IASPM-AANZ 2026// University of the Sunshine Coast// Sippy Downs, QLD
The revolution will not be peer reviewed.
Popular Music Tensions
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What we mean by tension.
Across political, ecological, economic, technological and cultural spheres, we are living through intensifying uncertainty, conflict, contradiction, disruption and transformation. This year’s conference will address the structures, institutions, intersections and relationships popular music has with social justice, political systems, and the broader geopolitical and socio-economic paradigm in which we find ourselves in 2026. In a time of global tensions and geo-political disruption, we ask what roles popular music has, does, and will play in social justice, political movements and cultural change (to name a few).
Tension as a condition, a method, a structure, a sound, a feeling, a politic.
Tensions also operate within music itself: dramatic, harmonic, affective and other intrinsic tensions impact performance, production and reception. And they emerge in the structures and institutions that shape popular music — between music and commerce, community and capital, creativity and automation, tradition and innovation. The papers gathered here examine tension as a condition, a method, a structure, a sound, a feeling, a politic, and as a new theorisation of popular music.
What roles does popular music play in social justice, political movements and cultural change?
What’s on the table.
Tension and gender representation and expression Tensions in music theory or musicology Music and ethics Joy and celebration of activism and resistance Reclamation of power through music Music and systems of power / hegemony Songs of protest and social change Music histories of social challenge or resistance Fandom and activism Venues’ role in collectivism and political action Media representation of music and social justice movements Social justice’s role in the creation of music communities and identities Regulatory and industrial responses to popular music’s involvement in activism Representation and social justice in the recording studio Popular music, creative labour, and cultural and economic value Popular music in sites or zones of conflict, crisis and unrest Tensions between local scenes and global industries Tension and release in songwriting, production and listening practices Popular music and ecological or climate anxiety Tensions produced by platforms, algorithms and digital infrastructures Creative labour, burnout, precarity and institutional pressure Human and machine tensions in AI, music production and creativity Interpersonal, subcultural or intergenerational tensions in scenes and fan communities
Who you’ll hear.
To be announced
Announcement to followOpening keynote, Tuesday 1 December.
Sound, Sex and Secrets
Samantha Bennett · Megan Rogerson-Berry · Jodie TaylorUnresolved tensions in popular music scholarship and practice.
ConfirmedTo be announced
Announcement to followA Q&A session closing the conference, Thursday 3 December.
Keynote and in-conversation guests will be announced here as they are confirmed.