Rock Music and Social Change

CFP: a European anthology

Labourhistorians! If you are interested in writing about rock music and rock culture!

Rockin' All Over The World. Rock Music And Social, Cultural and Political Change

Since 2003 a couple of Swedish scholars have organised an annual conference in connection with the rock festival at Hultsfred, Sweden. We have focused the discussion on the connections between rock and social, cultural and political changes at local, national and global levels. We use rock music as a wide concept, including different genres e.g. pop, punk, soul, country, hip-hop and blues. In February 2008 we also arranged a successful session - Rock-music, Youth and Rebellion at the European Social Science History Conference in Lisbon. Based on discussions with colleagues on a national and international level we have decided to publish an anthology on the topic Rock music and society.

The purpose of the anthology is to investigate how and to what extent Rock plays and have played an integral part in formation of identities and life-styles. Rock Music has a potential to challenge hegemonic orders based on class, gender, nation, ethnicity/race or generation. The challenge could consist of the music itself, in lyrics and ways of performing, but also on how listeners react when they consume the music and how it influences everyday life. Under certain circumstances Rock music has also played a crucial role in the formation of social movements. The anthology will also look at how the State and general society reacted and responded as Rock transformed the patterns of identity - on what did the state and society react, which norms and values were under attack? We will focus on connections between rock music, identity and state formation within different countries. Scholars already involved in the anthology will focus on Sweden, former GDR, Wales, and former Czechoslovakia. We welcome proposals from scholars interested in exploring further the perspectives above.

If you have an interesting idea, please send an e-mail to one of us.

Björn Horgby, Professor, Humanities and the Research School The Conditions of Democracy, Örebro University, [mailto]bjorn.horgby@hum.oru.se[/mailto]

Fredrik Nilsson, Lecturer, Historical Studies, Malmö University, [mailto]fredrik.nilsson@mah.se[/mailto]

Lars Berggren, associate professor of History, Lund University
Mats Greiff, professor of History, Malmö University
Johan Lundin, lecturer of History, Malmö University
Brian Roberts, Professor of Biographical and Community Research, University of Glamorgan, UK