Music, Sound, and Culture

The theme group Music, Sound, and Culture explores various intersections between music culture, sound, and media with a critical perspective on the role that music and sound perform in culture and society. Areas of study by the group’s researchers include popular music, music platforms and industries, artistic performance practices, song compositional aesthetics, music and new media (e.g. music video, music on TikTok) and sonic cultures through processes of globalization and transnationalism. Genres of music examined include hip hop, electronic dance music, jazz, classical music, festival cultures, DIY and punk music, music theatre, and soundscapes.

Research in this area entails a variety of approaches which foreground the dynamics through which sounds and sonic structures are articulated with and afford meanings or become agents in material processes. Intersecting forms of identify formation occupy many researchers through the study the social, economic, gendered, and political outcomes of these processes. We examine various forms of contemporary and historical engagement with music/sound while also fostering an understanding of the ways specific contexts have shaped and constrained the perceptions, actions, thoughts, and feelings that constitute engagements with music and sound.

Projects of Music, Sound and Culture Researchers

Music4Change Erasmus+ (2022-2025) – Kristin McGee and Chris Tonelli

Music4Change (M4C) explores a range of open access digital and blended learning resources for PhD students, including a cross sector mentorship scheme between Higher Education and music/arts sector. These learning resources will be part of a new Curriculum for Change for PhD education (C4C) which will serve as an innovative model for PhD education in the arts nationally and across Europe. The project is based on a transnational partnership of five universities and two NGOs who are well qualified and motivated to fulfil the project objectives. M4C addresses one HE field-specific priority, stimulating innovation in Teaching & Learning practices, and two horizontal priorities i) digital transformation and readiness, and ii) inclusion and diversity in education. The project is designed so its objectives, activities and results coalesce under these priorities.

Gender Dynamics in the Dutch Music Industry - KIEM NWO Internataionalization Grant (2018/2019) – Kristin McGee

This research supports the CLICKNL domain of Media & Entertainment in the roadmap Value Creation, as this research investigates the value of creative professionals in the ecosystem of the music industry’s labor market. By unravelling the cultural and societal practices, dominant discourses, exclusion mechanisms, specific employment requirements, and psychological barriers leading to the perpetuation of the gender gap in various stages and within different forms, this research will re-conceptualize the value of the creative professional by acknowledging the talents of women in this industry and optimizing the talents of workers of all genders. This consortium represents partners exhibiting extensive academic expertise on gender research in music with over a decade work experience in different fields of the music business within various musical genres. The private partners offer an insider’s perspective in an academic context and a unique access to the professionals of the music industry.

School Transition Project (2023 - present) – Beate Peters

This project supports pupils transitioning from primary school to secondary education through engagement with Hip Hop. In collaboration with Unity Radio, we are working with two primary schools and two secondary schools in deprived areas of Greater Manchester. As part of the provision, young people are engaging with all elements of Hip Hop (MCing, DJing, breakdancing, graffiti, knowledge ) through workshops both in the physical world and through Virtual Reality (VR). Aiming to increase levels of efficacy in participants, we aim to evidence that through Hip Hop education school attainment rates increase. Beate oversees the music-making (rapping) component of the project, analysing the use of voice both in the rapping and in workshop participation (focus groups).

Experimental Improvising Choirs – Chris Tonelli

Building on his experience as a soundsinger, leader of improvising community choirs, and research he completed as post-doctoral fellow with the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation Chris Tonelli published the book Voices Found: Free Jazz and Singing. The book is the first book-length study of what he refers to as "soundsinging," a singing practice which grew of out free jazz, sound poetry, and other practices in and beyond the 1950s and 1960s. Singers and improvising choir directors discussed in the volume include Yoko Ono, Jeanne Lee, Christine Jeffrey, Maggie Nicols, Phil Minton, Paul Dutton, Jaap Blonk, Shelley Hirsch, Anna Homler, Tomomi Adachi, David Moss, Christine Duncan, DB Boyko, and Joane Hétu. Alongside its historical components, the book will offer a theory of the symbolic functions of unconventional vocal sound.

Recent Research Symposia, Conferences and Workshops

• Music4Change: Sustainable Cities and Cultures of Music. University of Groningen. November 6-8, 2024.

• Listen Here Now: A Soundscape Approach to Biodiversity, Creativity and Well-Being. Agricola School for Sustainable Development Symposium. House of Connections. 23 August 2023.

Activities

The Music, Sound and Culture theme group organise regular work in progress talks, reading discussion, and research presentations. We also organize public lectures especially the series "Music Matters", which makes links between performance, research, academia and the music industry, with talks from practitioners, industry specialists, and academics from across the globe. For more information, visit www.musicmattersatrug.nl.

Participating Researchers

• Jeroen van Gessel
• Alex de Lacey
• Kristin McGee
• Beate Peter
• Chris Tonelli
• Femke Vandenberg
• Elizabeth Falade
• Marianne Franklin
• Pieter Verstraete
• Janna Serres
• Rachel van der Merwe
• Steven Gilbers

Current PhD Candidates

• Marjan Wynia
• Karen Campos McCormack
• Abdoulie Sawo
• Dima Alkateeb
• Icaro
• Ruby Schofield

PhD projects (past and present)

• Niels Falch. From Oy to Joy: Jewish Musical Style in American Popular Songs, 1892 – 1945. University of Groningen. Dissertation awarded: May 28, 2020. Daily supervisor.
• Rob Ahlers. Showcasing European Music Networks: The Case of Eurosonic Noorderslag. University of Groningen. Dissertation awarded: March 1, 2020. Daily supervisor.
• Karen Campos McCormack. Jazz Dancing Across the Atlantic. PhD begun 2023. Primary Supervisor.
• Marjan Wynia. Investigating the Gender Gap in the Dutch Music Industries. PhD begun 2020. Primary Supervisor.
• Ruby Schofield. Rethinking Empowerment, an Ameliorative Analysis: Empowerment Narratives in Contemporary Euro-American Feminist Discourse. Co-supervision for Sandwich PhD in Department of Philosophy with Dr. Charlotte Knowles. PhD begun January 2021.
• Abdoulie Sawo. Joint PhD with the University of The Gambia. Associate-Supervisor with Sara Strandvad and Rachel Van der Merwe. PhD begun January 2023.