Mediation and Liveness in DJ Performance – Kim Ramstedt

This week’s blog by Kim Ramstedt is a discussion of issues related to the study of superstar DJs and follows the recent death of Swedish DJ Avicii. Superstar DJs frequently perform on the main stages of pop music festivals, and festivals built predominantly around DJ performances and electronic dance music attract record amounts of visitors. Yet, popular discourse around large-scale …  

Crunching the Numbers: DIY Touring in 2018 – David Rovics

David Rovics is a Portland-based singer songwriter of “Songs of Social Significance”. Originally published as a blog on his website, in this article David explains the economics of touring as a politically committed artist who still needs to pay the bills. We would like to thank David for permission to use this article. I suddenly feel compelled to do some …  

Rolling Stones tour: they may be older but time waits for no one – Adam Behr

This week’s blog is a repost of an article by Live Music Exchange’s Adam Behr in The Conversation following the recent announcement of a Rolling Stones tour. An article in Rolling Stone magazine described the legendary band – its near namesake – as “growing old angrily”. Its portrait of Mick Jagger referenced “age lines around his eyes … as old as …  

Valuing live music: UK Live Music Census report 2017 – Emma Webster, Matt Brennan, Adam Behr and Martin Cloonan with Jake Ansell (2018)

Author(s): Emma Webster, Matt Brennan, Adam Behr and Martin Cloonan with Jake Ansell Organisation: University of Edinburgh / Live Music Exchange Date: 2018 The UK’s first ever national live music census took place in 2017. For 24 hours from noon on Thursday 9th March, volunteers in cities across the country went out and about to live music events, from pub …  

Interview with E.W. Harris, Singer/songwriter, Brooklyn

E.W. Harris is a singer/songwriter who is based in Brooklyn and performs internationally. This interview speaks to the logistics, realities and significance of touring and playing live, both at home and abroad, from a North American perspective. This blog post is based on an email interview with Emma Webster on 29 November 2017, which was part of the UK Live …  

Live music as ideology – Martin Cloonan (2013)

Based on research carried out in the UK between 2008 and 2011, this paper examines the implications of the shift in discourse from recorded to live as ‘the’ popular music experience.