Concepts of listening to popular music and the retrospective mode – tracing local and virtual reflections on 'old' music genres in the twenty-first century

• Applicant: Dr. Julia Ehmann
• Subject Area: Musicology
• Term: from 2018 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 412300903

The advent of online culture and new technologies has changed the acquisition of musical knowledge and audience reflections on old music genres in the twenty-first century. While music of the past is nowadays easily accessible to fans and academics, the implications of temporality and retrospection for a negotiation of musical meaning have not been addressed in-depth. The project sets out to remedy this issue by applying two analytical perspectives: It examines the impact of retrospection on processes of music reception, and in regards to its historiographic presentation. Building on the combined analysis of audience discourses (in media and online contexts) and immersive autoethnographic research (at concerts, exhibitions, and in music heritage sites), the project explores how retrospective elements affect the perception and presentation of music genres and histories in the digital age. The research focuses on two case studies – the genres beat and punk – and contrasts the results of preliminary research conducted in London against new research in Hamburg in order to highlight the intrinsic local dimensions of retrospective perception. The study aims to develop a concept of popular music historicity that incorporates processes of self-reflection and a study of retrospection that revolves around the individual subject-position of the researcher. It will offer solution strategies for dealing with divergent forms of meaning perception within popular music studies (and related fields) and trace how academic strategies adapt as the discipline and part of its subject matter grow older.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants