Justin Williams
Justin Williams gained degrees from Stanford University, King's College, London, and the University of Nottingham. He has taught previously at Leeds College of Music and was a postdoctoral fellow at Lancaster University at the Centre for Mobilities Research.
He has presented research to a number of international conferences, and has 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 Music and the University of Wuppertal.
His teaching and research interests include hip-hop culture, popular music, musical borrowing, film music, jazz, music and geography, mobility and sound studies, and the analysis of record production. He is currently writing a book on musical borrowing in hip-hop for University of Michigan Press.
He is keen to supervise research in the areas of:
Popular music
Hip-hop culture
Jazz
Music and mobility
Analysis of record production
Musical borrowing and digital sampling
He has presented research to a number of international conferences, and has 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 Music and the University of Wuppertal.
His teaching and research interests include hip-hop culture, popular music, musical borrowing, film music, jazz, music and geography, mobility and sound studies, and the analysis of record production. He is currently writing a book on musical borrowing in hip-hop for University of Michigan Press.
He is keen to supervise research in the areas of:
Popular music
Hip-hop culture
Jazz
Music and mobility
Analysis of record production
Musical borrowing and digital sampling
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Talks by Justin Williams
While a number of scholars have noted links with cultural developments within Fordist and post-Fordist frameworks, these studies often neglect aspects of upgrading or updating of cultural products central to industry strategy and consumption. My paper focuses on a different paradigm, that of ‘Sloanism’ and its influence on the popular music industry. This term refers to Alfred P. Sloan, President of General Motors from 1923 and Chairman from 1937 to 1956. Sloan is credited with developing the ‘annual model’ and the concept of ‘planned obsolescence’ for his products, as well as creating a price hierarchy of automobile brands (e.g. Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, Cadillac) and placing a substantial emphasis on design.
This paper begins to outline the key aspects of what could be deemed as ‘Sloanism’ in cultural production, and I will discuss and analyse its application to case studies of popular music and culture. A Sloanist framework may help to provide a deeper understanding of not only popular music more generally, but also cultural products such as pop cover versions, film remakes, ‘retromania’ (Reynolds, 2011) as well as the emphasis on speed in the updating/upgrading of certain musical products.
With this business model, there exist ideological implications to such a structure of digital patronage, involving what Jenkins calls “participatory cultures.” ArtistShare paradoxically reinforces the notions of authorship and of the “great composer” while revealing the imperfections in the compositional process to a select few who pay for it. In other words, compositional process itself becomes of high exchange value, in addition to, and perhaps of more value than, the product for the most dedicated of fans. This paper begins to outline such implications for the jazz community, while raising important questions surrounding new conditions of the digital music industry, artist/fan interactivity and the internet in facilitating spaces for musical creativity and communication. The paper also places such practices in a wider context of music composition, revenue generation, and patronage throughout history.
The Oxford Handbook of Music and Virtuality (2016) by Justin Williams
Books by Justin Williams
Articles by Justin Williams
This forum places the migrant within discourses on national identity. The authors embrace a multi-faceted approach to the history of Britain’s diverse musical immigrants across a wide range of musical styles and genres that span the entirety of the 20th century, reaching into the late 19th and the early 21st centuries. We reveal the impact of immigrant composers and second-generation migrants and diasporic communities with global backgrounds on popular music, musical comedy, jazz, concert music, folk music, and film music. The forum highlights the connections across genres, the time period, and diverse migrant backgrounds, thus revealing a multi-faceted narrative in which debates concerning ‘the national’ form a current in British musical life and open up questions regarding constructions of a national music history and historiography. The forum thus highlights the contributions of immigrants to British musical life; the extent to which immigrants are, or are not, narrated as part of British music history and the extent to which their musics have been marginalised or otherwise; and what opportunities this poses for an understanding of British music. In combination, the contributions challenge the notion that the migrant and the nation are incompatible, highlighting instead a narrative of (musical) diversity.
Discussing the impact of migration as a sonically enriching experience seems urgent given how current debates frame immigration as a crisis at the heart of national socio-cultural discourses more broadly. Putting music centre stage, this colloquy widens the debate on migration as it encourages a discourse that is not restricted solely to economic, legal, and narrow political contexts. The focus on music allows for an exploration of the impact of highly skilled creative migrants on British cultural history. In turn, it sets it against questions of national belonging and the sonic-cultural narratisation of the nation.
The forum includes contributions by Florian Scheding, Justin Williams (University of Bristol), Catherine Tackley (University of Liverpool), Derek B. Scott (University of Leeds), Erik Levi (Royal Holloway University of London), and Tom Western (University of Edinburgh).
Call for Papers by Justin Williams
to consist of these four elements. The idea of four elements is one of
hip-hop culture’s core narrative and most pervasive founding myth
since its beginnings in the Bronx in the 1970s. Yet, the idea of four
core elements has been highly contested since the beginning of the
culture as there is no unified definition of how many elements exist,
who defined them, and how they came together.
The second meeting of the European HipHop Studies Network
therefore explores one of hip-hop’s most central ideas, the ideas of
elements: Who defines them? What do they tell us about cultural,
social, and economic communities and boundaries across Europe?
How do these limits vary according to various contexts and practices
across Europe? What are their consequences for cultural production
and consumption? The objective of the meeting is to trace,
interrogate, and expand the notion of elements as central organizing
principles in hip-hop culture and their variations across Europe.
We invite papers, panels, performances, and contributions
from a wide variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and angles.
Scholarly disciplines include but are not limited to art history,
cultural studies, black studies, ethnography, geography, graffiti
studies, literary studies, musicology, pedagogy, performance studies,
philosophy, political science, sociology, and visual culture studies.
Artistic contributions include performances, themed panels of any
format, lecture-recitals, and philosophies which combine research
and praxis (or practice-as-research).
Artistic and scholarly proposals engaging with European hiphop’s
elements (those based both in Europe and outside of it)
should include a title, 250 word abstract of their contribution
and short biographical sketch. This should be submitted to
hiphopnetworkeurope@gmail.com no later than 31 January 2019.
We especially welcome papers that engage with less-academically visible work, and from artists and practitioners from a wider
variety of backgrounds. We hope to see you in Bristol!
Papers by Justin Williams
While a number of scholars have noted links with cultural developments within Fordist and post-Fordist frameworks, these studies often neglect aspects of upgrading or updating of cultural products central to industry strategy and consumption. My paper focuses on a different paradigm, that of ‘Sloanism’ and its influence on the popular music industry. This term refers to Alfred P. Sloan, President of General Motors from 1923 and Chairman from 1937 to 1956. Sloan is credited with developing the ‘annual model’ and the concept of ‘planned obsolescence’ for his products, as well as creating a price hierarchy of automobile brands (e.g. Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, Cadillac) and placing a substantial emphasis on design.
This paper begins to outline the key aspects of what could be deemed as ‘Sloanism’ in cultural production, and I will discuss and analyse its application to case studies of popular music and culture. A Sloanist framework may help to provide a deeper understanding of not only popular music more generally, but also cultural products such as pop cover versions, film remakes, ‘retromania’ (Reynolds, 2011) as well as the emphasis on speed in the updating/upgrading of certain musical products.
With this business model, there exist ideological implications to such a structure of digital patronage, involving what Jenkins calls “participatory cultures.” ArtistShare paradoxically reinforces the notions of authorship and of the “great composer” while revealing the imperfections in the compositional process to a select few who pay for it. In other words, compositional process itself becomes of high exchange value, in addition to, and perhaps of more value than, the product for the most dedicated of fans. This paper begins to outline such implications for the jazz community, while raising important questions surrounding new conditions of the digital music industry, artist/fan interactivity and the internet in facilitating spaces for musical creativity and communication. The paper also places such practices in a wider context of music composition, revenue generation, and patronage throughout history.
This forum places the migrant within discourses on national identity. The authors embrace a multi-faceted approach to the history of Britain’s diverse musical immigrants across a wide range of musical styles and genres that span the entirety of the 20th century, reaching into the late 19th and the early 21st centuries. We reveal the impact of immigrant composers and second-generation migrants and diasporic communities with global backgrounds on popular music, musical comedy, jazz, concert music, folk music, and film music. The forum highlights the connections across genres, the time period, and diverse migrant backgrounds, thus revealing a multi-faceted narrative in which debates concerning ‘the national’ form a current in British musical life and open up questions regarding constructions of a national music history and historiography. The forum thus highlights the contributions of immigrants to British musical life; the extent to which immigrants are, or are not, narrated as part of British music history and the extent to which their musics have been marginalised or otherwise; and what opportunities this poses for an understanding of British music. In combination, the contributions challenge the notion that the migrant and the nation are incompatible, highlighting instead a narrative of (musical) diversity.
Discussing the impact of migration as a sonically enriching experience seems urgent given how current debates frame immigration as a crisis at the heart of national socio-cultural discourses more broadly. Putting music centre stage, this colloquy widens the debate on migration as it encourages a discourse that is not restricted solely to economic, legal, and narrow political contexts. The focus on music allows for an exploration of the impact of highly skilled creative migrants on British cultural history. In turn, it sets it against questions of national belonging and the sonic-cultural narratisation of the nation.
The forum includes contributions by Florian Scheding, Justin Williams (University of Bristol), Catherine Tackley (University of Liverpool), Derek B. Scott (University of Leeds), Erik Levi (Royal Holloway University of London), and Tom Western (University of Edinburgh).
to consist of these four elements. The idea of four elements is one of
hip-hop culture’s core narrative and most pervasive founding myth
since its beginnings in the Bronx in the 1970s. Yet, the idea of four
core elements has been highly contested since the beginning of the
culture as there is no unified definition of how many elements exist,
who defined them, and how they came together.
The second meeting of the European HipHop Studies Network
therefore explores one of hip-hop’s most central ideas, the ideas of
elements: Who defines them? What do they tell us about cultural,
social, and economic communities and boundaries across Europe?
How do these limits vary according to various contexts and practices
across Europe? What are their consequences for cultural production
and consumption? The objective of the meeting is to trace,
interrogate, and expand the notion of elements as central organizing
principles in hip-hop culture and their variations across Europe.
We invite papers, panels, performances, and contributions
from a wide variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and angles.
Scholarly disciplines include but are not limited to art history,
cultural studies, black studies, ethnography, geography, graffiti
studies, literary studies, musicology, pedagogy, performance studies,
philosophy, political science, sociology, and visual culture studies.
Artistic contributions include performances, themed panels of any
format, lecture-recitals, and philosophies which combine research
and praxis (or practice-as-research).
Artistic and scholarly proposals engaging with European hiphop’s
elements (those based both in Europe and outside of it)
should include a title, 250 word abstract of their contribution
and short biographical sketch. This should be submitted to
hiphopnetworkeurope@gmail.com no later than 31 January 2019.
We especially welcome papers that engage with less-academically visible work, and from artists and practitioners from a wider
variety of backgrounds. We hope to see you in Bristol!