Professor Matt Brennan's Inaugural Lecture

Making sense of popular music inside and outside the academy

How does one make sense of popular music as an area of academic inquiry on the one hand, and as an artistic pursuit on the other? In this talk I will reflect on the journey of aspiring for a life in popular music both inside and outside the academy, while also sketching the trajectory of popular music studies as an interdisciplinary field and how it managed to gain its foothold in higher education in recent decades. Along the way there will likely be various digressions into the tensions between high versus low culture, work versus play, genius versus ‘scenius’, capitalism versus climate crisis, and art versus entertainment. Registration is free via eventbrite, drinks reception to follow.

In conjunction with his inaugural lecture, Matt will also be performing a Celtic Connections gig at the Glad Café on Saturday 25 January. This co-headline concert celebrates the release of two debut albums and the launch of Doughnut Music Lab, a new art and research collective that seeks to imagine what shape musical life will take in a post-fossil-fuel future. Beautiful Cosmos is a band whose debut album ‘Dance Of The Atoms’ was produced by the Mercury Prize-nominated band Field Music. Diljeet Kaur Bhachu, a prominent figure in Glasgow’s music scene, also launches her debut album ‘Double Lives’ at the show. (Please note that the free eventbrite registration is for the Wednesday 22 January lecture only. Tickets for the gig on Saturday 25th can be ordered separately via the Celtic Connections website.)

Host or Publisher College of Arts