Institute of Popular Music

29/06/2026

University of Liverpool music alum Liz Thomson has written a guest post for us about the Robert Shelton Collection cared for by the IPM Archive. Liz was instrumental in safeguarding the Collection after Shelton’s death and ensuring its long-term preservation. She discusses the 1978 manuscript and carbon copies of No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan that are preserved in The Robert Shelton Collection, papers created and accumulated by Shelton over the course of his working life. Alongside multiple drafts and revisions of Shelton’s masterwork, the Collection contains examples of his music and film reviews, research papers and collected ephemera.

Read the post here: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/institute-of-popular-music/news/posts/robert-sheltons-back-pages/

08/06/2026

This week, Dr Holly Tessler hosted an in-person gathering for the LCR community who engage with the legacy of the Beatles, their music and their story every day.

From tourism and hospitality to education, museums, retail, arts, and media, we heard insights from those who promote this legacy. These conversations will directly inform a new report exploring how the Beatles continue to shape Liverpool's musical, cultural, and economic future—in the 21st century and beyond.

A huge thank you to everyone who volunteered their time, experiences, and views.

12/03/2026

The Institutes of Popular Music of both Rochester and Liverpool, together with the Society for Music Analysis, are pleased to announce their fifth Summer School dedicated to popular music theory and analysis.

The course will be held on Friday 17th – Sunday 19th July 2026 at the University of Liverpool.

The teaching of the course features intensive workshops with leading experts in the field: Michael Buchler (Florida State University), Jocelyn Neal (UNC at Chapel Hill) and Justin Williams (Bristol). Plenary speakers will include: Ben Baker (Eastman), Chelsea Burns (University of Texas), Ralf von Appen (Vienna), and University of Liverpool Staff.

During the course, we will share and explore some of the latest research in popular music theory, making the course ideal for graduate students or early career researchers.

While the course fee is covered by sponsorship, spaces are limited, and we invite applications to be submitted online. The deadline for applications is April 3rd, 2026. Please note that travel, accommodation and subsidence must be covered by delegates.

Apply here:

17th – 19th July 2026, University of Liverpool, IPM-IPM-SMA The Institutes of Popular Music of both Rochester and Liverpool, together with the Society for Music Analysis, are pleased to announce th…

30/01/2026

Dr Rachael Drury has written a new report for Independent Society of Musicians about the current impact GenAI is having on the creative industries. It’s a cross-sector report marking a collaboration between the Independent Society of Musicians, Society of Authors, Association of Illustrators, Association of Photographers, and Equity. The report evidences job losses, income loss, the impact of data scraping and digital replicas, environmental damage and looks at the value of the creative industries vs AI industry in the UK.

You can check it out here: https://www.ism.org/brave-new-world/

11/09/2025

🎶 Liverpool’s Lost Venues – Help us put them back on the map!
From legendary clubs to tiny back-room stages, Liverpool’s live music history is full of stories and we want to hear yours.
📍 Join us Thursday 12 September at [](https://www.instagram.com/kazimiergarden/) (12–7pm) for a free drop-in event as part of the British Science Festival.
Bring your gig memories, ticket stubs, posters, photos, or just your stories, and help us mark Liverpool’s lost venues on our giant interactive maps.
Every gig. Every venue. Every memory. Your stories complete the map.

08/09/2025

Jacob Simmons and Grace Goodwin both took part in the IASPM PGR conference at the University of Leeds last week where they both presented some of their current research.

08/08/2025

Staff and post graduate researchers from the IPM attended the IASPM international conference in Paris last month where they presented their current research

There were papers from:
Jacob Simmons
Grace Goodwin
Nina Himmelreich
Cerys Swain
Mathew Flynn
Sara Cohen
Dr Rachael Drury

01/08/2025

Earlier this week the IPM Archive accepted a special collection: the operational diaries of a rehearsal studio. As working documents used to schedule artist bookings the diaries could easily have been thrown away once no longer needed, but were carefully treasured by the studio’s former owner.

While a collecting strategy for the IPM Archive is in development capacity to accept donations is limited and each offer is assessed on a case-by-case basis. In this case, the diaries were accepted because they are unique and a rare survival, providing tangible evidence of an often-overlooked part of the music ecosystem and a valuable primary source for future research into the history of popular music.

The collection will now be processed by the IPM Archivist, safeguarded in the University’s Special Collections & Archives specialist store rooms and packaged in acid-free enclosures to ensure its preservation for future generations.

14/07/2025

After a series of online sessions, supported by UoL’s Global Opportunity fund seven UG Music students from UoL joined students from the Netherlands and Portugal in the beautiful Italian city of Cremona to take part in and Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme: A One Week Snapshot of Live Music Mapping. Inspired by the Live Music Mapping Project, and facilitated by Associate Professor Alessandro Bratus, Research Fellow Martin Nicastro & PhD candidate Francesco Brusco, all from University of Pavia, students braved the near 40 degree temperatures to conduct field research and test workflows on the collection of geospatial data related to urban musical practices. Through these collaborative data-gathering sessions, roundtable discussions, concert attendance and keynote presentations, students and staff explored the past and present live music ecosystem of Cremona, and developed skills in a range of digital tools for data visualization and for the creation of multimedia spatial narratives.

The students who took part were
Thea Hobbs
Cali Lannon
Eleanor Lilley
Casey Wade
Kae Wallbridge
Mungo Harding
Charlie Walder

12/07/2025

As part of the AHRC MusicFutures Creative Custer programme at University of Liverpool, this fully funded full-time PhD studentship post will work with the MusicFutures research team and alongside the programmes 27 industry delivery partners to explore, propose, develop, trial and evaluate innovative...