Nordic Sounds: Critical Music Research Group

The research group aims to establish interfaculty and inter-departmental collaboration on issues dealing with music, sound, subjectivity, national and Nordic identity, culture, and social systems.

Facts about the project

Engages with Nordic music research across all genres, including contemporary, classical, folk, jazz, black metal, hip hop, rap, rock and pop.
Examines the recent trends and developments in music within a Nordic geopolitical context from a broad musicological perspective.
Strives towards establishing knowledge on Nordic music within an international context.
Instigates collaborations within the University of Oslo’s strategic research area UiO:Norden.
Brings together researchers in Nordic music studies from within and outside the Department of Musicology.

Project topics

Amongst the projects already in operation and funded are the following topics:

Nordic film	Opera
Music videos	Queerness
Kitsch	Camp in a Scandinavian context
National and Nordic identity	Xenophobia in popular song
Sámi joik	Music in contemporary Iceland
Popular music in Nordic places of detention	Audiovisual aesthetics in a Nordic spotlight
Contemporary Scandinavian art music	Norwegian black metal and discourses of darkness
Cosmopolitanism and Nordic ‘cool’ in urban contexts	Popular music in Nordic places of detention
Nationalism and concepts of Norseness	Music ecology in Nordic space and place

Study initiatives

This research group is also engaged with establishing new teaching modules for students at the University of Oslo, as well as a new international Master degree in Nordic Music.

Nordic Study Day 11 October 2019