Last updated: 21.VI.99
- About the PMRU
- Research
- Composition and Performance
- European MA/MPhil in Popular Music
- Resources
- Overseas Visits
Given the reputation held by the Faculty of Media, Music and Performance for the pioneering and running of popular music courses, there has been a pressing need for increased research activity in this area. In the wake of numerous research projects proposed by academic staff in the Music Department, it was agreed to develop a research unit that promotes and stimulates scholarly work in the field of popular music. The Popular Music Research Unit, developed by Dr. Stan Hawkins, is the first of its kind in Britain to concentrate specifically on Musicology and the impact of Music Technology.
The PMRU received funding from the College Research and Staff Development Committee at the end of 1993 to support research programmes by four post-doctoral researchers: Derek B Scott, Sheila Whiteley, Jonty Stockdale and Stan Hawkins. In turn, by supporting such research, it was felt that the PMRU would be able to stimulate and support new research initiatives in the area of popular music and achieve one of its principal aims, namely, to contribute to the academic profile of the Centre and Salford University by providing the necessary resources and environment for the intellectual pursuit of popular music research, with a view to publishing its results and findings.
Current research undertaken within the PMRU spans a variety of projects. Derek Scott is involved in the socio-musicological exploration of the socially constituted values of musical practices and poststructural critiques of musical styles as discursive codes, with a number of academic publications under contract. Sheila Whiteley is currently researching into the effects of thirty years of feminism on the discourses surrounding popular music, and updating research into the analysis of the correlation between drugs and the musical text. Other projects include those by Mark Grimshaw who is researching into ethnomusicological branches of popular music with a view to investigating the interrelationships existing between contemporary and inherited practices of Zimbabwean music. (He is also working on an investigation of remix techniques and practice.) Robin Dewhurst, having recently completed an MA in Music at De Montfort University, is continuing research into a range of issues relating to jazz composition and orchestration in Gil Evans's music. His work is intended to contribute to the wider fields of semantics, aesthetics and musicology within a jazz context.
As well as emphasising the field of musicological research, the PMRU aims to support other scholarly activity by embracing investigation into aspects of performance and composition that relate to empirical and pragmatic issues. On an international tour of Salford Soundworks to Scandinavia in 1993, premieres of Metal Serpent by Jonty Stockdale and Dance Pavane by Stan Hawkins were given.
The PMRU facilities include staff offices, a research base room and a committee room/IT base. The IT resourcing for PMRU has been provided by the University Research and Staff Development Capital Equipment Fund, to support identified projects and to stimulate growth in research activity in this area of study. Information Technology within the PMRU is designated for operation on two levels:
- 1) local networking between computers housed within the PMRU, which facilitates transfer of data between one platform and another. Data transparency is fully supported by both Apple Macintosh and PC systems.
- 2) linkage with both the Department's Web Server and the main University File Server for data storage/retrieval, Email/JANET.
High-resolution Image scanning is available through the PMRU, facilitating the digitising of all types of data for storage and retrieval; in particular, music notation for articles/publications and material for archiving. CD banks for Hypermedia are now also being produced and provide an opportunity for new IT based research and development projects.
During the past several months a number of leading academics in the field of music research have visited the PMRU. They include Professor Peter Wicke and Dr Konstanze Krise, (Humboldt University, Berlin), Professor Even Ruud (University of Oslo, Norway), Mr Peter Kaj Pedersen (Aalborg University, Denmark), Professor Halldor Harroldsson (Reykjavik College of Music, Iceland) and Dr Steve Jones (University of Tulsa, USA). It is envisaged that through the PMRU, the Faculty of Media, Music and Performance will be able to offer an invaluable base for researchers from universities abroad, as well as at home.
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