Thematic Sessions > Song and Modern Popular Music

Situated at the crossroads of technology, aesthetics, and commercial logics, the study of modern popular music inherits a dual epistemological lineage: on one side, from popular studies with a sociological and cultural focus, and on the other, from sound studies, marked by the exploration of timbre and sound production conditions. Long overlooked in Francophone musicology, non-classical music has, over the past two decades, been recognized as an essential area of musicological research, highlighted in encyclopedic publications (Jean-Jacques Nattiez, 2003) and anthological collections (Guibert & Heuguet, 2022).

Since 2015, Aix-Marseille University has been at the center of these discussions with the creation of the interdisciplinary network les Ondes du monde, which brings together research in France and Europe around the study of song through biennials and seminars. To strengthen the disciplinary contribution of various musicological approaches to this subject, proposals are particularly encouraged to focus on the musical dimension of song and modern popular music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Topics may include harmonic or melodic analysis, the historical study of genres, relationships between text and music, the role of technology, or the role of the performer.