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IASPM-US represents the United States branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music. IASPM-US has been an important part of the popular music landscape since the early 1980s and serves as a forum for a range of scholarly and other approaches to popular music. The past several decades have witnessed a period of dramatic and exciting growth in the field of popular music studies. The centrality of popular music to notions of personal and collective identity, geographic identity, political affiliation, technological change and adaptation, the economic and legal parameters of “intellectual property,” and the sociology of consumer-based fan cultures, makes it likely that popular music studies will only continue to grow in importance and intellectual value.

The US branch of IASPM holds true to the goals of our parent organization in the belief that popular music has much to teach us about this world. We place an emphasis on the writings and other activities of US-based scholars, journalists, and musicians–focusing not only on American music but also on musics from across the globe, and “Music 2.0” made and consumed in virtual soundscapes.

For a professional organization, we are unique for our inter-disciplinary scope–spanning fields such as musicology, sociology, cultural anthropology, literary studies, cultural studies, American studies, and so on. The democratic, inclusive outlook of IASPM-US extends not only across different academic disciplines but also to the inter-professional level. In other words, we seek the contributions and expertise of popular music critics, journalists, industry workers, and cultural administrators in addition to university academics. Click here for information on becoming an IASPM-US member.

This launch of the new IASPM-US website is undertaken in this same spirit. The site is designed to be inclusive and interactive–a forum where we can interact and learn from one another given our diverse backgrounds and interests. We hope to start many vigorous dialogues and debates among our members–dialogues that will, ideally, engage the everyday popular music fan who happens across our site. As a meeting place for professional academics, critics, musicians, and casual web browsers, this website aims to bring together people who share a passion for popular music–not only as a form of leisure, but also as a worthy professional (and amateur) pursuit and a serious subject of study.


International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM-US) © 2023

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