Beyond Genre: Jazz as Popular Music
April 19-21, 2018
Center for Popular Music Studies
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH
The intersections of jazz and popular music are myriad. Louis Armstrong recorded with Jimmie Rodgers and Bessie Smith; Carlos Santana recorded with Alice Coltrane; Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly featured Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper, and Kamasi Washington; George Benson topped the Billboard 200 in 1976; Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole, and Miles Davis are all inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; consider also the careers of The Bad Plus, Benny Goodman, Spyro Gyra, Kenny G, Norah Jones, and countless others.
Jazz scholars have long grappled with the instability of genre, with its unexpected changes and re- definitions. Yet while recent scholarship has fostered more inclusive conceptions of both ‘popular music’ and ‘jazz,’ the tendency remains to treat them as separate categories. It is these ever-changing boundaries that inspire ‘Beyond Genre: Jazz as Popular Music,’ a conference dedicated to exploring the middle ground between popular music and new jazz studies. Sponsored by The Center for Popular Music Studies at Case Western Reserve University, the conference will feature keynote presentations by David BrackettA?(McGill University) and Sherrie Tucker (University of Kansas).
All proposals considering the connection between jazz and popular music will be considered.
Possible topics to explore include, but are not limited to:
- collaborations between jazz and ‘non-jazz’ musicians
- jazz as popular music
- ‘fusions’
- crossover
- jazz versions of popular music interpolations
- listening audiences
- shared technologies
- the music industry
Each presentation will be thirty minutes: twenty minutes for the paper and ten minutes for questions. Proposals are due by November 1, 2017 and should include an abstract of no more than 300 words, as well as the presenter’s name, institutional affiliation, and any special technological requests.
Abstracts should be sent as Word documents and should exclude any information that may identify the author. Please send proposals and any questions to popmusic(at)case.edu.
Daniel Goldmark
Director, Center for Popular Music Studies
Program Committee
Charles Carson (University of Texas at Austin)
Daniel Goldmark (Case Western Reserve University)
Tammy Kernodle (Miami University)
Ken Prouty (Michigan State University)
Catherine Tackley (University of Liverpool)
Steve Waksman (Smith College)
Brian Wright (Fairmont State University)
https://artscimedia.case.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/17/2013/09/25170509/BeyondGenreCFP.pdf