SMT Conference Activities

The Popular Music Interest Group has hosted a variety of special sessions and activites at the annual SMT Conference. Other conference sessions on related topics have also featured many of the group's members.

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2007 Baltimore: Special Session on the SMT Program

"Theory, Meta-Theory, and Popular Music"

Ellie Hisama (Columbia University), Moderator

Fred Everett Maus (University of Virginia), “Conversations about Popular Music”

Akitsugu Kawamoto (Durham, North Carolina), “Theorizing the Variety of Intertextuality in Popular Music”

Mark Butler (University of Pennsylvania and the American Academy in Berlin), “Analyzing Performance in Popular Music: New Methodologies for Unstable Ontologies”

Andrew Robbie (Harvard University), “Multimodal Metatheory and the Structure of Music Video”

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2006 Los Angeles: Popular-Music Interest Group Meeting

"Popular Music Pedagogy "

The presence of popular music within university curricula has increased exponentially within the past two decades, and courses in music theory and analysis have been an important part of this trend.

• How are music theorists currently involved in the teaching of popular music?

• What issues do they face in bringing their pedagogical expertise to bear on repertories outside the Western art-music canon?

• What kinds of creative solutions have they devised?

The Popular-Music Interest Group will consider these questions in a roundtable discussion at our 2006 meeting. We will focus on three broad areas in relation to the pedagogy of popular music: teaching undergraduate nonmajors, teaching undergraduate majors, and teaching graduate students preparing for academic careers. Panelists including John Covach, Timothy Hughes, Fred Maus, Eugene Montague, Jocelyn Neal, and Mark Butler will discuss teaching approaches, challenges, course design, and sample assignments. Between presentations, substantial time will be reserved for discussion and questions from the audience.

Preparatory Materials for SMT 2006 (Los Angeles)

Butler, Graduate Course
Butler, Nonmajor Survey Course
Butler, Undergraduate Major Course

Hughes, Popular Song Analysis
Hughes, Advanced Popular Music Harmony
Hughes, Advanced Popular Music Harmony Outline
Hughes, Advanced Popular Music Harmony Film List
Hughes, APMH Group Analysis Assignment
Hughes, APMH Group Recording Assignment
Hughes, Music with Computer Sound Design Modules

Maus, Gender and Sexuality in Popular Music
Maus, Theory I

Neal, Undergrad Survey Course (Rock)
Neal, Analysis Course (Undergrad Majors)

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2005 Boston: Analytic Round Table

"The Smile Album"

Invited Panelists: Danial Harrison (Yale University), Rob Wegman (Princeton University), and Andy Flory (UNC Chapel Hill), with Moderator Lori Burns (University of Ottawa)

2004 Seattle: Analytic Round Table

"Sam Phillips' 'Fan Dance'"

Invited panelists: Walter Everett, Adam Krims, and Albin Zak

Moderator: Jocelyn Neal

Panelists and members of the pop music interest group selected an album and specific track for a round-table discussion. Participants prepared in advance, and a lively session was hosted at the conference.

2003 Madison: Special Session on the SMT Program

"From Motive to Mixdown: Influence, Inspiration, and Innovation in Popular Music"

Adam Krims, Chair

John Brackett: "The Wall Cycle: The Concept Album Trilogy of Pink Floyd and Roger Waters"

Jocelyn Neal: "Narrative Paradigms and Musical Signifiers in Country Music Songwriting"

Andrew Flory: "Marvin Gaye as Vocal Composer"

David Carson Berry: "The Structural Roles of Pentatonicism in Tin Pan Alley Songs"

2002 Columbus: Special Session on the SMT Program

"Rock, Folk, and the Great White Way: Twentieth-Century Popular Music from a Post-Millenial Perspective"

Mark Spicer, Chair

William Marvin: "Simulating Counterpoint in Broadway Musicals: The Quodlibet as Compositional Procedure"

Scott Murphy: "Re-Solving One Kind of Metrical Dissonance"

Anna K. Stephan-Robinson: "Phrase Rhythm in Paul Simon's Simon and Garfunkel Songs"

David Temperley: "The Plagal Stop Cadence in Rock"

Kevin Holm-Hudson: "A Study of Maximally Smooth Voice Leading in the Mid-1970s Music of Genesis"

2001 Philadelphia:

2000 Toronto: Special Session on the SMT Program

"Sketch and Style Studies in Popular Music: A Theorist's Perspective"

Dave Headlam, Chair
Albin Zak, Respondent

Walter Everett: "The Values of Traditional Historiographical and Theoretical Approaches for the Study of Rock Music"

Mark Butler: "'Taking it Seriously': Intertexuality and Authenticity in Two Covers by the Pet Shop Boys"

Mark Spicer: "Ghosts in the Machine: Analyzing Style in the Music of the Police"

John Covach: "The Big Jingle-Jangle: Folk Rock, the Byrds, and the Electric Twelve-String Guitar"

1999 Atlanta: Special Session on the SMT Program

"Timbre and Technology in Rock and Rap"

John Covach, Chair

John Cotner: "Pink Floyd's 'Careful with That Axe, Eugene' (ca. 1968-1969): A Study of Genre, Texture, Medium, and Structure"

Shaugn O'Donnell: "'Mind Your Throats Please': Collage as Retransition in Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother Suite"

Kevin Holm-Hudson: "(Re)mixing as (Re)orchestration: Textural Revision in Mike Oldfield's Hergest Ridge"

Ciro Scotto: "Conflict Between Pitch-Class and Timbre Functions in Metallica's 'Devil's Dance' and 'Enter Sandman'"

Tim Hughes: "'Now' Sandwiches: The Use of Quotation in Rap Music"

1998 Chapel Hill: Initial organizational meeting of the SMT Popular Music Interest Group