[Commlist] CFP Special Issue of Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies

CFP Special Issue of Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies

https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/ccon20

Contributions are sought for a special issue of Continuum under the 
theme ‘Popular Music, Revival & Renewal: Histories, Cultures, Practices’ 
with guest editors Lauren Istvandity, Mengyu Luo, and John Tebbutt.

There is an unusual dynamic to be observed in current popular music: it 
is so deeply embedded in cultures of everyday life that pop’s legacies 
crucially shape how we perceive music and its subcultures. In the post 
pandemic digital society this is increasingly visible. If ‘pop will eat 
itself’, the spectacle of this feast is contemporary music itself. Here, 
the terms popular music, contemporary music and ‘pop’, refer in general 
to products of a global music industry that is as evident in Korea or 
China as it is in Australia or Europe. Popular music’s cyclic generation 
of creative product is often fuelled by a sense of ‘looking back’ even 
as it serves to capture sentiments of modern-day audiences. This is 
particularly evident in the campaign around Taylor Swift’s ‘1989’ 
project, but it may also be found in the now de rigueur performances 
built around debut or iconic albums. These musical pasts continue to 
resonate in a range of cultural practices, however significant shifts in 
digital streaming, the value of material cultures, and patterns in 
artistic output and audience consumption raise critical questions about 
the role of a now extensive popular music history on the trends of pop 
music in the present.
This special issue asks, how has the cyclic generation of creative 
product influenced shifts in cultural considerations of past and future; 
of immediacy and experience; of loss and renewal. The influence of music 
is notable in discussions of nostalgia as much as the cultural economy 
of live performance. At the same time, music technologies and mediums 
have also come to reflect the similar kinds of shifts: the reemergence 
of vinyl as a popular format along with never ending digital streams of 
creative product demonstrate how what was once old is forever new again. 
What is plainly evident is that music, and popular music in particular, 
is iterative, and works within ongoing patterns of renewal and revival. 
This can be seen in the revivalist nature of era-defining sounds and pop 
culture aesthetics, which continue to generate excitement with new 
audiences in new decades; in social movements seeking to restore a 
musical practice (Livingstone 1999); or the ways that histories of music 
and performance can be reimagined in the present through the application 
of new perspectives, that may be gender or ethnicity, politics or 
geography. For this special issue we welcome submissions that address 
the diverse ways in which this global pop music industry has engaged 
revival and renewal as a driver for content.

While some academic work has sought to conceptualise or comment on 
trends of renewal in popular music, there is a lack of current 
scholarship that draws focus to the impact of digital technologies, 
post-pandemic contexts, and the lived experiences of audiences and 
artists currently. For example, Andy Bennett’s work in this area, 
including the concept of ‘heritage rock’ (2009), or the work surrounding 
the concepts of ‘retromania’ (originally coined by journalist Simon 
Reynolds in 2011) and ‘technostalgia’ (Pinch and Reinecke 2009) are 
largely situated in the early 21st Century. Yet in the 15 or so years to 
date, widespread technological and social changes have impacted on ways 
that consumer and industry practices play out, in turn influencing how 
histories and cultures might be perceived, documented, and theorised. 
The current cross-temporal and cross-cultural contexts in which we now 
find ourselves provides an opportunity for meaningful scholarship that 
takes stock of rapidly changing digital cultural environments, to 
consider urgent questions about the cyclical nature of popular music 
production and what this means in terms of digital streaming and 
consumption practices; preservation and copyright issues of music 
catalogues; the potential originality of new material; and the 
capitalisation of music nostalgia and memory.
This special issue seeks to bring together essays from emerging and 
established scholars to extend on previous arguments and examinations at 
the intersections of popular music and notions of renewal and revival. 
With intense technological, political, and globalised changes in the 
21st Century comes the need for an urgent revision of what was once 
thought of as ‘popular music history’ but which now constitutes new 
emerging global patterns of consumption, cultural practice, and 
theoretical realignment. In reviewing popular music’s revival and 
renewal within various theoretical frameworks, including cultural 
critique, postmodernism, media materialism, and identity politics, this 
special issue encourages deep interdisciplinary dialogues contributing 
to a more comprehensive analysis of the role of music and music media in 
society.

The editors seek expressions of interest in the form of 200 word 
abstracts for papers that consider popular music revival and renewal 
alongside the following topics, particularly those that propose diverse 
perspectives, contexts, or geographies:

●	Artist and industry approaches to music catalogues, marketing, and 
streaming
●	Material cultures of popular music in the wake of digital music 
availability
●	The increased dominance of digital music streaming cultures and 
technologies
●	Para-musical considerations including those relating traditional and 
new media formats
●	Fandoms/fan practices regarding renewal or revival of popular music 
genres or artists
●	The theorisation of iterative practices, such as ‘retro’, ‘nostalgia’, 
or what is once again ‘cool’ in 21st Century popular music and related 
cultures ●	The place of music and the music industry in broader 
socio-cultural concepts such as nostalgia, cultural renewal and the 
revival of traditions

Early career scholars are encouraged to apply.

To be considered for this special issue, please submit an abstract of 
200 words along with author biographies of 100 words by 30 April 2024. 
Notification to authors will be made by 31 May 2024.

Successful authors must submit full articles (8000 words) for rigorous 
peer review by 30 September 2024. Accepted articles will be published in 
‘online first’ editions, while the special issue will be released in 2025.
Please send submissions to Lauren Istvandity and Mengyu Luo: 
(l.istvandity /at/ griffith.edu.au); (m.luo /at/ usst.edu.cn);



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