Living bridge in sunshine showing water, trees and sky surrounding
Wednesday, 25 January 2023

INAUGURAL CSPMPC CONFERENCE 

The newly established Centre for the Study of Popular Music and Popular Culture held its inaugural conference on December 12th.  Following a growing number of seminars and publications this year, the event saw a gathering of centre members, invited speakers and PhD candidates present on their current research.  Papers examined a diverse range of themes in the areas of popular music and popular culture, including the semiotics of tattooing, songwriting, LGBTI+ discourses within Gay Community News,  Football Fandom in France,  Maradona, the first wave of British Electronic music as well as two papers on The Fall.  The latter were examined in terms of both literary and linguistic dimensions.  As part of the centre's commitment to investigating the workings of the cultural industries,  Professor Eoin Devereux interviewed Ash O'Connor, vocalist and songwriter with Post Punk Shoegaze group His Father's Voice.  The speakers at the conference were Mairead Moriarty,  Steve Ryan, Mark Ryan,  Phil Bonjour,  Elaine Vaughan, Brian Clancy, Neil O'Connor, Kieran Cashell and Mariano Paz.   Panels were chaired by Eoin Devereux, Aileen Dillane and Martin Power.