Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Music in the Wrong Place: Disco Music in Quebec



Memorial University welcomes noted author and editor Dr. Will Straw for the second in this year’s Music, Media and Culture Lecture Series. He’ll deliver a special lecture on Thursday, Nov. 20, entitled Music in the Wrong Place: Disco Music in Quebec.

Through an analysis of artists and recordings, Dr. Straw will show how disco music found its place within a culture marked by an intense debate over language and its political meaning.

“In the late 1970s, the music industry trade magazine Billboard called Montreal one of the three international capitals of disco music,” said Dr. Straw, the author of more than 60 articles on film music, media and cultural studies and the co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Popular Music.

“Dance music flourished in Quebec during the late 1970s. I will focus on the career of Pierre Perpall, a disco recording artist sometimes called the ‘first Afro-Quebecois star’.”

The lecture begins at 7:30 p.m., in the Music, Media and Place Gallery in the Arts and Culture Centre, which is located in the northeast corner of the building.

The lecture is sponsored by the Memorial University’s Research Centre for the Study of Music, Media and Place (MMaP). The series showcases diverse research areas, approaches, and presentation styles in the field of music. The event is open to the public and is free of charge.

Parking is available in the Arts and Culture Parking Lot.

Dr. Straw is a professor in the Department of Art History and Communications Studies at McGill University. He is the author of the forthcoming book Popular Music: Scenes and Sensibilities, as well as more than 60 articles on film music,media, and cultural studies.

He is the co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Popular Music and serves on the editorial boards of numerous journals, including Screen and Theory and Critique.

His current research focuses on New York tabloid culture of the 1930s. Media agencies are invited to send representatives to this event.

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