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Staff Profile

Dr Richard Elliott

Senior Lecturer in Music

  • Email: richard.elliott1@ncl.ac.uk
  • Telephone: +44 (0) 191 2082502
  • Personal Website:
  • Address: School of Arts and Cultures
    Armstrong Building
    缅北禁地
    缅北禁地 upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU
Background

Richard Elliott is Senior Lecturer in Music at the International Centre for Music Studies. He is a cultural musicologist who works mostly in the discipline of popular music studies. He is the author of the books (2010), (2013), (2015), (2018) and (2022). He has also written articles, essays and reviews covering popular music, literature, consciousness, ageing, memory, nostalgia, place and space, affect, language and technology. In addition to his academic publications, he writes about music, popular culture and materiality on his Substack, .


Richard holds degrees in Music (PhD, 缅北禁地), Popular Culture (MA, Open University) and Comparative American Studies (BA, University of Warwick). Further details of his work can be found at his website .


Richard is a member of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music () and a Fellow of the .


Other links:

Research

Richard Elliott is a cultural musicologist with a particular interest in popular musics of the world. He is the author of the books (Ashgate, 2010), (Equinox, 2013), (Bloomsbury Academic, 2015), (Bloomsbury Academic, 2018) and (2022, part of Bloomsbury Academic's 33 1/3 Europe series) He has also published articles and reviews on popular music, literature, consciousness, ageing, memory, nostalgia, place and space, affect, language and technology.

Richard’s research interests are wide but mostly connect to ways in which music reflects and produces time, space and memorable objects. His early work explored the roles played by loss, memory, nostalgia and revolution in popular music and was heavily influenced by theories of place and spatiality. These ideas were developed in his first book , which analysed Portuguese fado music as a reflection and production of space and place.

The topics of memory, nostalgia and revolution are also present in Richard's , which combined history, biography and song analysis and which - unusually for publications about this artist - explored the whole of Simone's career. As well as attending to the often-discussed role Simone played in the civil rights era of the 1960s, Richard discusses the artist's late style and starts to outline his theory of the late voice.

Another ongoing theme in Richard's work is the various ways in which music creates or evokes ‘memory places’ that take on significance for individuals and communities. More recent work reflects music’s potential to soundtrack lives and histories; His 2015 book explores the representation of time, age and experience in popular song, building its narrative around extended case studies of Ralph Stanley, Frank Sinatra, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. Richard has written further about late voice in the work of and , and in a study of the song '', also contributing to an episode of the BBC series devoted to that song. In a related vein, Richard's article on popular music and aging features in the .

, published at the very end of 2017 (with a 2018 publication date), reflects Richard’s interest in words, music and sound studies. It brings together novelists, nonsense writers, sound poets, experimental composers, comedians and pop musicians in an attempt to get at the role of sound in creating, maintaining and disrupting meaning. The book builds on ideas previously explored in two articles about the musician .

Richard’s other areas of specialisation include the global span of popular music styles from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, music and cultural theory, urban musicology, the poetics of song and the politics of authenticity. He has a background in a variety of disciplines, having gained a Bachelor’s degree in Comparative American Studies, a Master’s in Popular Culture and a PhD in Music.

Richard is currently conducting research on the materiality of song and on the representation of global popular musics in the phonographic era. This work is appearing in a variety of formats, including a Substack about , an article about 缅北禁地 singer-songwriter Richard Dawson's object-oriented songcraft (forthcoming in Songwriting Studies), an entry in the 33 1/3 Europe series on (a 2006 compilation of Luso-African beats) and a chapter on the 1981 pop song 'Japanese Boy' for a collection about .

Richard supervises MA dissertations and PhD theses on areas relating to the topics above.

Teaching

Undergraduate Teaching


Case Studies in 21st-Century Music (MUS3009) covers the following:

  • The scale, history and social significance of the global recording industry in the twenty-first century;
  • A range of themes and topics that characterise global music cultures of our century via a series of contemporary case studies;
  • An understanding of the critical approaches to the study of global popular musics;
  • Different repertoires and approaches to contemporary global music cultures;
  • Communication and critical thinking skills (via case study approach);
  • The importance of musical media (and especially digital media) and related technologies to the global networks of contemporary music;
  • Discourses of the new, the retro and the present as encountered in twenty-first century musics and critical responses to them;
  • Music, place and mobility;
  • 21st century reappraisals of ‘world music’ and ‘global pop’
  • The challenges of curating global pop musics in a fast-moving, hyper-networked world;
  • Cosmopolitans and cosmopolitanisms;
  • Features and repertoires associated with global music genres such (e.g. global rock, hip-hop and DJ cultures)
  • Methods for connecting case studies to sociocultural contexts.



Popular Music and Media (MUS2085) explores the relationship between popular music and media from a variety of critical and sociohistorical perspectives. In posing questions about the ways in which music has been produced, consumed, curated and mutated, the module sheds light on the ideological structures underpinning the mediation of music in the past and present. It does so by examining the relationships between musical production and media technologies (the microphone, phonograph, radio, film, television, mp3, social media, etc.); the changing role and place of music in society as understood through an analysis of media technologies; the meaning and nature of musical mediation and reception in society; the political economy of the music industry; the creative potential of media technologies for processes of musicking and remediation (including mixing, mash-ups, memes and plunderphonics); the mediation of music in work and leisure activities (the use of music while we work and play); case studies of key figures who have shaped our understanding of popular music and media, from musicians and producers to theorists and philosophers.


Postgraduate Teaching


Richard contributes to postgraduate taught modules and supervises MA and MLitt dissertations on a wide range of social, cultural and historical topics. He supervises PhD candidates in areas connected to his teaching and research.

Publications

  • Articles

    • Elliott R. . Rock Music Studies 2025, 12(3), 98-112.
    • Elliott R. . Jazz Research Journal 2022, 15(1-2), 25-50.
    • Elliott R. . Australian Humanities Review 2022, (70), 58-66.
    • Elliott R. . Persona Studies 2019, 5(1), 17-32.
    • Elliott R. . Literary Geographies 2017, 3(1), 69-86.
    • Elliott R. . Twentieth-Century Music 2016, 13(1), 53-76.
    • Elliott R. . Quaderns de Cine 2014, 9, 71-78.
    • Elliott R. . Volume! 2014, 11(1), 131-143.
    • Elliott R. Free, Confused and Lonely: On Age, Pop, Fashion and Incompatibility. Radical Musicology 2013, 6.
    • Elliott R. . Popular Music and Society 2009, 32(2), 249-270.
    • Elliott R. . Radical Musicology 2008, 3.

  • Authored Books

    • Elliott R. . New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022.
    • Elliott R. . New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018.
    • Elliott R. . New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015.
    • Elliott R. . London: Equinox, 2013.
    • Elliott R. . Farnham: Ashgate, 2010.

  • Book Chapters

    • Elliott R. . In: Attah, T; Fairclough, K; Lloyd, C, ed. Rereading Musicians and Their Audiences: Popular Music Autobiographies. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2025, pp.131-142.
    • Elliott R. . In: Marx W, ed. Music and Death: Funeral Music, Memory and Re-Evaluating Life. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2023, pp.134-149.
    • Barker J, Elliott R, Longstaff G. . In: Sikka,T;Longstaff,G;Walls,S, ed. Disrupted Knowledge: scholarship in a time of change. Leiden: Brill, 2023, pp.259-279.
    • Elliott R. . In: Hill, S, ed. One-Hit Wonders: An Oblique History of Popular Music. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022, pp.129-138.
    • Elliott R. . In: Gu, D; Dupre, ME, ed. Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging. Cham: Springer, 2020.
    • Middleton R, Elliott R. . In: John Shepherd, David Horn, Dave Laing, Paul Oliver and Peter Wicke, ed. Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume II: Performance and Production. New York: Bloomsbury, 2018.
    • Middleton R, Elliott R. . In: John Shepherd, David Horn, Dave Laing, Paul Oliver and Peter Wicke, ed. Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume II: Performance and Production. New York: Bloomsbury, 2018.
    • Elliott R. . In: Baker, S; Strong, C; Istvandity, L; Cantillon, Z, ed. The Routledge Companion to Popular Music History and Heritage. London, UK: Routledge, 2018, pp.46-54.
    • Middleton R, Elliott R. . In: John Shepherd, David Horn, Dave Laing, Paul Oliver and Peter Wicke, ed. Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume II: Performance and Production. New York: Bloomsbury, 2018.
    • Middleton R, Elliott R. . In: John Shepherd, David Horn, Dave Laing, Paul Oliver and Peter Wicke, ed. Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume II: Performance and Production. New York: Bloomsbury, 2018.
    • Middleton R, Elliott R. . In: John Shepherd, David Horn, Dave Laing, Paul Oliver and Peter Wicke, ed. Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume II: Performance and Production. New York: Bloomsbury, 2018.
    • Elliott R. . In: Marc I; Green S, ed. The Singer-Songwriter in Europe: Paradigms, Politics and Place. London: Routledge, 2016, pp.51-64.
    • Elliott R. . In: Chastagner C, ed. Patti Smith: Outside. Montpellier: Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée, 2015, pp.113-135.
    • Elliott R. . In: Haworth, C; Colton, L, ed. Gender, Age and Musical Creativity. Abingdon: Ashgate/Routledge, 2015, pp.141-153.
    • Elliott R. . In: Carroll R; Hansen A, ed. Litpop: Writing and Popular Music. Farnham: Ashgate, 2014, pp.49-62.
    • Elliott R. So Transported: Nina Simone, “My Sweet Lord” and the (Un)folding of Affect. In: Thompson, M; Biddle, I, ed. Sound, Music, Affect: Theorizing Sonic Experience. London: Bloomsbury, 2013, pp.75-90.
    • Elliott R. . In: Clarke D; Clarke E, ed. Music and Consciousness: Philosophical, Psychological, and Cultural Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011, pp.327-341.

  • Editorial

    • Elliott R, Gardner A. . IASPM Journal 2024, 14(1), 1-4.

  • Online Publications

    • Elliott R. Prince: an icon of a new form of classical music. The Conversation Trust, 2016. Available at: https://theconversation.com/prince-an-icon-of-a-new-form-of-classical-music-58270.
    • Ellliott, R. Why does Samuragochi’s musical fraud put artistic value in question?. The Conversation Trust, 2014. Available at: https://theconversation.com/why-does-samuragochis-musical-fraud-put-artistic-value-in-question-23096.
    • Elliott R. Vinyl fetishism and exhaustion on Record Store Day. The Conversation Trust, 2014. Available at: https://theconversation.com/vinyl-fetishism-and-exhaustion-on-record-store-day-25883.
    • Elliott R. Sometimes we need to recall music’s materiality. The Conversation Trust, 2014. Available at: https://theconversation.com/sometimes-we-need-to-recall-musics-materiality-28164.
    • Elliott R. Kurt Cobain and the search for a sincere rock star. The Conversation Trust, 2014. Available at: https://theconversation.com/kurt-cobain-and-the-search-for-a-sincere-rock-star-25335.
    • Elliott R. It’s time to embrace the ageing pop star. The Conversation Trust, 2014. Available at: https://theconversation.com/its-time-to-embrace-the-ageing-pop-star-24051.
    • Elliott R. Grammys remain out of touch with the modern music industry. The Conversation Trust, 2014. Available at: https://theconversation.com/grammys-remain-out-of-touch-with-the-modern-music-industry-22370.
    • Elliott R. Blood on the Tracks: Place and Displacement. PopMatters Media, 2010. Available at: https://www.popmatters.com/124623-blood-on-the-tracks-place-and-displacement-2496202276.html.

  • Report

    • Elliott R. . 缅北禁地 upon Tyne: 缅北禁地, 2008. International Centre for Music Studies.

  • Reviews

    • Elliott R. . Popular Music History 2025, 17(1), 91-93.
    • Elliott R. . Popular Music 2025, 44(Special Issue 1), 106-108.
    • Elliott R. . Oral History 2024.
    • Elliott R. . Reviews in Cultural Theory 2019, 8(1).
    • Elliott R. . Perfect Beat 2016, 17(2), 192-194.
    • Elliott R. Fado Resounding: Affective Politics and Urban Life by Lila Ellen Gray (Duke University Press, 2013) [book review]. Popular Music 2015, 34(2), 337-338.
    • Elliott R. Enciclopédia da Música em Portugal no Século XX edited by Salwa Castelo-Branco (Temas e Debates/Circulo de Leitores, 2010) [book review]. Popular Music 2014, 33(1), 161-164.
    • Elliott R. Bob Dylan. Volume! 2012, 9(1), 181-183.
    • Elliott R. . Tiny MIx Tapes 2011.
    • Elliott R. The Secret Lives of Buildings: From the Ruins of the Parthenon to the Vegas Strip in Thirteen Stories by Edward Hollis (Picador, 2010) [book review]. PopMatters 2011.
    • Elliott R. The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl edited by Trevor Schoonmaker (Duke University Press, 2010) [book review]. PopMatters 2011.
    • Elliott R. On Elegance While Sleeping by Emilio Lascano Tegui,, trans. Idra Novey (Champaign, Ill: Dalkey Archive Press, 2010). PopMatters (10 February 2011). PopMatters 2011.
    • Elliott R. John Coltrane and Black America’s Quest for Freedom: Spirituality and the Music edited by Leonard Brown (New York City: Oxford University Press, 2010) [book review]. PopMatters 2011.
    • Elliott R. . Popular Music 2010, 29(3), 506-509.
    • Elliott R. The Elephant’s Journey by José Saramago, trans. Margaret Jull Costa (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010) [book review]. PopMatters 2010.
    • Elliott R. . Popular Music 2010, 29(2), 320-322.
    • Elliott R. . Popular Music 2010, 29(2), 320-322.
    • Elliott R. In Search of the Blues: A Journey to the Soul of Black Texas by Bill Minutaglio (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010) [book review]. PopMatters 2010.
    • Elliott R. Give ’em Soul, Richard! Race, Radio, and Rhythm and Blues in Chicago by Richard Stamz and Patrick A. Roberts (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2010) [book review]. PopMatters 2010.
    • Elliott R. Acoustic Territories: Sound Culture and Everyday Life by Brandon LaBelle (Continuum, 2010) [book review]. PopMatters 2010.
    • Elliott R. A Culture of Improvement: Technology and the Western Millennium by Robert Friedel (MIT Press, 2007) [book review]. 2010.
    • Elliott R. . Popular Music 2008, 27(2), 336-338.
    • Elliott R. . Popular Music 2008, 27(1), 179-181.