The Popular Music in Greece: International Research Collective [PMGIRC] is an interdisciplinary forum for scholarly discussion about popular music in Greece.
A central goal is to extend the scope of traditional academic scholarship by harnessing diverse disciplinary perspectives to examine popular music in Greece as a form of integrated social action; a space where cultural and political structures of power and identity are reflected, reinforced, and challenged; a gamut of sentiment through which to understand the political. Framing popular music, and Greekness itself, as critical but ambivalent categories, we hope to generate dialogue around music as a vital source of knowledge especially in the realm of identity creation, and as a tool for unveiling social values and engendering change.
The PMGIRC engages diverse and ambivalent categories of music and culture that include ‘laïko,’ rebetikο, crossover, hip hop, pop, jazz, experimental genres, and musics of diverse diaspora communities (second-generation Greeks abroad, youth of migrant descent in Greece etc.). We are particularly interested in considering issues of identity formation, gender, globalization, hegemony and politics, marginalization and violence, migration and diaspora, among others.
The PMGIRC is hosted by the University of Illinois Springfield Music Program.
To contact the International Greek Popular Music Research Collective, email: pmgirc23@gmail.com.