Description
Recent debates in popular music studies increasingly celebrate methodological pluralism as a sign of epistemic openness. Yet the proliferation of methods does not in itself guarantee a critical understanding of what we mean by “methodology.” This paper proposes a conceptual critique of contemporary popular music methodologies by rethinking the notion of method through Heidegger’s philosophy and Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic capital.Drawing on Heidegger’s critique of the modern concept of method as a technical procedure for securing and mastering objects, I argue that much methodological discourse in popular music studies remains grounded in an objectifying epistemology that treats music as a manageable and representable entity. Identity-based and discourse-oriented approaches, despite their progressive political intentions, often function as mechanisms through which marginality, alterity, and critique itself are rendered legible, accumulable, and exchangeable within academic discourse.
From a Bourdieusian perspective, such approaches contribute to the conversion of identity and peripheral positions into symbolic capital circulating within the academic field. What appears as methodological innovation thus frequently conceals a deeper continuity in the economy of academic value, in which “critical” positions are systematically capitalised.
Against this background, the paper proposes a negative and reflexive conception of methodology: one that does not primarily seek to secure music as an object of knowledge, remaining attentive to what resists objectification, representation, and capitalisation. Instead of multiplying methods, this approach reframes methodology itself as a problem rather than a solution, foregrounding the epistemological and political conditions under which methods operate.
| Period | 19 Jun 2026 |
|---|---|
| Event title | Popular Music Methodologies Conference 2026 |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | London, United KingdomShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | National |