Popular Music is a field of research that explores the social, cultural, economic, and technological dimensions of a vast range of popular musical styles throughout history with particular emphasis on analysing the means of music’s production and consumption. Student opportunities in this field include potential research placements with media production houses, broadcasters, arts companies, music industry peak bodies, festivals, performance venues and digital repositories. Research in this field is supported by the ANU Art and Music Library’s extensive collection of musical recordings, and by our rare collection of legendary legacy equipment including a Mellotron, an EMT Plate Reverberator and a Fairlight CMI, which respectively forged the distinctive sounds of the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Peter Gabriel.

Research leadership in this area is provided by Professor Kenneth Lampl. As a composer of film music, Kenneth Lampl has scored over 70 films including: Frontera, Ninja’s Creed, Kandisha, and Winter of Frozen Dreams. Lampl also composed additional music for Pokemon: The First Movie: Mew vs Mew Two, Pokemon Mewtwo Returns as well as music for the television series “Born Again Virgin” and “Saints and Sinners”.