Publication Prizes

Since 2012 IASPM-ANZ has awarded two Publication Prizes.

The Rebecca Coyle Prize is awarded to the best paper on popular music in the Australia-New Zealand region in a given year. The prize is named in honour of long time IASPM ANZ member Rebecca Coyle in commemoration of her work advancing popular music studies and mentoring emerging academic talent.

The Open Publication Prize is awarded to the best paper examining aspects of popular music from outside the Australia-New Zealand region in a given year.

Both prizes are awarded by a panel of senior IASPM-ANZ members. Members interested in being considered for either category of the prize should keep an eye on the mailing list or contact one of the executive (with calls for submissions usually happening mid year).

Eligibility – You must be a current IASPM-ANZ member. Only one submission per member per prize. Submissions must be peer-reviewed academic texts (monograph, journal article or book chapter) with a publication date within the range 1 January – 31 December of the previous year. Incumbent IASPM-ANZ Executive members are ineligible. In the case of a co-authored article, both authors must agree to the publication being entered.

2019 Winners

This year we have winners in both the Rebecca Coyle Prize, for research of regional significance in the Australia-Aotearoa nexus, and the Open Prize, for research which engages with popular music at large. We want to say a huge thank you to our judges, first and foremost, for their time and thoughtful consideration of the entries at this busy time of year, and another big thank you to all those who entered their research. The judges stressed the high quality of the entries in both categories, noting that ‘it is great to acknowledge scholarship in the field of popular music and to share our perceptions of our colleagues' work in a positive way’.

2019 Rebecca Coyle Prize

This year there were five entries for the Rebecca Coyle Prize. Following careful deliberation, the judges have awarded the 2019 Rebecca Coyle Prize to Robin Ryan, for her chapter ‘You’re Messin’ Up My Mind’: Why Judy Jacques Avoided the Path of the Pop Diva'.

The judges wrote:

‘The judging panel have agreed to award the prize to Robin Ryan, for her chapter ‘You’re Messin’ Up My Mind’: Why Judy Jacques Avoided the Path of the Pop Diva'. Ryan's work is commended for the way it combines a dynamic narrative history of a musical life with a theoretical reflection on stardom as historically and contextually dependent phenomenon.’

The judges have also given an Honourable Mention to Julie Rickwood and Emma Williams' for their entry 'The Phoenix and the Bootleg Sessions: A Canberra Venue for Local Music.'

2019 Open Prize

This year there were three entries for the Open Prize. The judges have awarded the 2019 Open Prize to Bruce Johnson, for his chapter 'Problematising popular music history in the context of heritage and memory'.

The judges wrote:

‘We were all unanimous in that there was a clear winner. This is Bruce Johnson's chapter, ‘Problematising popular music history in the context of heritage and memory’. Johnson's chapter is significant to the study of popular music, given its theoretical orientation, and topical subject matter. It offers a solid synthesis of key texts around the subject areas, and convincingly demonstrates how the study of popular music, heritage and memory would benefit from a move beyond a somewhat myopic prioritisation of its ongoing presentist privileging. A bit of a challenge to the status quo, it's well considered and well supported with a range of broad perspectives, woven together to construct a solid narrative.’

2018 Winners

Current Winners

The Open Prize was awarded to Nabeel Zuberi for his article “Listening While Muslim”. The judges offer the following comments:

Nabeel’s article provides a deeply personal and insightful narrative that explores marginalised experiences in the post-September 11 context. Here, listening is presented as a means to understand ideas about diasporic Muslim identity, when for the author, speaking as Muslim has proven much more difficult. The highly innovative piece artfully blends the personal and theoretical, and in doing so, articulates the capacity for popular music to narrativise complex and nuanced understandings of self with immense clarity.

A commendation is awarded to Samantha Bennett for her article “Songs about Fucking: John Loder’s Southern Studios and the construction of a subversive sonic signature”. The judges offer the following comments:

Sam’s article is an original and fascinating piece that examines the understudied work of the influential sound engineer and record producer, John Loder. The article contextualises the technical aspects of production, as well as creative sites and processes, within the broader subversive social and stylistic contributions made by Loder, and the various artists he worked with.

The judges are impressed by the quality and variety of submissions to the Rebecca Coyle prize. This year’s winner is awarded to Chris Bourke for his book Good-bye Maoriland: the Songs and Sounds of New Zealand’s Great War. The judges offer the following comments:

This elegantly written and highly illustrative work aimed at a readership beyond the academy represents a significant contribution to our historical understanding of music in Aotearoa/New Zealand during the First World War. It covers the role of a wide range of music traditions and practices in the lives of soldiers overseas and people on the home front. Good-bye Maoriland captures with striking force the ability of music to engender collective feelings and belonging during the war. The book weaves together stories of musicians and soldiers, instruments and songs, performances and battles. Bourke pays significant attention to Maori and women in emergent New Zealand musical identities shaped by imperial culture and other transnational flows. The variety and presentation of archival material is impressive and the writing gives a rich sense of the musical sounds of war. Please join us in congratulating Chris Bourke.

Past Winners- Publication Prize

2010 (inaugural):

Ase Ottosson, (2009): “Playing with Others and Selves: Australian Aboriginal Desert Musicians on Tour”, The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, v10n2, pp 98-114.

2011:

Åse Ottosson (2010): “Aboriginal Music and Passion: Interculturality and Difference in Australian Desert Towns”, Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology, v75n3, pp 275 – 300.

2012: Aust-NZ Regional Prize

Tony Mitchell (2011); “Songlines and timelines through Auckland: music in the ‘Queen City’”, in Glanda Keam & Tony Mitchell (eds), Home Land and Sea: Situating Music in Atearoa New Zealand, Pearson Education, Auckland, pp. 116-132.

2012: Open Prize (inaugural)

Emma Baulch (2011): “God Bless come back: New experiments with nostalgia in Indonesian Rock”, Perfect Beat, v12n2, pp 129-46.

2013: Rebecca Coyle (previously the regional prize)

Jodie Taylor (2012): Playing it Queer: Popular music, identity and queer world-making, Peter Lang, Oxford.

No Open Prize awarded

Postgraduate Prize

The Postgraduate Prize is awarded to the best paper presented by a postgraduate at the annual IASPM-ANZ conference. Members register their interest in being considered for the prize prior to the annual conference, and are assessed during the conference by an expert panel of senior IASPM ANZ Members. Please be sure to tick the ‘post graduate prize’ box when you register for the conference if you are interested in being considered for this prize.

2014: Rebecca Coyle (previously the regional prize)

Winner: Sarah Baker and Alison Huber (2013) Locating the canon in Tamworth: historical narratives, cultural memory and Australia’s ‘Country Music Capital’ in Popular Music, vol 32 issue 2, pp. 223-240

In addition, a second IASPM-ANZ publication prize was awarded to Linda Kouvaras for her book Loading the Silence.

2015:

Open Prize

Winner: Emma Baulch (2014) ‘Pop Melayu vs. Pop Indonesia: Marketeers, producers and new interpretations of a genre into the 2000s’ in Sonic Modernities in Southeast Asia Leiden: Brill pp. 187- 215. In Barendregt, Bart (Ed.) Sonic Modernities in Southeast Asia. Koninklijke NV Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands, pp. 187-216.

Rebecca Coyle Prize

Anthony Linden Jones (2015) The Circle of Songs: Traditional Song and the Musical Score to C.P.Mountford’s Documentary Films in Circulating Cultures: Exchanges of Australian Indigenous Music, Dance and Media, Chapter: 3, Publisher: ANU Press, Editors: Amanda Harris, pp.45-72

Postgraduate Prize

Clive Hamilton for ‘Interstellar Songwriting: What propels a song beyond escape velocity?’ and Christopher J. May: ‘From “Unser Star” to “nul points”: Selection strategies for the Eurovision Song Contest’.

2016:

Open Prize

Eve Klein for “Performing Nostalgia On Record: How Virtual Orchestras And YouTube Ensembles Have Problematised Classical Music”

Gay Breyley, “Iranian Music and Popular Entertainment: From Motrebi to Losanjelesi and Beyond.”

Postgraduate Prize

James Cox, “Investigating Hip Hop as culture and genre in Australia”

2018:

Open Prize

Sarah Baker, Lauren Istvandity, Raphaël A. Norwak, “The sound of music heritage: curating popular music in music museums and exhibitions”, and the judges offered the following comments:

Their article, ‘The sound of music heritage: curating popular music in music museums and exhibitions’, draws on meticulous original research on an aspect of popular music that has received little scholarly attention. It is well-structured and concise, presenting new arguments in an engaging and convincing manner.

Commendations: Alison Blair’s publication, ‘Cosmic Dancer: Marc Bolan’s Otherworldly Persona’, was awarded a commendation, and the judges offered the following comments: Blair has produced a new insight into Mark Bolan’s career by linking his earlier, Anglo-hippie preoccupation with paganism, pastoralism and magick with his later, poppier glam rock image. Blair’s essay shows thoughtfulness and daring. It is a critical reading of Bolan’s corpus that expands our understanding of Bolan and his relationship with glam rock

Rebecca Coyle Prize

Aleisha Ward for her publication ‘New Zealand Jazz Concerts, the Use and Abuse of Grand Pianos, and One Cartoonist’s Response’, and the judges offered the following comments:

We are unanimous that Aleisha Ward should be awarded the Rebecca Coyle IASPM-ANZ Publication Prize for her ‘NZ Jazz Concerts and the Use and Abuse of Grand Pianos’. We found that the article was engagingly quirky and presented a highly original, insightful contribution to global jazz studies. We were also impressed by the way in which the methodology was consistently followed throughout. Well-researched and written with vitality, this article traverses many aspects of cultural life at the time, bringing out relations between different media and social groups crystallised by musical controversy.

Postgraduate Prize

Ben Green for his paper, “‘It’ll Change Your Life, I Swear’: The Profound and Enduring Effect of Musical Experiences”.

Past winners – Postgrad prize:

2013 – Amy Bauder

2012 – Rosemary Overell

2011 – Oli Wilson

2010 – Botond Vitos

2009 – Julie Rickwood

2008 – Michael Brown

2007 – Michelle Phillipov

2006 – Becky Shepherd

2005 – Shelley Brunt

2004 – Mel Campbell