"Locating the canon in Tamworth" winner of the 2014 Rebecca Coyle Prize

The International Association for the Study of Popular Music Australia-New Zealand (IASPM-ANZ) Branch Conference was recently held in Dunedin, New Zealand. It was announced during the conference that the 2014 Rebecca Coyle Prize for the best paper on popular music in the Australia-New Zealand region published in 2013 was awarded to my article, co-authored with Alison Huber, called 'Locating the canon in Tamworth: Historical narratives, cultural memory and Australia's "Country Music Capital"'.

Article published on popular music heritage, canonisation and country music in Tamworth, Australia

Not strictly about DIY archives but my latest publication in the journal Popular Music -- an article about cultural memory and canonisation in Australia's 'country music capital' -- might be of interest to some readers of this blog. 

'Notes towards a typology of the DIY institution' - now available on OnlineFirst

'Notes towards a typology of the DIY institution: Identifying do-it-yourself places of popular music preservation', the article I co-wrote with Alison Huber (RMIT University), has now been published on Sage OnlineFirst. 

On 'Unauthorising popular music heritage', a forthcoming IJHS article by Les Roberts and Sara Cohen

There is a really exciting special ‘music heritage’ issue of the International Journal of Heritage Studies coming out soon(ish). A number of articles from the special issue are already available online. Of particular interest to this project is an article by Les Roberts  and Sara Cohen called ‘Unauthorising popular music heritage: outline of a critical framework’ .

The DIY enterprise and issues of sustainability

The fragility of DIY institutions was highlighted for me today following some correspondence with a DIY archivist in the UK. I was saddened to learn that the British Archive of Country Music (BACM) could possibly close its doors if someone isn’t willing to take on this collection of over 500,000 recordings and associated country music artefacts. If this doesn’t happen, the archivist foresees that the collection may very well end up in a tip.

Another publication in the pipeline - the cultural and social functions of the VJA

Another article I co-authored with Alison Huber has been accepted for publication. The article, titled '"Masters of our own destiny": cultures of preservation at the Victorian Jazz Archive in Melbourne, Australia', is scheduled for publication in the journal Popular Music History. 

Forthcoming publication - a typology of the DIY archive and museum

An article on DIY institutions that I co-authored with Alison Huber has been accepted for publication in the European Journal of Cultural Studies. The article, titled 'Notes Towards a Typology of the DIY Institution: identifying do-it-yourself places of popular music preservation', identifies a series of commonalities that emerge across the DIY institutions we visited for the 'Popular Music and Cultural Memory' project.