Actualités

Queering the Groove: Pop Music, Anthems, Icons & Other Tropes
22 October 2021

An Online Seminar Celebrating the Relationship Between Queer Communities & Pop Music

Since its advent as a cultural force in the 1950s, representations and executions of sexuality in the lyrics, performativity and artefacts associated with pop music have been an integral to the genre (Budd, 1994). In turn, much of the discourse, scandal and controversy generated by pop music has also been dominated by a focus on the sexual (Kirk, 1999; Schippers, 2010).

An established history of the investment and allegiance to pop music among queer audiences has also been observed (Aston, 2016). Among pop music’s multitudinous functions, its assistance in the development of identity (Dillon, Moradi & Worthington, 2011; Whieley & Rycenga, 2006), alongside its lending to the notion and creation of ‘safe spaces’ (Siegel, 2001; Coleman, 2016), ensure the medium has always enjoyed popularity among queer audiences. This once-off seminar focuses on and celebrates the complex and enduring relationship of pop music with its devoted queer audience.

From consideration of familiar tropes such as the ‘gay icon’ and the ‘gay anthem’ and explorations of various aspects of queer fandom, the seminar serves to consolidate the continued contribution of artists and audiences alike, in affirming pop’s place as a soundtrack to our lives, and as an enduringly potent queer cultural force.

We invite papers relating to pop music and:
• Artefacts
• Events
• Fandom
• Gender Studies
• Iconography
• Identity
• Lyrics
• Performance
• Politics
• Queer Theory
• Sexuality Studies
• Underground culture

Timeline:
Deadline for paper submission Friday 2 July 2021
Answers from organisers: Monday 12 July 2021
Online Seminar: Friday 22 October 2021

Registration here