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.

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.

2022 Winners

2022 Rebecca Coyle Prize

This was a close field and the judges would like to recognise the high quality of submissions for the prize, particularly given the difficulties of publishing through the recent pandemic. That said, the judges decided to award the Rebecca Coyle prize this year to Sam Whiting, for his article on “The Value of Small Live Music Venues: Alternative Forms of Capital and Niche Spaces of Cultural Production”. This is a study exploring the complexities of value of selected small live music venues in Melbourne through an application of a variety of forms of Bourdieusian capital "to qualitatively assess the intrinsic value of small live music venues, demonstrating the significance of this value, whilst also promoting a discussion of the nature of intrinsic and instrumental value." The judges found Sam Whiting's article to be engagingly written, presenting an original and insightful contribution to popular music studies in its examination of assessing value in small music venues. The methodology was consistently followed throughout the article, and brought to light a variety of dynamic relationships between musicians, venues and booking agents that are not always immediately apparent, but are vital to both musicians and venues.

2022 Open Prize

The judges have awarded the 2022 Open Prize to Christine Feldman-Barrett for her book ‘A Women’s History of The Beatles’.

This is an outstanding book that gives long overdue recognition to the role of women and girls in shaping the Beatles, their music, production and reception. It is compelling throughout, foregrounds women’s voices and demonstrates innovation in both framework and socio-historical context. Rock history is full of hagiographic takes on The Beatles, rarely does a perspective so refreshing stand out like this. Christine's volume does a phenomenal job of bridging fandom, past and present, in a compellingly written account, centring the thoughts and feelings of female fans, otherwise often dismissed, through their own accounts. It is a welcome addition to Beatles studies as such, but also an exemplary study of fandom that goes beyond popular music studies. An essential read for anyone interested in feminist perspectives of rock music history. It is a thoroughly deserved winner of the Open Prize.

The judges have also given a ‘Highly Commended’ to Henry Johnson for ‘Chinese toms in the making of the drum kit’

A fascinating read on Chinese drums and exoticism. Insightful, very well researched and engaging, this article features innovative new findings on the drum kit and as such makes a strong contribution to organology studies generally.

2022 Postgraduate Prize

The judges have awarded the 2022 Postgraduate Prize to Kate Pattison for “Born To Try: Participation, creativity and professional pathways for pop music fans”

The judges were impressed with Pattison’s command of her topic, her innovative development of concepts that offer a new take and application of informal learning in star contexts. This interdisciplinary project offers a significant contribution to popular music studies and broadens the scope in fan studies. Her presentation was well-structured, with a well-articulated research question and emergent themes.

Commendations: Jonathan Chan, Jaimee Cruise & Oliver O’Reilly

2021 Winners

2021 Rebecca Coyle Prize

Following careful deliberation, the judges awarded the 2021 Rebecca Coyle Prize to Laura Glitsos, for her article "Sticky business: an examination of female musicians in the context of Perth's metal community".

The judges wrote: "Laura's is a welcome contribution to the study of metal and gender and its complexities. Her use of Ahmed's ‘stickiness’ as a conceptual trope usefully underlines her nuanced ethnographic approach. The result is a case study which opens up these cultural spaces in such a way as to give voice to women in the scene. Doing so in ways that aim to address its skewed gender politics. As she suggests, the revealing discussions had with participants look to have done just this. It's focus on Perth does much to contribute to an expanding body of work in the sense of communities in the city was also adding new insights to the literature exploring metal in Oceania."

Commendations: Michael Brown, for "A Sonic Step Closer: Master tape preservation at the Alexander Turnbull library"

"Michael Brown's piece on master tape preservation policies and practice is clear and assured in its aims and methodology, suitably rigorous, well written and dealing knowledgeably with matters of cultural urgency."

2021 Open Prize

The judges awarded the 2021 Open Prize to Matthew Bannister and Megan Rogerson-Berry, for their chapter “"She said, she said: The influence of feminine voices on John Lennon's music". The judges wrote: “Bannister and Rogerson-Berry show how Lennon's use of both African American girl group styles coupled with his own personal histories combined to produce distinctive feminine voices in a key period of his output. We felt too that this was well developed in terms of methodology in linking slicked musicology to wider gender contexts. The direct use of musical quotes also allowed the reader to see Lennon's intentions.”

2021 Postgraduate Prize

The 2021 IASPM postgraduate prize was shared between Vik Squires-Donnelly for "The mistress of taboo: Understanding musicians with marginalized gender identities in metal music", and Ben Hillier and Ash Barnes for "Wolf in sheep's clothing: Extreme right-wing ideologies in Australian black metal".

The judges said: "We were extremely impressed by the standard of the presentations, especially being done as recorded presentations. While we acknowledge this format allows for practiced performances, it also takes away the immediacy of an audience response and guidance from the chair. We want to acknowledge that all of these were such outstanding quality that it was very difficult to even rank, let alone make a final decision. If the submitted prize candidates represent the future of our organization, then that future is in extremely safe, metal, hands."

2020 Winners

2020 Rebecca Coyle Prize

Following careful deliberation, the judges awarded the 2020 Rebecca Coyle Prize to Bonnie McConnell, for her article “Afropolitan Projects: Music, Representation, and the Politics of Belonging in Australia”.

The judges wrote:

“McConnell’s writing was engaging and clear. She challenged the strong emphasis on white Australian musicians in so much popular music scholarship, was clear on her methodology, and incorporated the voices of the musicians she worked with well. This article crosses fields, introduces new ideas, and is culturally and theoretically engaging, contributing to understandings of music, race, belonging and migration in an Australian context. It also has the strong potential to contribute to international conversations on these issues as well. The work offers critical perspectives on issues of race and migrations, while also being firmly grounded in discussing the music of the artists as well.”

Commendations:

Ben Green, for “Who’s Riot? Collective Memory of an Iconic Event in a Local Music Scene”

John Whiteoak, for “Take Me to Spain: Australian Imaginings of Spain through Music and Dance, 1820s to 1980s”

The judges noted that all entrants should be commended for their contributions to the scholarship of popular music in the Australia-New Zealand region, and know the competition was tight as to who should take out the winning prize and our nominated commendations.

2020 Open Prize

The judges awarded the 2020 Open Prize to Catherine Strong, for her chapter “Towards a Feminist History of Popular Music: Re-examining Writing on Musicians and Domestic Violence in the Wake of Me Too”.

The judges wrote: “Catherine Strong’s chapter on the framing of domestic violence in music writing sheds a light on the very clear and pervasive male bias in the way journalism and the broader media approach this issue. The case studies she examines are sadly familiar, and the names of those responsible are still held up in high esteem by large portions of the population as well as their peers. The panel believes that in her chapter, Strong addresses these issues head-on while making a compelling case for the question in all our minds “Why do audiences keep idolizing abusers”? In a year when many of our social paradigms have been turned upside down, these types of behaviors should be the ones we all aim to correct. We recommend her article for the IASPM Open Prize.”

Highly commended: Alison Blair for her article “Oh man, I Need TV When I Got a T-Rex”: Bowie and Bolan’s Otherworldly Carnivalesque Intermediality”

“Alison Blair’s article is a fantastic piece on the symbiotic relationship of David Bowie and Mark Bolan, and how they influenced each other’s music through craft, performance and mythos. Her meticulous analysis of these relationship’s and evidence of influence make for an ear-opening read which will change the ways we listen to the work of both artists from here on. We therefore recommend commendation for her submission to the IASPM prize.”

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

2018 Open Prize

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.

2018 Rebecca Coyle Prize

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.

2017 Winners

2017 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

2017 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.

2017 Postgraduate Prize

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

Commendation was awarded to Kat Nelligan for her paper “‘Taking an ambiguous stance is not what I’m about. I like to go right for the asskicker. You’re either in or you’re out’: Lady Gaga, LGBTIQ Activism, and Authenticity”.

Past Winners- Publication Prize

2016 Winners:

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”

2015 Winners:

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’.

2014 Winners:

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.

Postgraduate Prize

The Postgraduate Prize was awarded to Catherine Hoad for ‘The Whitening Pot: Translocal white narratives in heavy metal scenes in Norway, South Africa and Australia’.

Commendations were awarded to Rachael Gunn for ‘Remixing Masculinity through the B-Girl’, and Tim Booth for ‘Miles Davis’s Poetics of Technology: Jazz Fusion and Live Performance’.

2013 Winners:

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

2012 Winners:

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.

2011 Winners:

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

2010 Winners:

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.

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