Call for Contributions
Edited Collection on Popular and Folk Music on the Prairies
Working Title: Grassland Sounds: Popular and Folk Musics of the Canadian Prairies
Editors: Gordon Ross, Gillian Turnbull, and Geoff Whittall
Scholarship on popular music in Canada often tends toward issues of national identity and the role of national policy in promotion and dissemination, and has contributed to and analyzed the effects of canon formulation. While this body of literature is invaluable in establishing a foundation for Canadian music scholarship, there is a need for current research to investigate regional scenes and diversity across provinces and rural and urban areas. In particular, popular music in the western provinces would benefit from a critical interrogation of issues relevant to the region.
This collection will further the field of prairie music research by examining how regional and western identities are enacted through musical practices such as performance, composition, recording, production, and promotion in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.
We welcome submissions from all methodological and disciplinary perspectives. Some possible themes include:
- Independent/Local music scenes
- The Festival
- Landscape/Place and Western identity
- Western Canadian popular music history
- Indigenous popular/folk musics
- Traditional folk music
- Media, technology, and social evolution
- Regional manifestations of genres: folk, country, punk, metal, rap/hip hop (etc.)
- The music industry on the prairies
Deadline for submissions: March 1, 2010
Please send proposals of 500 words or less to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Proposals should be in .doc, .docx, or .rtf format. Identifying details should be removed from proposals and may be provided in the email or a separate document. Questions may be directed to any of the editors at the email addresses listed below:
Gordon Ross:
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Gillian Turnbull:
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Geoff Whittall:
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