“Tuning the Noisegate: Politics of Filtering, Selecting and Amplifying in Popular Music” – this was the theme of the seventh biennial conference of the German-speaking branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM D-A-CH), which took place from 28 to 30 May 2026. This year’s host was the Institute of Music at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg. A small delegation from the Paderborn Pop Team, comprising Prof. Dr Beate Flath, Prof. Dr Christoph Jacke, Joshua Wick, Lennart Hanke, Jule Feldner and Gesine Flick, was also represented.
Following the welcome addresses by the current chair of IASPM D-A-CH, Dr. Christofer Jost; the Dean of Studies at the Faculty of Linguistics and Cultural Studies at the University of Oldenburg, Prof’Dr. Katrin Kleinschmidt-Schinke, and the host Institute of Music, represented by Prof. Dr. Susanne Binas-Preisendörfer, the artist and former Oldenburg music student lil.lili delighted the audience with an intriguing performance on a modular synthesiser. In the subsequent keynote address by Dr Leslie Gaston-Bird, ‘Credibilitizing: How underrepresented groups find new purpose in audio’, the focus was placed – in a highly engaging manner – primarily on the representation of women of colour in audio engineering professions. After an intensive day of initial panels and sessions, the participants headed to the Gleispark Oldenburg for the conference dinner to celebrate the start of the event together.
On the second day, the programme continued straight away with stimulating sessions and panels – including a presentation by Joshua Wick and Prof. Dr Christoph Jacke from Paderborn. In their presentation ‘Gatekeepers, Filters and Gaps in Sounds, Texts and Contexts of Pop Music Cultural (Star) Figures and Images. An Exemplary Case Study on Mark Hollis”, they provided insights into their initial research as part of a larger research project on the construction of stars and images through sound, specifically in the context of music production and journalism in terms of distribution and reception.
The second day was characterised above all by a wide range of sessions and presentations. On topics such as ‘Gatekeeping practices and mechanisms of representation in music journalism’ by Dr. Sarah Mengede, a researcher and lecturer for the current summer semester, or ‘Power relations and filters in the history of pop music’, ‘Club culture – community and the struggle for cultural-political recognition’ and ‘Rap and rappers in the digital age’, with academics from Germany, Austria and Switzerland presenting their research in the field of Popular Music Studies. Following a barbecue evening, the IASPM D-A-CH General Meeting discharged the outgoing Executive Committee and Advisory Board as scheduled and held an election for new members for the 2026–2028 term. Among others, Jule Feldner, a Master’s student from Paderborn, was elected as a student member of the Advisory Board, and Teresa Becker, a doctoral candidate in “Popular Music and Media” from Paderborn, was elected as Membership Secretary/Treasurer. We offer both of them our warmest congratulations.
On the final day of the conference, a number of panels and sessions took place, exploring topics such as ‘Amplification and Selection on Music Platforms’, ‘From Home Computer Sounds to In-Game Concerts’ and ‘Noisegates and Data Filters’. The Paderborn delegation’s programme concluded with a panel featuring presentations by Acting Professor Dr Pascal Rudolph, Professor Dr Martin Ullrich and Daniel Suer on ‘Animal Voices – Noise, Sound, or Music?’, in which animal sounds were examined in greater detail in the context of music history, subcultures and ‘multispecies music memes’.
We look back on an exciting conference, extend our warmest thanks to the organisers and the IASPM D-A-CH, and look forward to further joint conferences.
An audiovisual summary of the conference can be viewed on the Instagram channel of the ‘Popular Music and Media’ study programmes (Day 1 and Days 2 & 3).
