Time to get serious about punk, pop, rap and rock

IT’S a three-day festival that features hip hop, heavy metal, punk, electronic dance music and countless other styles of music.  But words and in-depth analysis will be the keynotes when hundreds of serious scholars of rock and pop around the world convene at the University of Huddersfield for an event titled Crosstown Traffic.

It takes place on 3-5 September and is sub-titled Popular Music Theory and Practice.  Headliners include Andrew Scheps, a legendary producer who has worked with bands and solo artists who include Metallica, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Jay Z and Adele.  He gives one of the keynote lectures.  Also speaking is top Australia producer Lachlan Goold, who has worked with many major Australian artists, using the pseudonym Magoo.

In addition, there will be almost 200 papers from academic researchers who will relay their findings on topics that include British anarcho-punks, sexual misconduct in the music industry, The Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper album, the New Romantics, psychedelic rock, the cowboy songs of Gene Autry, and the life and death of George Michael.

One of the organisations backing the event is the International Society for Metal Music Studies, which has a mission to encourage “international academic research regarding processes and phenomena related to heavy metal music and culture”.

And Crosstown Traffic duly features papers that include Multimodal subjectivity in Heavy Metal Performance and A Novel Approach to Authenticity in Socialist Metal Music Production.

The other organisations behind the joint conference are the Association for the Study of the Art of Record Production, the Dancecult Research Network and the UK and Ireland Branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, of which one of the executive committee is Rupert Till, who is a Professor of Music at the University of Huddersfield.

His research interests include popular music and sound archaeology and he has combined the two areas for a new CD titled Dub Archaeology, which combines ambient  electronics and beats with the sound of ancient instruments.  At the Crosstown Traffic conference, which he helped to organise, Professor Till gives a paper describing the project.  Using the alter ego Professor Chill he performs the music during DJ sets at festivals.

• Registration at Crosstown Traffic is £70 per day and can be booked online.  The full programme is also online.