<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center" align="center"><span style="font-family:"Cambria","serif"" lang="EN-GB">CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center" align="center"><b><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Cambria","serif"" lang="EN-GB">Death and the Rock Star</span></b></p>
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<p style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif" class="MsoBodyText"><font><span lang="EN-GB">The recent untimely deaths of Amy
Winehouse and Whitney Houston, and the resurrection of Tupac Shakur for a
performance at the Coachella music festival, have focused the media spotlight,
yet again, on the relationship between rock, popular music and death. The 'sex,
drugs and rock’n’roll' lifestyle has left many casualties in its wake. Over
time, however, as the ranks of dead musicians have grown, so the types of death
involved and the reactions to them have diversified. Conversely, as the artists
who were at the forefront of the rock‘n’roll revolution of the 1950s and 1960s
continue to age, the idea of dying young and leaving a beautiful corpse (which
gave rise, for instance, to the myth of the '27 Club’), no longer carries the
same resonance that it once might have. </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><font>This volume will examine the
cultural meanings associated with popular music artists and death, and the
editors invite contributions on this theme. We are particularly interested in
exploring how dead singers’ music and memories live on, how the media portray a
singer’s death, how a singer’s death is absorbed by fans and other artists, how
death generates new memories and nostalgia, and how death can be ‘used’ by
different social, music and fan groups for different purposes.</font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><font>An edited collection will be
submitted to Ashgate, who have already expressed a keen interest in the
proposal. It is anticipated that contributions from international scholars such
as Andy Bennett (most recently editor of <i>Britpop
and the English Music Tradition</i>, Ashgate, 2010) and Olivier Julien (editor
of <i>Sgt Pepper and the Beatles</i>, Ashgate, 2008) will be included. </font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><font> </font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><font>Proposals for chapters are
invited exploring any of the following themes (this list is by no means
exhaustive):</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><font> </font><font><span lang="EN-GB"><span><span style="font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal"> </span></span></span></font><br>
</p><ul><li><font>Different
kinds of death: accidental deaths, suicides, spectacular deaths, quiet deaths,
death from ‘natural’ causes and ‘old age’;<span lang="EN-GB"><span><span style="font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal"></span></span></span></font></li>
<li><font><span lang="EN-GB"><span><span style="font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal"></span></span></span>Life
beyond death: impersonators, song covers, tributes, fan culture and memory
work;<br></font></li><li><font><span lang="EN-GB"><span><span style="font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal"></span></span></span>Death
and worship: comparisons with sainthood, ‘pilgrimages’ to cemeteries; <br></font></li><li><font><span lang="EN-GB"><span><span style="font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal"></span></span></span>Death
and new media: availability of songs and performance through YouTube;
accessibility of the past; <br></font></li><li><font><span lang="EN-GB"><span><span style="font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal"></span></span></span>Legacies
of rock stars: what happens to their music (re-issues, ‘lost’ recordings); how
the music is incorporated into cultural memory (e.g. through film soundtracks); <br></font></li><li><font><span lang="EN-GB"><span><span style="font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal"></span></span></span>Forgetting:
deaths that fail to make a lasting impression, rediscovery and new embodiments
of ‘lost’ artists; <br></font></li><li><font><span lang="EN-GB"><span><span style="font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal"></span></span></span>Memory
and nostalgia: retromania, cultural ‘discoveries’ of the past; generational tastes,
passing down music tastes; recuperating one’s youth <br></font></li><li><font><span lang="EN-GB"><span><span style="font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal"></span></span></span>Gender:
differences in death between male and female stars (the tragic female?); <br></font></li><li><font><span lang="EN-GB"><span><span style="font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal"></span></span></span>Death,
place and identity: the importance of the geographical locations where artists
lived and died; <br></font></li><li><font><span lang="EN-GB"><span><span style="font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal"></span></span></span>Memorialisation,
prestige and institutionalisation: the incorporation of popular music stars
into official discourse;<span> </span>museums and
tourist sites dedicated to artists (thanatotourism).</font></li></ul>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><font>We welcome contributions from
outside the ‘rock’ canon, and particularly from non-Anglophone music cultures.</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><font><br>
<br>
</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><font>Abstracts of no more than 400
words should be sent to the editors, Catherine Strong (<a href="mailto:catherine.strong@monash.edu">catherine.strong@monash.edu</a>) and
Barbara Lebrun (<a href="mailto:barbara.lebrun@manchester.ac.uk">barbara.lebrun@manchester.ac.uk</a>)
no later than 15 July 2012. Acceptance of articles will be advised by 15 October
2012 and completed chapters will be required by 1 September 2013.</font></p>
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<p style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif" class="MsoNormal"><font> </font></p>
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<p style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif" class="MsoNormal"><font> </font></p>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Dr Catherine Strong<br>Lecturer in Sociology<br>School of Political and Social Inquiry<br>Monash University<br>Clayton Campus, Wellington Rd Clayton, VIC 3800<br><a href="mailto:catherine.strong@monash.edu" target="_blank">catherine.strong@monash.edu</a><br>
Ph: +61 3 99050052<br><br>