IASPM-AANZ 2026//Archive
Call for papers.
Issued for the 2026 conference. Kept here for reference and citation.
Abstracts closed at midnight AEST on 26 June 2026, and acceptances have been sent. This page is the original call, unaltered. For the accepted sessions, see the program; to attend, see registration.
Conference theme.
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).
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. We invite contributions that examine tension as a condition, a method, a structure, a sound, a feeling, a politic, or new theorisation of popular music.
Key topics.
- 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