Editorial Board

Managing Editors

Sarah Raine, Ireland – gender; jazz and improvised music; festivals; music industries; ethnography; collaborative / co-produced research; northern soul; Irish trad; pubs.

Iain A. Taylor, UK – materiality; cassette tapes; vinyl; spatiality; live music venues; music industries; collecting practice; COVID-19.

Nick Gebhardt, UK – jazz; popular music in American culture; improvised music; jazz history; jazz and its audiences; jazz and philosophy; musicals; collectives.

Peer Review Manager

Sharon Kong-Perring, USA – K-Pop; popular music and curatorial work; K-Pop fandoms; live music performances; ethnography; autoethnography; gender.

Social Media Manager

Riffs|OPEN Editor

Chris Mapp, UK – creative practice; improvised music; audience engagement; collaborative research.

Riffs Radicals Manager

Asya Draganova, UK – DIY and independent music scenes; subcultures; post-communist transitions; music and myth; heavy metal; Canterbury sound; music heritage; ethnography.

Review Editor

Mathieu Berbiguier, USA – K-Pop; Korean popular culture; queer media; popular music and authenticity; music fandom.

Editorial Board

Jenny Ann Cubin, UK – musical performance; subjectivity; consciousness; sexuality; gender fluidity; multiplicity; sound; listening and expression.

Craig Hamilton, UK – Harkive Project; popular music reception practices; digital, data and Internet technologies; music consumption; live music mapping; venues; Brexit and the music industries; festivals.

Edmund Hunt, UK – composition; practice-based research; instrumental, vocal, and electroacoustic music; spectral music; contemporary composition in Ireland.

David Kane, UK – hauntology; music and memory; songwriting and lyrics; pedagogy; musical fandoms.

Deanne Kearney, Canada – BGirls; hip hop; dance; gender; queer identity; Krump dance communities in Canada; ethnography; autoethnography.

Martin Lukanov, Bulgaria – experimental music; DIY and underground scenes; noise; record labels; vinyl; tapes; zines.

Ed McKeon, UK – aesthetics; philosophy of music/art; contemporary art and curatorial theory; collaborative research; practice research; experimental musical practices; arts schools and pop.

Emily Morris, UK – radio; creative industries; cultural policy; music pedagogy; creative economies; creativity.

Designers

Lead designer: Iain Taylor

Front cover design: Adam Kelly-Williams

Ian Davies Photo: Photography and Art Direction (front cover for all full issues)

Guest Designers: Rosie Clark (Front cover design Vol 5 Issue 1); Laura Chen (Vol 3 Issues 1 & 2); Rhiannon Davies (Vol 2 Issues 1 & 2); Beth Kane (Vol 1 Issues 1 & 2 and 2017 Zine Special Issue).

Issue Editors

Vol 1 Issue 1 (2017) The Quality of Sound – Nicholas Gebhardt, Birmingham City University

Vol 1 Issue 2 (2017) Songwriting – Simon Barber, Birmingham City University

Vol 2 Issue 1 (2018) Pop Music Criticism – Laura Snapes, The Guardian

Vol 2 Issue 2 (2018) Reggae Soundsystem – Simon Jones, Middlesex University

Vol 3 Issue 1 (2019) Ideas of Noise – Nicholas Gebhardt, Birmingham City University

Vol 3 Issue 2 (2019) Festivals – Sarah Raine and Craig Hamilton, Birmingham City University

Vol 4 Issue 1 (2020) Music and Technology I – Edmund Hunt, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

Vol 4 Issue 2 (2020) Music and Technology II – Edmund Hunt, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

Vol 5 Issue 1 (2021) Popular Music Fiction – Ash Watson, UNSW Sydney

Vol 5 Issue 2 (2021) Autoethnography and Qualitative Research – Shane Blackman & Rob McPherson, Canterbury Christ Church University

Vol 6 Issue 1 (2022) Otobiographies – Jenny Ann Cubin, independent

Vol 6 Issue 2 (2023) Pop Music Materialities Part I –Iain A. Taylor, University of the West of Scotland

Vol 7 Issue 1 (2023) Pop Music Materialities Part II – Iain A. Taylor, University of the West of Scotland

Vol 7 Issue 2 (2024) American Graffiti – Nicholas Gebhardt, Birmingham City University

Vol 8 Issue 1 (2024) Asian Pop Music – Sharon Kong-Perring, Birmingham City University, and Mathieu Berbiguier, Carnegie Mellon University