Scholars challenge Western bias in global music studies
A new special journal issue argues that popular music scholarship has become too focused on English-language work, missing how post-Soviet and other non-Western music shapes global culture and markets. The challenge matters for media companies, streaming services, and cultural institutions deciding where to invest—ignoring 400 million people's musical output means missing both cultural insight and commercial opportunity.
Originaltitel: Contemporary post-Soviet popular music: Politics and aesthetics
<p>Popular music is produced, listened to and distributed all over the world. While there is no</p><p>doubt that popular music studies, as well as popular music histories and the commercial</p><p>popular music industry is predominantly Anglophone, popular music is not. This might</p><p>seem like an obvious statement but looking at current discussions in the field of popular</p><p>music studies it is a statement that needs to be made again. While there are exceptions,</p><p>popular music studies in general have a problem with pseudo-universalism. As if the</p><p>Western English-speaking mainstream reflected ‘popular music’ as a whole. This special</p><p>issue of IASPM Journal focuses on popular music in the post-Soviet space, imagined as</p><p>located between Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, but also all over the world</p><p>in reproduction of sounds and the diaspora. The contributions challenge the Anglophone</p><p>center of popular music studies.</p>