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Last updated 18th April 2024

Professor Dr. Dr. phil. habil. Jan Herbst is a popular music scholar, musicologist, music producer, and guitar player who joined the University of Huddersfield in August 2017 as a Lecturer and is now Professor of Music. He is Principal Investigator of the AHRC-funded projects’ Heaviness in Metal Music Production’ (HiMMP) (www.himmp.net) and ‘Songwriting Camps in the 21st Century’ (SC21) (www.songwritingcamps.net), as well as of several externally funded post-doctoral fellowships.

Besides his interests in the practical aspects of music production and technology, he is deeply engaged in research. He has published more than 80 books, articles, chapters, and encyclopaedia articles and regularly presents research papers in various countries. His published work focuses on the areas of popular music studies (in particular rock/metal music studies), music business and industries studies, the art of record production, and music technology. 

Jan is a member of several international editorial boards for journals (IASPM Journal, Metal Music Studies, Samples) and book series (Beiträge zur Popularmusikforschung, texte zur populären musik by the German Society for Popular Music) and is editor of the Companion series of Cambridge University Press. Jan is a regular peer-reviewer of leading music journals, including Psychology of Music, Metal Music Studies, Rock Music Studies, IASPM Journal, and Journal of the Acoustical Society of America and reviewer of Routledge’s 'Perspectives on Music Production' book series. He also serves as Treasurer on the IASPM UK & I executive committee.

Jan has taught popular music studies, music production, music analysis, empirical musicology, music history, and music theory as Guest Lecturer, Lecturer, and Interim Professor at the Universities of Paderborn, Bielefeld, Detmold, Muenster, and Lueneburg (all in Germany) and Berne (Switzerland). As a professional guitarist, he was also a Lecturer in Guitar Performance (2006-2012) at a music institute and Head of Music at a vocational college (2012-2015).

Jan works in various areas of popular music studies, music analysis, systematic musicology, and the art of record production. Previous and current research includes:

Books

(2025): Heaviness in Metal Music Production: Learn From the Masters (with Mark Mynett; Routledge, forthcoming)

(2025): Heaviness in Metal Music Production: How and Why It Works (with Mark Mynett; Routledge, forthcoming)

(2025): Popular Music Songwriting as Cultural, Creative, and Economic Practice (with Michael Ahlers and Knut Holtstraeter; Waxmann, forthcoming)

(2024): The Cambridge Companion to the Electric Guitar (with Steve Waksman). Link to publisher/book information

(2023): The Cambridge Companion to Metal Music. Link to publisher/book information

(2023): Rock Guitar Virtuosos: Advances in Electric Guitar Playing, Technology and Culture (with Alexander Vallejo; forthcoming). Link to publisher/book information

(2022): Rammstein's 'Deutschland'. Pop, Politics, Provocation [translation]. Link to publisher/book information

(2021): Gear Acquisition Syndrome. Consumption of Instruments and Technology in Popular Music. Link to publisher/book information

(2016): The Guitar Distortion in Rock Music. A Study on Playability and Aesthetics [translation]. Link to publisher/book information

(2014): Network Sound. An Educational Challenge of Popular Music [translation]. Link to publisher/book information

Other projects

• The role(s) of the music producer

• The work realities of professional session musicians

• Heaviness in metal music production

• Music on the blockchain (Web 3)

• Music business and industries studies

• Teutonic metal and cultural sonic signifiers in music production

• Guitar virtuosity and ‘shredding’

• Rock and metal guitar riffs

• Production of the rock and metal guitar sound

• Musicians’ usage of and opinions on musical equipment

• Gear acquisition syndrome

• Guitar amplification technologies

• History of popular music