Popular music studies, investigating both the sounds, lyrics, performance and wider practices and cultures of popular music, is a large and vibrant research area. However, popular music produced in the Post-Soviet sphere, by artists associated with the Post-Soviet sphere, consumed by listeners in the Post-Soviet sphere/diaspora, or thematising Post-Soviet topics has not been the focus of much research in comparison to Western European and Anglo-American popular music. This is all the more surprising as Estrada, Russkii Shanson, Pop/Popsa, Rock, EDM and Rap/Hip Hop are major genres in Post-Soviet countries with large quantities of music produced, performed and listened to.

This workshop includes scholars working on the topic Post-Soviet popular music in for example musicology, music education, media studies and gender studies on the following themes:

• Nationalism and politics in Post-Soviet popular music and popular music culture.
• Gender, sexuality and feminism in Post-Soviet popular music and popular music culture.
• Ethnicity/race and minorities in Post-Soviet popular music and popular music culture.
• Social media and mediatisation in relation to popular music in the Post-Soviet countries and diaspora.
• Analysis of artists and genres of current importance in Post-Soviet popular music.
• Decolonialisation, (national) independence movements and conflict in Post-Soviet popular music.
• Youth, social protest movements and popular music culture in the Post-Soviet sphere.

Due to the second wave of the pandemic the workshop will take place in Zoom. Listeners are welcome, if you are interested in participating please contact the organiser.

Organiser: Ann Werner, Södertörn University, Sweden (ann.werner@sh.se)

Organising committee (in alphabetic order):

Maria Brock, Cardiff University, UK
Ekaterina Kalinina, Jönköping University, Sweden
Irina Seits, Södertörn University, Sweden
David-Emil Wickström, Popakademie Baden-Württemberg - University of Popular Music and Music Business, Germany

The workshop is financed by the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES), Södertörn University.