Professor Simon Frith

Principal Investigator

Simon Frith is Tovey Chair of Music at the University of Edinburgh. For much of his career, as both an academic and journalist, he has been engaged with the problems of taking popular music seriously (a collection of his essays under that title was published in 2007).  As an academic he was a founder member of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music and a founding editor of the journal, Popular Music, and the majority of his scholarly publications have been in this field.  His published works include Sound Effects (1983) and Performing Rites (1996).

Simon's homepage
E-mail: simon.frith@ed.ac.uk

Prof. Martin Cloonan

Co-Investigator

Martin Cloonan is a Convener of Postgraduate Studies in Music within the School of Culture and Creative Arts at the University of Glasgow.  His research interests are in the Politics of Popular Music, an area in which he has a number of publications, and in issues concerning censorship and freedom of expression.  Martin is a member of Popular Music, Popular Music and Society and  the Beitrage zur Popularmusikforschung. His published works include Dark Side of The Tune: Popular Music and Violence (with Bruce Johnson, 2008), Popular Music and the State in the UK (2007) and Banned! Censorship of Popular Music in Britain: 1967-92 (1996). Martin also manages the Glasgow-based band, Zoey Van Goey and is the chair of the anti-censorship group, Freemuse.

Martin's homepage
E-mail: M.Cloonan@music.arts.gla.ac.uk

Dr. Matt Brennan

Research Assistant

Matt Brennan is a post-doctoral researcher in music at the University of Edinburgh. He completed his PhD at the University of Stirling, where he researched the interactions between American jazz and rock journalism. He has published articles on the music press in journals such as Popular Music, Popular Music History, and the Jazz Research Journal. He has performed in numerous bands and ensembles in Canada and Scotland, and currently plays in the Glasgow-based band, Zoey Van Goey. For the live music project, Matt is primarily responsible for library and archival research.

E-mail: m.t.brennan@ed.ac.uk

Emma Webster

PhD Student

Emma Webster is a PhD student in Music at the University of Glasgow. She received her Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Sheffield, and before returning to academia, Emma spent 8 years working in music in a variety of guises and music genres, including opera, 'world music', acid techno, and digital distribution. For the live music project, Emma is primarily responsible for ethnographic research into local live music scenes.

E-mail: emmaswebster@googlemail.com