Matt started following the work of 22 people.
Matt changed an About section.
Matt changed an About section.
Faculty Member, Music
Leverhulme Early Career Fellow
About
I specialise in the interdisciplinary field of popular music studies, and as a musician I write, record, and perform with the Scottish band Zoey Van Goey. My creative practice informs my work to theorise and research what ‘making music’ means in the 21st century from historical, sociological, and business perspectives.
I was born and raised in Canada, and studied jazz drums at McGill University before transferring to Mount Allison University, where I completed a BA in English and Philosophy with Distinction. I went on to study with Professor Simon Frith at the University of Stirling, and completed my MSc in Media Research and PhD in Film and Media Studies. My PhD thesis, 'Down Beats and Rolling Stones: An Historical Comparison of American Jazz and Rock Journalism', is available to download from the sidebar on the left of this page.
Research activities
My current research activities focus on live music, the social history of the drum kit, and the Musicians’ Union. There is a dramatic shift occurring in the music industries away from the record sales-based paradigm that dominated the last half of the twentieth century, and towards a paradigm that places increased emphasis on live performance. My work responds to this shift through an ongoing collaborative project investigating the social, aesthetic, and business dynamics of live music. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the outcome of the historical component of this work is a forthcoming three-volume history of live music in Britain since 1950. I am also involved in another AHRC-funded project which concentrates on knowledge exchange and social engagement via outputs such as a research database, workshops, and mediation services for non-academic stake-holders in live music (e.g. policy makers, concert promoters, local authorities, and artists).
My research on the social history of the drum kit, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, uses the drum kit and drummers - and their marginal status in spheres ranging from copyright law to music education - as a lens to rethink the social construction of what it means to ‘make music’. This research aims to show how the meanings of everyday concepts such as ‘musician’, ‘technique’, ‘talent’, ‘collaboration’ and ‘authorship’ have changed over history and up to the present, and what questions this raises for institutions including the music industries and higher education.
In 2011, I was co-applicant with Professor Martin Cloonan on a successful four-year AHRC grant to research ‘The Musicians’ Union: A Social History’, and will continue to work closely with the project and its outputs as an advisor on its steering committee.
I write, record, and perform in the band Zoey Van Goey. We released our second album in 2011 on Chemikal Underground Records. The band is also involved in interdisciplinary work: in the past we have performed at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, the Changing Room and Tolbooth arts centres in Stirling, and were involved in a major collaboration with the National Theatre of Scotland (a stage adaptation of Takeshi Kitano’s film ‘Dolls’) at the Tramway.
