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Dr. Justin Williams

Sociology: Research Associate

Degree: BA Music, BA History (Stanford University, USA), MMus (King's College, London), PhD Music(University of Nottingham)

Associated research centres and groups: Centre for Mobilities Research (CeMoRe)

Current Teaching

I have previously taught modules in music production analysis and popular music history at Leeds College of Music, and led seminars in music theory, jazz history, film music and Baroque, Classical, and Romantic music styles at the University of Nottingham.

Research Interests

I currently hold an ESRC-funded Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Sociology Department and am expanding my research on hip-hop music and automobility into a larger social and musico-analytical history of music and automobility in the twentieth century. I am particularly interested in the way that music producers have tailored their mixes with idealized listening spaces in mind (such as the automobile), and that geographies of place and space have played such a crucial mediating factor on the sounds of popular music recordings. Rather than use more traditional forms of music analysis, I also consider alternatives to accommodate the way music producers think of sound (in terms of frequency rather than pitch in a Western notational sense). Furthermore, in considering both the playback speakers and the spaces they inhabit, I argue that we can better analyse the multidimensional nature of musical sensuousness, moving towards a more comprehensive ecology of how a music recording interacts with the listener in particular environments.

My other research interests include popular music, musical borrowing, film music, jazz, music and geography, mobility and sound studies, and the analysis of record production.

Publications

Books

Rhymin' and Stealin': Musical Borrowing in Hip-hop. (under contract, University of Michigan Press)

Articles

'Los Angeles, Automotive Listening, and Dr. Dre's "G-Funk"' Popular Music History, Special Issue: Music, Characterisation and Urban Space. (Forthcoming, 2010)

'Beats and Flows: A Response to Kyle Adams.' Music Theory Online 15/2 (2009). Available at: http://mto.societymusictheory.org/issues/mto.09.15.2/mto.09.15.2.williams.html

Chapters in Edited Collections

'"Cars With the Boom": Music, Automobility, and Hip-hop "Sub" Cultures.' In The Oxford Handbook of Mobile Music. Eds. Sumanth Gopinath and Jason Stanyek. (Forthcoming, Oxford University Press, 2010)

Book Reviews

Review of Jazz Consciousness: Music, Race, and Humanity by Paul Austerlitz. Popular Music 28/2 (2009), 279-281.

Review of To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic by William Jelani Cobb. Popular Music, 27/1 (2008), 169-172.

Review of Reel Tracks: Australian Film Music and Cultural Identities by Rebecca Coyle. Perfect Beat, 8/2 (2007), 69-71.

Previous Research and Conference Papers

I recently completed and successfully defended (Dec. 2009) a PhD in Musicology from the University of Nottingham under the supervision of Professor Adam Krims. The thesis is currently being revised and updated for publication to the 'Tracking Pop' book series from University of Michigan Press (eds. John Covach, Lori Burns, Albin Zak).

I have presented my research to a number of international conferences, including the meetings of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (US and UK branches), International Conference on Music Since 1900, Society for Music Analysis, Art of Record Production, and the Royal Musical Association. I also have been invited to speak at a number of symposia and colloquia, including the University of Leipzig, University of British Columbia, University of Minnesota, Oxford Brookes University, Leeds College of Musicand the University of Wuppertal.

Membership of Professional Bodies

American Musicological Society, Royal Musical Association, The International Association for the Study of Popular Music, Society for American Music and the Association for the Art of Record Production.

Other Interests and Hobbies

I am a jazz trumpet and piano player and can be occasionally found playing gigs or recording in a studio. I love travelling and am a passionate basketball fan.

Associated Keywords: Cultural geography, Globalisation & mobility, Musicology, Popular Music, Sociology

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