« Musique en Suisse sous le regard des sciences sociales »

La Suisse témoigne d’une richesse musicale exceptionnelle, mais aussi d’une lacune de travaux en sciences sociales qui en rendent compte. Voici le point de départ de cette journée, organisée par Marc Perrenoud (université de Lausanne) et Loïc Riom (université de Genève), qui rassemblait des spécialistes des sciences sociales dont le travail tourne autour de la musique en Suisse. Les communications traitaient de divers styles musicaux et mobilisaient de nombreuses perspectives théoriques et mé..

Jean-Pierre Abbet & Daniel Stoecklin, « We were talking… » Les Beatles en héritage

Voici un ouvrage autour des Beatles qui n’est pas une biographie, ni une étude sociologique, mais une collection d’essais par deux sociologues. Dans « We were talking » Les Beatles en héritage, Jean-Pierre Abbet et Daniel Stoecklin prennent un style discursif libre et, ne visant pas une neutralité scientifique, proposent leurs points de vue personnels sur des thèmes divers autour des Beatles. Les thèmes varient de l’œuvre des Beatles à la « Beatlemania » comme phénomène social, en passant par..

In The Swim of Things: From Folk to Sensitizing Concepts

Miklos Rozsa conducts a scoring session at Universal Studios Soundstage 10 in the 1940s - source: http://musicbehindthescreen.blogspot.com By Robert Faulkner Professor emeritus, University of Massachusetts Amherst http://www.robertfaulkner.org Guest of honour La Rochefoucauld remarked that one can know things well only when one knows them in detail. Yet detail is infinite. Hence our knowledge is fated to remain superficial and imperfect. But there is a way of turning back the ..

François-Emmanuël BOUCHER, Sylvain DAVID et Maxime PRÉVOST (dir.) (2014), L’invention de la rock star. Les Rolling Stones dans l’imaginaire social

Le présent ouvrage collectif aborde en 10 chapitres diverses thématiques pour décortiquer les « mythographes et mythologues » (p. 5) que sont les Rolling Stones : les discours, les mythes, l’image, la musique, les paradoxes et bien plus. Les rock stars ont le pouvoir d’influencer des styles de vie et des pensées, surtout des jeunes, mais incarnent elles-mêmes des figures mythiques et des images bien construites. L’ouvrage offre un aperçu de ce qui se trouve derrière la figure de la rock star ..

Show me what to like: a sociological glance at Last.fm

By Nuné Nikoghosyan Until recently, there were two main ways of discovering cultural products: the media (radio, television, magazines…) and word-of-mouth recommendations by acquaintances, friends and family. But, our discovery of cultural products is nowadays more and more through online recommendation systems, be it of songs, films, books, etc. The algorithms behind these recommendation systems are usually kept secret and would, in any case, be fairly incomprehensible for most of us non-spe..

Denying Black musicians their royalties has a history emerging out of slavery

Matt Stahl, University of Western Ontario Olufunmilayo Arewa, Temple University [Article first published in The Conversation, 12 May 2021] Soul and R&B legend Sam Moore performs at the 2009 Nakusp Music Festival in Nakusp, B.C. (Richard Vignola/Flickr), CC BY-SA In the summer of 2020, Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests and activism included voices arguing for economic justice in the recording industry. The Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC) demanded music industry executives account ..

What streaming does to musical work

By Nuné Nikoghosyan University of Geneva While streaming first appeared in the early 2000s and has become an everyday activity, a sociologist of music can’t help but question the reality of streaming services and their effects on musical work. "Back In My Day", Unknown author, https://wallimpex.com/wallpapers-funny-hd/7073226.html Services and prices differ by platform, but the principle is the same: online radios and streaming services such as Spotify, Rhapsody and Last.fm allow us to l..

Programme: Sustainability through Art

SUSTAINABLITY THROUGH ART The Role of Art In and Towards Sustainable Changes 24-25 September 2020, Online & University of Geneva/Les Saules International conference organized by the Research Committee of Sociology of Arts and Culture (CR-SAC, Swiss Sociological Association) & the Universities of Geneva, Lausanne and Lucerne With the support of the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences The full programme is now available here. Conference Theme The Research Committee of Socio..

CFP: Contested Frequencies: Sonic Representation in the Digital Age

CFP: Contested Frequencies: Sonic Representation in the Digital Age February 22-24, 2019 University of Richmond Contested Frequencies is a part of a yearlong festival hosted by the University of Richmond Music Department, entitled Beyond Exoticism. The conference will extend the festival’s focus on issues of aesthetic decolonization, appropriation, borrowing, and influence within the context of contemporary music, broadly conceived. This multidisciplinary meeting will feature scholarly and cr..

Working in Music and the Covid-19 Pandemic: Call for think pieces

Since the Covid-19 outbreak was announced as a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020, most countries announced lockdown or semi-confinement measures almost immediately, with all public events being cancelled. This had an immediate and direct effect on artists all over the world whose livelihood is heavily dependent on public performances. Not always seen as “essential” to survival, commercial entertainment is what is most easily compromised when financial resources are sca..