GFPM-2026

Music Under Observation – Agency Between Control and Expression

Aims and Content of the Conference

Observation is a constant condition for popular music. From the watchful eye of a state censor to the analytical gaze of a record label’s A&R department, and from the peer review of an online fan community to the automated tracking of a streaming platform, music is continually shaped by being seen and heard. While such observation often imposes limits, it also creates new possibilities for action. This conference asks: What do musicians, industries, and audiences do under observation?

We aim to explore the spaces for agency, the Handlungsräume, that emerge between the pressures of control and the drive for expression. Recent developments in the USA, for instance, arguably sharpen global trends of censorship and cancel culture in previously unpredictable ways. Control can manifest as overt censorship, the subtle nudges of algorithms, the economic discipline of the market, or the social policing of authenticity within a scene. Yet, in response, new forms of creativity, resistance, subversion, and identity play consistently appear. However, further responses to observations of practices and hierarchies can also include the creation of safe spaces, awareness activities, and creative spaces for action with opportunities for reflection and self-determination. This conference invites contributions that examine this dynamic tension across different historical, cultural, social, economic, and technological contexts.

The following questions were guiding:

• How have artists and audiences navigated state surveillance or censorship in different political regimes?
• What forms of economic and industrial observation, from chart-making to market research, have shaped musical production and value?
• How do technologies, from the metronome to machine learning, create new forms of both discipline and creative freedom in music-making?
• In what ways do social groups, subcultures, or fan communities observe regulate their members’ behaviour, tastes, and identities?
• How is music implicated in practices of self-monitoring, whether for well-being, artistic improvement, or personal branding?
• How do artists and listeners develop tactics of resistance, invisibility, or playful subversion in response to being monitored?
• What forms of care, responsibility, and awareness can emerge from practices of observation?