Presentation as part of Research Training Group 2726 “The Sentimental in Literature, Culture, and Politics,” https://www.fau.de/termine/gastvortrag-kuschelrock-als-low-pop-sentimentale-balladen-in-populaerer-musik-theresa-nink-sfb-transformationen-des-populaeren-universitaet-siegen/.

“Discourses on the Body Surrounding Christina Aguilera’s Ballad ‘Beautiful,’” University of Siegen, 2023. Presentation at the annual conference of the Society for Popular Music Research (GFPM), “Rock Your Body: The Body in Interaction with Popular Music,” https://www.forschungsforumpopulaeremusik.de/rock-your-body-koerper-in-interaktion-mit-populaerer-musik/.

“Ballads as a Soundtrack in Times of Crisis: An Examination of Sentimentality and Affect in the Charity Single ‘Everybody Hurts’ by the Helping Haiti Project,” University of Minnesota, 2023. Presentation at the 23rd Conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM), “Popular Music in Crisis,” https://iaspm-us.wildapricot.org/IASPM-International-2023.

“Love in Times of War: On Spandau Ballet’s Popular Portrayal of the Northern Ireland Conflict in a Love Song,” University of Siegen, 2022. Presentation as part of the “Popularizing Violence” workshop of SFB 1472 Transformations of the Popular, https://sfb1472.uni-siegen.de/veranstaltungen/popularizing-violence.

“On the Popularity of Metal Songs in the Global North: An Approach to Sentimentality and Gendered Performances in Metal Ballads,” National Autonomous University of Mexico, 2022. Presentation at the 5th Biennial Research Conference “Heavy Metal in the Global South” hosted by the International Society for Metal Music Studies.

“Grapefruits. A Fanzine about female* composers and sound artists,” University of Siegen, 2022. Presentation as part of the lecture series “Popular Music and Feminism” by Lea Jung. https://www.musik.uni-siegen.de/mitarbeiter/kuenstwissmitarbeiter/jung/vortragsreihe/970145.html?lang=de

“Low Pop. The Sentimental Ballad,” University of Freiburg, 2022. Project presentation as part of the seminar “History of Popular Music Since 1970: The Example of the Power Ballad” led by PD Dr. Knut Holtsträter.

“Material Love—Romantic Love as an Affordance of the ‘Kuschelrock’ Compilation?”, Dortmund University of Technology, 2021. Presentation as part of the 31st Annual Conference of the GfPM, “All the Things You Are: Popular Music and Material Culture.”

Conference Organization and Teaching:

Workshop “Towards More Variety in the Musical Canon: The Intricacies of the ‘Popular’ and ‘Non-Western’ as Metaphors of Distinction,” University of Cape Town, S.A. College of Music, March 21–22, 2024.

Symposium “You Are Beautiful, No Matter What They Say: Sentimental Ballads in Popular Music,” University of Siegen, September 13–14, 2023.

Symposium “Rock Your Body: The Body in Interaction with Popular Music,” University of Siegen, September 14–16, 2023.

Lecture Series “Popular Songs,” Summer Semester 2023.

Seminar session “What Is Popular?” as part of the introductory seminar “Approaches to Popular Music,” summer semester 2022.