A specific account of bonding in creative circumstances – a study of releasing music is a scientific essay which examines the relationship between will, context and creativity in the process of releasing music. 

The focus for the examination is the process of finalizing musical works in a release format. This passage in the publishing process is understood as a collective creative management consisting of the publishing artist, the record company and their intended target group of users. An act of work by many where different ideas and values meet and are measured towards the actual realization of the release. The purpose of releasing music is understood as reaching a target group of users. The method to optimize the musical works and use other creative modalities to optimize the publishing of the release as a whole for a maximization of possible bonds to targeted users. 

The process of contextual optimization is understood as an event of both conditionality and construction of room for maneuver. The process can either redeem or inhibit creativity depending on how relationships are constructed in the processes. The creative outcome of a publishing process is seen as dependent on how the connection of different bonds between artist and record company is constructed through a recognition of purpose and goal for a release, the participants’ experience of room for maneuver and care and respect for other participants’ room for maneuver.

The theoretical reflection is based on Giordano Bruno's concepts of bonds and binding. The essay examines in a hermeneutical manner Brunos account of binding as a concept for understanding action as sprung from a collective faculty of different wills. Bruno's theory of how action is led by bonds between people and his understanding of emotions as a genus of knowledge is tested as a theory in understanding practical knowledge. 

The essay intends to contribute with an experience-based reflection to continued scientific research on professional knowledge in creativity and music publishing.

Studies have shown that gender inequality in higher music education is maintained through unreflective actions. Efforts to address the issue have been made and genderequality programmes have been instigated in several European countries. This study takes a sociological approach to music education, with the goal of revealing constructions of gender inequality in four higher music education institutions in northern, eastern, and central Europe. The aim is to illuminate obstacles to gender-equal education within the field of higher music education. Data was collected through interviews with both students and teachers, with the analysis taking a two-stage structure. The analysis was first performed thematically, and then driven by Connell’s gender theory and Bourdieu’s field theory. The findings are presented as: The objectified body, A natural state of mind, Claming space and Changes in sight. The findings show that gender equality activities seem to increase awareness among both students and staff, but they also show that such awareness does not necessarily lead to changes in practice.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how much music that appeared for kids in preschool and how music was used.

We wanted to find the determining factors how much music is offered in preschool, and we also wanted to see if we could find an essence in it. 

We chose to have a theoretical perspective with a phenomenological basis in our study, where we wanted to look at preschool teachers´ experience of music in their lives and their experience of music in preschool. 

In our study we have interviewed six preschool teachers. The result of our study shows that music has a place in preschool, but it varies between different preschools. They use music but primarily as a method to learn other subjects than music.

In our study we can find that education, environment and management are facts that affect the importance of music in preschool. If you are not interested in teaching music in preschool then you will not be comfortable with it either. The most important factors are: the teacher´s own interest, self-confidence and competence.   

As a newly enrolled master’s’s student in music education, my supervisor sent me to Oslo and my first Nordic Network for Music Education (NNME) seminar, my first real academic experience. Then, as well as now, the NNME network plays a very important role for students and scholars in a rather small and Northerly situated institution. I was totally overwhelmed by interesting research presentations, an atmosphere of skill and curiosity, as well as generosity and openness, when it came to both academic communication and social activities. I think the feelings that permeated that first seminar in 1999 have for me influenced all following NNME seminars and steering group meetings, as well my expectations all through academic life. Highlights from that experience can be seen as expressions of inclusion, equality and democracy, concepts that I will come back to all through this text. I will reflect upon how I have been included, how my voice has been heard and listened to and how I have experienced democracy as a participant in NNME activities. I will also explore how, together with others, I have contributed likewise within different roles in NNME settings, and how the different content, themes and methods of the seminars have developed intertwined with the inclusive, equal and democratic atmosphere. This chapter will start with a picture of my journey from a master’s’s student, through the role of PhD student, teacher, keynote speaker, member of the steering group and application writer, which also will function as a red thread through the chapter. Next comes a theoretical introduction where the mentioned concepts will be philosophically based, and thereafter follows a section where inclusive, equal, democratic music education in practice will be questioned and discussed. Finally I will share some thoughts about the future. Thus I will illuminate the different angles of inclusion, equality and democracy that have characterized my participation and experiences while taking part in NNME seminars across 18 years.

While “access models” represented by subscription services such as Spotify make vast libraries of music practically accessible to teachers, digital streaming programs also introduce new complexities to classroom settings. Therefore, the concept of digitalization in relation to listening requires the attention of researchers in education and didactics. This article examines the ways in which Swedish teachers use Spotify, including how usage influences teachers’ didactic choices and approaches to planning for music teaching and learning. Research participants included eight music educators with experiences in streaming music services in music classrooms. Findings show that digital literacy and the listening, teaching, and learning of music are inextricably intertwined; and that placing the application of music streaming in the context of a music classroom creates complications in practice. Implications highlight the importance of identifying and discussing complex issues occurring as a result of the use of streaming services in music classroom, gaining music streaming didactic literacy which is both a didactic competency that teachers use in planning for teaching, as well as a content for students to learn.

Streaming media seems to have become a natural part in teachers’ professional life. Streamed music, primarily distributed by the company Spotify, sounds in most music and dance classrooms, not least in Swedish schools. Hence, the concepts of digitalization and listening are accentuated within the area of music educa-tion. Within the frames of a larger border-crossing research project financed by Wallenbergstiftelsen – ‘Evolving bildung in the nexus of streaming services, art and users: Spotify as a case’, which aims to explore the meaning and function of streaming media as a facilitator of bildung, using Spotify as a case – this presen-tation takes two interviews regarding Spotify use as a starting point. One music teacher and one dance teacher, among sixteen participants, were interviewed about their use of Spotify. The aim with the specific analysis was to describe the phenom-enon of bildung regionalized to relational school settings, where streamed music, teachers and students come together in intended learning situations. The interviews were stimulated by the teachers’ own Spotify interfaces, and documented by the virtual communication tool Zoom. They were transcribed and analysed in a phenomenological narrative manner. The narrative is shaped as a dialogue between the two teachers, to make similarities and differences regarding relations with Spotify in the classroom setting visible. The result shows aspects of existential and essential bildung through listening taking place as being, thinking and acting with Spotify in the spirit of Heidegger.

Recent studies of female guitar students in upper secondary school ensemble education suggest that girls behave, and are encouraged to behave, in more immanent ways than boys. They seem to receive less encouragement to stretch their bodies and become full musical human beings. Instead they become the second musical sex. During the course of my work with the problem of how to create space for girls playing the electric guitar in educational settings, I have continually found myself wondering how to create educational spaces and relations in ways that let all pupils, independent of sex, realize ideas, transcend as musical bodies, and become what they already are. If teachers and pupils are interrelated bodies, teachers must be aware of how they use their bodies when it comes to creating space for all pupils to develop and stretch out their bodies. The actions of the music teacher, as a musical body, must be balanced in relation to the other musical bodies in the room, as well as to physical preconditions, goals, visions, and expectations of the students. In this article, I want to delve into the subject of bodily interaction, teachers’ responsibilities, and questions of intentional educational bodily relations. The aim is to share my close reading of Young’s philosophical thinking regarding gender structures and especially female comportment, motility, and spatiality, and develop a set of prerequisites for intentional bodily (music) educational relations. With a starting point in research-based inspiration and motivation for conducting the current philosophical investigation, I share my close reading of Young’s theories regarding female situated bodies. Continually I relate to excerpts from two interviews with female guitar students, exemplifying musical body-relational experiences. Finally I share and reflect upon a developed thinking about mindful bodily (music) educational relations.

Music educational researchers in the Nordic countries have pointed out how municipal arts schools are organised based on, and tend to reproduce, anthropocentric values and approaches, and that such unequal norms and structures are to be challenged. Taking a border-crossing musical comedy project as a starting point, the specific aim of the current study is to illuminate how, and on what levels, organisational norms and traditional structures can be challenged, and what possibilities and new challenges that occur in a project taking place beyond the Anthropocene. To be able to grasp the aspects of becoming within the project and how that is related to aspects of organisation, we created a research entanglement based on post-human theory. Hence, situations seen as webs of relations were created, including the actors: humans with intellectual disabilities, musical performance students, educators, artists, researchers, and varied digital communication tools. Observations, video recordings, collaborative writing, qualitative surveys, and interviews produced material for analysis. Actor-network theory was applied aiming to describe how the constantly performed intra-active networks were constituted, as well as how the actors influenced each other. The results identify significant actors and trajectories in Sammankonst, that in turn challenge anthropocentric organisational structures of municipal arts schools.

Earlier research has stated the need for conservatory education to prepare aspiring musicians more thoroughly for a dynamic and changing society. A project that challenges the conservatory tradition is Sammankonst (TogetherArt) where students at a musical theatre program at folk high school level collaborate with intellectually disabled adults. Based on a phenomenological way of thinking, this article aims to describe and analyze the education of aspiring musicians for professional participation in society based on an analysis of experiences among conservatory students, music theater students and their teachers. Interviews were made with six conservatory students, 15 musical theatre students, and two teachers. The results show ambiguities when it comes to what voice students should be prepared for and how the choice of preparations influence the view of singing and musicians’ quality competence.

This article describes and analyzes assessment approaches in three conservatories and thus contributes to the study of how values are distributed and negotiated within higher education specialized in classical music in the Baltic Sea region and Central Europe. The relation between assess-ment and learning could be viewed from different perspec-tives. Assessment of learning can be seen as a checkpoint regarding whether specific knowledge has been internalized, assessment for learning implies that the chosen assessment method encourages the learning process, while assessment as learning can be seen as intertwined with and dominating the learning process. In this article we clarify possibilities for transformative assessment, as well as the risk for assess-ment as learning. What counts as important knowledge varies between and within the perspectives. To generate material to enable analysis of assessment approaches in the Baltic Sea region and Central Europe, 23 students and 22 professors/leaders within three conservatories were interviewed. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed through content analysis by the two researchers individually and collaboratively. The results show three different approaches, namely the competition approach, the portfolio approach, and the response-based approach. 

This article explores the meaning and function of streaming media as a potential facilitator of musical Bildung. Taking the affordances of streaming media technologies as a starting point, the article thus focuses on the formative and cultivating dimensions a music streaming service such as Spotify might offer. The specific aim of this article is to describe and analyse how musical Bildung may evolve within a Spotify context from a user perspective. To address the aim from the point of view of music education, Spotify users’ activities and experiences of streaming media interactions were accessed, inspired by internet-related ethnography. Stimulated recall interviews, focusing on the participants’ experiences as well as their actual use of Spotify’s streaming service, were conducted, recorded, and transcribed. The generated material was subjected to co-operative hermeneutic content analysis. The results illuminate how Bildung evolves in users’ encounters with the service and with art mediated via Spotify. Relevant topics occurring in the human-art-technology relationship of Bildung from a Heideggerian perspective were Being-possible, the ability-to-be, and Spotify as the Other. In sum, it can be stated that Bildung evolves when Spotify exceeds the thingness of the Other, becoming a work of art in itself, throwing the user into Being.

When the need of transforming and remixing music education is illuminated, fields of tensions in relation to the traditional master–apprentice model of teaching often appear. Binaries have been constructed and critiqued in research to describe tensions at various music educational levels. Some studies have also asked for a holistic, “both/and” holding. In higher music education (HME), the need for new approaches in research to understand how teaching and learning is developing are asked for. As a contribution, the overall aim of the article is to illuminate to what extent traditional culture norms and structures are maintained and challenged at three European conservatories. The specific aim is to map possible fields of tension surrounding approaches to teaching and related learning. The analysis in this article partly builds on understandings of culture and institutions, and partly on theories of relational pedagogy. To get access to how leaders, teachers, and students experience participating in the teaching and learning of conservatory cultures, an interview study was planned. The transcriptions were treated by a thematic analysis model. The analysis explored three themes that represent fields of tension: teaching in relation to established cultural structures, to creating or not creating new learning trajectories, and collaboration or competition—the educational culture. The fields of tension found through the analysis concern relations between the traditional conserved conservatory teaching and new open and diverse thoughts about and actions within in HME teaching. It becomes obvious that creating new learning trajectories should be a common issue, involving students and teachers, as well as leaders of conservatories, and that competition should be supported by collaboration. A consequence of such a pedagogical approach would be that differences between programs for diverse instruments could be balanced, and that all involved could learn from each other, which demands flexibility between individual and collaborative learning activities.

The introduction of jazz in Sweden fed into discourses renegotiating modern forms of identity in welfare society. In this new Jazz Age, music became an arena for reformulating norms of age, class, ethnicity, and gender differences. This article presents an intersectional and inter-medial study of songs, films and print sources with such topics. The new jazz idiom was linked to enticing and horrifying forms of otherness. Four basic positions are highlighted in the successive integration of both jazz and identities, from separation to fusion: demonizing exclusion, primitivist polarization, diversifying hybridization and normalizing assimilation.

The purpose of this thesis is to study the value of music in children’s lives and to find out if music activities/lessons can affect children’s learning and development in preschool and preschool class. We want to delve deeper into the definition of music based on different perspectives. The first one is the sociocultural perspective, with two of its most important concepts; mediation and the proximal development zone. This perspective indicates in our study that the role of music activities/lessons in participation, learning and language development takes the best place in meetings with others by developing children’s social life. The other perspective is based on the developmental pedagogical theory and the seven teaching strategies which were presented through this perspective. In this study we want to highlight the idea of using music in different activities. What is the main purpose of having music in the visited preschool and preschool class? How can music activities/lessons affect children’s participation, learning and language development in the visited preschool and preschool class? And what does the interviewed and observed teacher’s competence look like when it comes to music activities/lessons? To get more information to answer these questions different perspectives have been studied and analyzed in our theoretical part and linked to relevant literature that illuminate music from different points of view. We have also interviewed eight teachers, three preschool teachers, three preschool class teachers and two music teachers from different schools and highlighted the interviews in the results section. Through these interviews we got that the use of music as a tool is more common than using it as a subject and reasons for this we focused on in our analysis and discussion section. Not only through interviews, but also through our observations in those preschools and schools we got information which complemented our study and helped us to achieve a large part of our purpose of this thesis.

The cross-cultural study ”Music in the Digital Age”  focuses on the impact of the Internet on music in everyday life. This article presents the first results from the Russian segment of the study: we look into how the growing Internet access affects the patterns of music-related practices in Russia.  Music is now ubiquitous in the everyday life of young people. It is strongly incorporated in the daily routine, and it is primarily associated with mood regulation and adaption to urban environments. Predictably, the effects of broad access to music result in the integration of online and offline-activities related to music. However, we also observe a contrast of the utilitarian effects of wide access, and the growing demand for materiality and privacy in music.

The research project "Music Use in the Online Media Age" focuses on the impact of the Internet on music use. Whereas the user practices related to music shift from offline to online, from album to single song listening, from recorded to live, from file-sharing to social media platforms, the users’ understanding of music and its role is dramatically evolving. The study reveals that the music-related activities in Russia are mainly concentrated on the social networking website VKontakte. Practices related to this and other platforms form complex folksonomies of online and offline listening, intertwined with experiences of live music. The early findings shed light on the effects of the ubiquity of digitised music on the Internet: the integration of online and offline activities, the decay of emotional investment in music, the diversification of music listening patterns. The debate about the value of music is reflected in the discussion about payment models where locally established consumption practices conflict with moral aspects and where the rejection of the authority of the music industry is combined with the respect for the artistic labour.   

Denna uppsats syfte ligger i att skapa förståelse för var, när, och hur det är möjligt att uppnå en musikupplevelse som är koncentrerad med Spotify. Tre frågeställningar har tagits fram som behandlar: konstobjektets immateriella form, hur plats och mobilitet kan påverka upplevelsen, och hur detta möjliggör eller försvårar en koncentrerad musikupplevelse. Uppsatsens teoretiska ingång har sin utgångspunkt från Walter Benjamins (2014) tanke om att konsten besitter en aura som påverkas av form och mediering. För att förstå det strömmade musikmediet och konstobjektet används Jay David Bolter & Richard Grusins (1999) remedieringsteori, samt senare teorier om det personliga flödet av Richard Grusin (2009). Tillkommer gör även teorier om musikpraktiker i form av: Lee Marshall (2014) och Eric W. Rothenbuhler & John Durham Peters (1997). Ett fenomenologiskt perspektiv på livet och rummen med medier knyter ihop ramverket och utgår från Scannell (2014), Bakardjieva (2005) och Bengtsson (2007). Ämnet undersöks med en etnografiskt inspirerad metodologi i form av tre kvalitativa forskningsintervjuer med unga, musikintresserade och flitiga användare av Spotify. Det som framkom från intervjuerna var att en koncentrerad musikupplevelse är ovanlig, men inte omöjlig. När allt stämmer kan en djup och nära upplevelse nås. Användarna uttryckte i första hand andra kvalitéter hos det strömmade, det nya ”äkta” ansågs ligga i det personliga och kontrollerade flödet.

The Millennials, today’s pupils and students, is the first generation to grow up with tools for interactive communication and media production. Many students choose to study music production in higher education establishments. Therefore music production is an emerging subject and important research topic. The aim of this thesis is to develop knowledge of music production and to identify key skills necessary for music producers and music production teachers. Three sub-studies were performed to investigate what characterizes music production, both in an educational context and as a professional activity. In the first study, a Desktop Music Production project in a municipal music school was investigated. Observations and interviews were used as data collection methods. The results show that teachers need to be multi skilled to teach musicproduction. In addition to standard teaching skills they need to have extensive knowledge of music technology and relevant contemporary knowledge about trends in youth culture and popular music. In the second study students' views on important learning outcomes in music production were investigated. Questionnaires and group interviews were used to collect data. The results show that music production is a topic that includes various types of content. Issues regarding music, technology, music industry, personal development and employability were of central importance to the students. In the third study eleven professionals were interviewed, all music production teachers or active music producers. The main result was that the skills required for both music producers and music production teachers are varied and extensive. Psychology and leadership, music, technology, ethics, law and copyright, entrepreneurship and cultural timing are particularly relevant to music production. Based on these results, a model for education in music production is presented. Music production also differs from traditional music education. In addition to traditional musical and pedagogic skills it requires technical competence from the teachers. Men dominate music production teaching, and the vast majority of professional music producers are also men. Technological developments are affecting young people's musical skills, and therefore it’s a challenge for music teachers to meet pupils and students who already have advanced knowledge of music production and are eager to learn more.

Vilka egenskaper eller förmågor behövs i ett förändrat musiklandskap?

Syftet med detta konferensbidrag är att ge en kort presentation av en idé för ett kommande forskningsprojekt där syftet är att identifiera och undersöka möjliga särskilda individuella eller kollektiva egenskaper eller förmågor som kan bidra till individers eller kollektivs framgång i musikbranschen.

Det är rimligt att anta att de som är framgångsrika i den svenska musikindustrin har särskilda egenskaper eller förmågor som starkt har bidragit till deras framgång. Men då det i tidigare forskning inte är väl undersökt vilka egenskaper eller förmågor som är särskilt värdefulla i detta avseende och då dessutom musikindustrin under senare år förändrats mycket är det en utmaning att i högre utbildning utveckla och bedriva utbildning som är inriktad på att förbereda studenter för framtida arbete i musikindustrin.

Fram till åren kring millennieskiftet var det i Sverige fram för allt musikhögskolorna som erbjöd utbildning för musiker och andra i musikrelaterade yrken. Men det ökade intresset under senare år bland studenter för musik och musikskapande har resulterat i att många svenska lärosäten numera erbjuder utbildning med relevans för musikindustrin, som till exempel utbildning i musikproduktion.

Sedan den första svenska högskoleutbildningen i musikproduktion startade 1983, vid Musikhögskolan i Malmö, har stora förändringar skett inom såväl produktion som distribution och konsumtion av musik. Och detta har resulterat i ett förändrat musiklandskap. När det gäller produktionen av musik kan en viktig förändring beskrivas som en demokratiseringsprocess.  Musikproduktion, för till exempel fonogram, har utvecklats från att ha varit en verksamhet som mycket få hade teknisk kompetens eller tillgång till nödvändig inspelningsutrustning för att arbeta med till att bli något som de flesta som äger en dator, surfplatta eller smartphone har möjlighet att ägna sig åt. Sådana möjligheter till musikskapande i digitala miljöer har också resulterat i att många ägnar sig att skapa musik. Detta kan förklara att allt fler gör anspråk på upphovsrättslig ersättning för sin musik.  Stim, Svenska tonsättares internationella musikbyrå, har numera drygt 70 000 anslutna medlemmar och det gör att alltså knappt en procent av den svenska befolkningen är upphovsrättsinnehavare i musikbranschen. 

Men den digitala revolutionen har också resulterat i att konsumtionen av musik har genomgått stora förändringar och även detta kan ses som en demokratiseringsprocess och källa till ny kunskap för många. Den ökade tillgängligheten har resulterat i förändrade konsumtionsmönster som gjort att många lyssnar mycket på musik. Därför är det rimligt att anta att de flesta som växt upp efter millennieskiftet genom sitt myckna musiklyssnande också har skaffat sig särskilda kompetenser som ingen tidigare generation har haft. Detta antagande nyanserar den bild av att skolungdomar ofta har omfattande kunskapsluckor jämfört med tidigare generationer. En bild som inte minst betonats i medierapporteringen av till exempel resultat från genomförda kunskapstest som till exempel Pisaundersökningen. Det är kanske så att unga som växer upp idag har andra egenskaper eller förmågor jämfört med tidigare generationer men också att det kanske är just sådana egenskaper som kan vara värdefulla för dem som vill vara verksamma i musikindustrin?

En möjlig väg att undersöka vilka särskilda egenskaper eller förmågor som är särskilt viktiga för att vara verksam i musikindustrin är att undersöka vilka som är verksamma nu på viktiga positioner och undersöka deras bakgrund, hur de har fått den position de har och hur de själva och andra kring dem värderar deras särskilda egenskaper eller förmågor. Det finns tidigare studier som till exempel Gustavsson, Börjesson & Edling (2012) som möjligen kan fungera som en metodologisk utgångspunkt. Men framför allt ser jag det som värdefullt att under konferensen få diskutera denna idé med andra forskare och tillsammans överväga hur och om ett sådant här projekt kan gå vidare. 

Syftet med detta paper är att presentera utvalda resultat från analysen av tre musikproduktionsprojekt. Musiken var, i samtliga tre projekt, specialproducerad för särskilda sammanhang: en scenisk musikdramaproduktion, en barnradioteaterproduktion och en filmproduktion. Projekten genomfördes oberoende av varandra av olika musikproducenter som samtliga, vid tiden för produktionernas genomförande, var studenter i högre utbildning i musikproduktion. De tre projekten utfördes på uppdrag av olika klienter: en teatergrupp, ett radioföretag och ett filmproduktionsbolag. Förenande för dessa tre projekt är att musiken till stor del producerades att låta som om den var spelad med riktiga traditionella musikinstrument men att produktionerna främst genomfördes med virtuella instrument och musikproduktionsprogramvara. När riktiga musiker deltog genomgick inspelningarna, med få undantag, bearbetning för att ändra till exempel tonhöjd, rytm, klang eller dynamik. Några tagningar behövde mycket omfattande bearbetning för produktionsmålen skulle nås. Analysen av de tre projekten genomfördes med en tvärvetenskaplig kvalitativ ansats baserad på tidigare forskning om musikproduktion. För att ge ett bredare perspektiv användes även media- och designteori, lärandeteori och immaterialrättsregler i analysen. Datainsamlingsmetoden var främst intervjusamtal med de tre musikproducenterna samt analys av de musikproduktioner som skapades under projekten. Undersökningen generade fyra olika aspekter: 1) upphovsrättsliga frågor, 2) etiska och konstnärliga aspekter, 3) frågor om vilka färdigheter musikproducenter måste ha för att nå uppsatta produktionsmål och 4) frågor om hur den teknik som används för inspelning och bearbetning av inspelad musik påverkar slutresultatet. Resultaten visar att modern mjukvara för musikproduktion i digitala arbetsstationer kan användas för att producera musik med stor noggrannhet och detaljrikedom och att det även för tränade lyssnare kan vara mycket svårt att skilja en inspelning med en äkta levande orkester från en produktion där virtuella digitala musikinstrument har använts. En obesvarad frågeställning som avslutningsvis diskuteras är frågan om vem som egentligen är upphovsman till den musik som skapas med sådana här produktionsmetoder.

In 2014 a collaborative artistic music production project gave rise to the development and use of new methods for composition and music production. With a specially de- signed software engine the music productions responded interactively to actions of the visitors at the Nobel Museum in Stockholm. The music was distributed by multi- ple loudspeakers in the museum hall, week after week without interruption through the four months the exhibition lasted. The results of the project show clear evidence, that the romantic ideal, that creativity and creative capacity primarily is individual, in- born and inherent, is not valid. Instead, by combining different art forms, using struc- tured project planning, aiming to develop creative actions, people can create artwork in collaboration, that far exceeds what they individually can achieve. 

For 30 years Disc Jockeys have been expressing their musical ideas with scratching. Unlike many other popular instruments, the equipment used for scratching is not built as one single unit, and it was not intended to be a musical instrument. This paper gives an overview of how DJs use their turntable, vinyl record and audio mixer in junction to produce scratch music. Their gestural input to the instrument is explained by looking at the mapping principles between the controller parameters and the audio output parameters. Implications are discussed for the design of new interfaces with examples of recent innovations and experiments in the field.

Musikerstudenter inom klassisk västerländsk musik utbildas i ett europeiskt perspektiv vid musikhögskolor, sprungna ur den konservatorietradition som uppstod under 1800-talet inom vilken hantverksmässiga färdigheter betonades. I och med Bologna-anpassningen av musikerutbildningarna fick reflektion ökad betydelse vilket har aktualiserat relationen och spänningen mellan praktik och teori i undervisningen. Dock har vare sig vilka aspekter av musikerprofessionen som dylik reflektion omfattar eller hur utbildningarna förbereder studenter för att kunna agera med gott omdöme i sin yrkespraktik hitintills beforskats i någon högre grad. Vår avsikt är att i denna resonerande artikel söka skissera och problematisera ett förslag på vad ett professionellt omdöme skulle kunna innebära för klassiska musiker och hur det kan kultiveras inom högre musikutbildning. Med utgångspunkt i ett exempel från en av författarnas konstnärliga praktik, Hannah Arendts omdömesfilosofi, samt författarnas tidigare och pågående forskning inom området resonerar vi om vad undervisning och lärande av ett professionellt omdöme bland klassiska musikerstudenter kan och skulle kunna innebära i en konstnärlig akademisk professionsutbildning.

This thesis Into Orbit - Vocal improvisation and inwardness in contemporary soul music examines vocal improvisation in contemporary soul music and its inwardness. This is done by analysing three performances of improvisation by three different soul singers – namely Jazmine Sullivan, Avery Wilson and Alex Isley. Inwardness in this thesis means the feeling, the rapture, and the spirituality in a secular sense. Soul is founded upon the musical elements drawn from gospel. The rapture found in gospel remained similar in soul. With an ethnomusicological perspective, this thesis uses the concepts of black interior coined by poet Elizabeth Alexander and further the interior safe space by sociologists Tennille N. Allen och Antonia Randolph. Along with the understanding of commonly occurring elements, these concepts of the interior are then applied to understand the expression of interior safe space of the three vocal improvisations. In the improvisations there is expression of longing for love and simultaneously loving through the improvisation. With the improvisation as an expression of their interior safe space, they are artistically free. This also means they are free to love despite the presence of love in the real world or not.

Music is present in many sport and exercise situations, but empirical investigations on the motives for listening to music in sports remain scarce. In this study, Swedish elite athletes (N = 252) answered a questionnaire that focused on the emotional and motivational uses of music in sports and exercise. The questionnaire contained both quantitative items that assessed the prevalence of various uses of music, and open-ended items that targeted specific emotional episodes in relation to music in sports. Results showed that the athletes most often reported listening to music during pre-event preparations, warm-up, and training sessions; and the most common motives for listening to music were to increase pre-event activation, positive affect, motivation, performance levels and to experience flow. The athletes further reported that they mainly experienced positive affective states (e.g., happiness, alertness, confidence, relaxation) in relation to music in sports, and also reported on their beliefs about the causes of the musical emotion episodes in sports. In general, the results suggest that the athletes used music in purposeful ways in order to facilitate their training and performance.

The purpose of this graduate thesis is to examine how pedagogues in leisure time centres carry out music education, in order to promote a meaningful free time for children. By this study I also want to develop my own educational skills to plan and lead meaningful musical activities in this school organisation. Research in this field is scarce, for that reason I have chosen to immerse in other music pedagogy fields that can be seen as relevant for this area of study. The leisure time centre has other preconditions and policies, but there are probably some aspects that can be transferred from research that inquire music education in compulsory school. The study is based on sociocultural theory, which includes the study of how individuals learn and develop resources to think and accomplish practical objectives that create meaningful aspects of our culture and environment. All of the important concepts that appear in the study are marked with cursive text. I have chosen a qualitative research method in form of interviews.  

This study has developed my understanding about how music can have different meanings for pupils in the leisure-time centre. The result shows that there are different opportunities, preconditions and obstacles that regulates in what manner music is used. Among them how the pedagogues own musical knowledge, interests and experiences, but also their ability to listen to the pupils interests, needs and preconditions are seen as important factors to carry out a meaningful music education in the leisure-time centre. Access to good materials for example music instruments, an inspiring environment and how pedagogues plan the music education in this school form is also seen as significant aspects. The result has been possible to clearly compare with previous studies.  

This papers presents a practical work model as well as an educational theory discussion on the status and potential of art work in teaching and learning math in early childhood education. The central idea is to let the child’s free creative art activity reveal, or “teach”, whatever mathematical thinking was inherent in the creative process. Paying careful attention to art and math adequate language in “meta talks” with children about their art work, is found to be a rich tool in enhancing the young learner’s development of aesthetic, numeric and linguistic literacies in gainful interplay. A field study in preschool teacher education is reviewed, including a mapping of Alan Bishop’s [2] mathematical activities in doing art work, and an interpretation of the work model in line with John Dewey’s [5] and Gert Biesta’s [1] thinking on art as experience and art as education.

Music streaming service Spotify has recently declared that genre is becoming less important in popular music culture, linking this idea to post-identity claims. In contrast, the central argument of this article is that genre continues to matter in music streaming, where algorithmic recommendation systems remediate genre and its association with constructions of identity and difference. We examine Spotify's mediation of genre through a multimodal discourse analysis of genre metadata as presented on the website Every Noise at Once, playlist curation, and media discourse. Analysing the genres bubblegrunge and rap français (French rap), we show that the algorithmic and human processes of Spotify and its users rearticulate genre, shaping, in turn, patterns of recommendation, curation, and consumption. These processes remediate earlier constructions of identity, temporality, and place in music culture. Simultaneously, they intensify differentiation and individuation, tying in with postulations of multiplicity and diversity in neoliberalism that conceal power imbalances.

In the late 1990’s Sweden saw a wave of rap music in Swedish that set a standard and popularized the genre. A scene for English spoken rap in Sweden had existed since the 1980’s but earlier attempts of rap in Swedish was often seen as something rather uncool. Today Swedish rap is bigger than ever. New technology makes producing and distributing music easier and faster which has led to the expansion of Swedish rap.   

This paper analyzes the use of English in popular Swedish rap music from two different time periods. The purpose is to see how English is mixed in with Swedish and how this may differ between the different time periods. The analysis examines where in the musical and grammatical structure the changes occur, and if the switching has any pragmatic function after Sarkar and Winers Quebec study (2006). The material is collected from the Swedish Grammy Awards where the featured artists have received nominations for their work. The older material are songs nominated in the years 1999-2003, the newer material are songs nominated in the years 2016-2020.