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Popular Music and the Anthropocene: Call For Articles

Article  in  Popular Music · May 2018

DOI: 10.1017/S0261143018000235

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François Ribac Paul Harkins

University of Burgundy Edinburgh Napier University
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 Popular Music (2018) Volume 37/2. © Cambridge University Press 2018, pp. 327–328
doi:10.1017/S0261143018000235

Special issue of Popular Music

Popular Music and the

Anthropocene: Call For Articles
FRANÇOIS RIBAC and PAUL HARKINS
University of Burgundy
Edinburgh Napier University

Many geologists, climatologists, philosophers, historians, sociologists, activists, and

Non-Governmental Organisations believe that our planet has now entered into the
Anthropocene Era (Bonneuil & Fressoz 2013). The common idea is that human activ-
ities now have a decisive effect on the earth’s ecosystem: the fast and increasing dis-
appearance of a considerable number of plant and animal species, the melting of
glaciers and pack ice, rising sea levels, extreme climatic events, and pollution.
These phenomena impact on human activities, leading to forced migrations, the pau-
perisation of entire communities (often those least responsible for climate change),
and, ultimately, to major upheavals. The goal of this special issue of Popular Music
is to understand how popular music should and can be described, analysed, and
transformed in the Anthropocene, considered both as a concept as well as a material
process.
The Anthropocene Era implies that we must engage societies in a socio-
ecological transition towards less destructive forms of living, forcing us to reconsider
the concept and the consequences of modernity itself. For modernity does not only
mean social facts such as mechanisation, industrialisation, the conquest of the
world, constant economic growth, and the rise of capitalism but also narratives and
discourses: a distinction between humans and nature, differences between
Europeans and ‘others’, a teleological conception of history, and a belief in endless
progress (Latour 1991).
We welcome proposals for articles that address one or more of the following
broad categories:

History and narratives

• How does popular music give shape to the concepts of (non-)western culture and nature in
recordings, performances, and films?
• Is the Anthropocene changing our understanding of the sonic dimension of the world
(Krause 2015)?
• How can popular music (worlds) contribute to new narratives about the socio-ecological
transition (Ingram 2010)?

327
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 328 François Ribac and Paul Harkins

Theories
• What theoretical problems must we address in dealing with the Anthropocene? What kinds
of (new) concepts and methodologies do we need?
• How do we conceive of popular music if we give up our understanding of context, envir-
onment, nature (Morton 2007)?
• How can ethnomusicology, ecomusicology, sound studies, record production studies, cul-
tural studies, queer studies, gender studies, subaltern studies, postcolonial studies, ecocriti-
cism, and geology of media be enlisted in this project (Devine 2015; Allen & Dawe 2016;
Parikka 2015)?

Ecological costs and activism

• How do we understand ecological damage and obsolescence in popular music (Pedelty
2012)?
• How do we rethink, or at least clarify, the idea of sustainability (Schippers & Grant 2016;
Kagan & Kirchberg 2016)?
• What should be the specific contribution of popular musicians, business, and audiences to
the challenges of climate change?

Please send abstracts and queries to François Ribac (francois.ribac@u-bourgogne.fr)

and Paul Harkins (p.harkins@napier.ac.uk). Proposals from all academic disciplines
are welcome.
Deadline for abstracts (max. 500 words): 1 August 2018
Deadline for articles (max. 10,000 words, bibliography inclusive): 1 June 2019
Planned publication: January 2020

References
Allen, Aaron S., and Dawe, Kevin. 2016. Current Directions in Ecomusicology: Music, Culture, Nature (New York:
Routledge)
Bonneuil, Christophe, and Fressoz, Jean-Baptiste. 2013. L’événement Anthropocène (Paris: Seuil)
Devine, Kyle. 2015. ‘Decomposed: A Political Ecology of Music.’ Popular Music 34/3, pp. 367–89
Ingram, David. 2010. Jukebox in the Garden. Ecocriticism and American Popular Music Since 1960 (Rodopi:
Amsterdam)
Kagan, Sacha, and Kirchberg, Volker. 2016. ‘Music and Sustainability: Organizational Cultures towards
Creative Resilience - a Review.’ Journal of Cleaner Production 135, pp. 1487–1502
Krause, Bernie. Voices of the Wild: Animal Songs, Human Din, and the Call to Save Natural Soundscapes (London:
Yale University Press)
Latour, Bruno. 1991. Nous n’avons jamais été modernes (Paris: Éditions de la Découverte & Syros)
Morton, Timothy. 2007. Ecology Without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press)
Parikka, Jussi. 2015. A Geology of Media (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press)
Pedelty, Mark. 2012. Ecomusicology: Rock, Folk, and the Environment (Philadelphia: Temple University Press)
Schippers, Huib, and Grant, Catherine. 2016. Sustainable Futures for Music Cultures: An Ecological Perspective
(New York: Oxford University Press)

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