Newcastle University

Background

Richard Elliott graduated from the University of Warwick in 1997 with a BA in Comparative American Studies. He completed his MA with the Open University, having turned his attention to the study of popular music. He moved to Newcastle where he completed a PhD investigating aspects of loss in popular music under the supervision of Prof. Richard Middleton and Dr. Ian Biddle at the International Centre for Music Studies.

Memberships

Richard is a member of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM).

Informal Interests

In addition to his academic work, Richard writes for the popular culture websites PopMatters and Tiny Mix Tapes. A selection of his music reviews can be found here and here.

Research Interests

Richard Elliott's research interests are in the roles played by loss, memory, nostalgia and revolution in popular music. His work in these areas is heavily influenced by theories of place and spatiality and he is particularly interested in the ways in which music creates or evokes 'memory places' that take on significance for individuals and communities. In addition to Anglophone popular musics he works on Portuguese fado and Latin American nueva canción, reflecting interests developed during extensive periods based in Portugal and Chile.

Richard is the author of Fado and the Place of longing: Loss, Memory and the City (Ashgate, 2010). His blog "The Place of Longing" can be accessed here. His monograph on Nina Simone is forthcoming from Equinox - further details and a sample text can be found here.

More information and samples of Richard's work can be found here.

Other Expertise

Richard's other areas of expertise include: post-1950s popular music; North American country music and Americana; music and cultural theory; and the poetics of popular song.

Current Work

Richard has published or has forthcoming articles on a number of topics, including: the role of the city in fado music; place and displacement in the work of Bob Dylan; public consciousness and conscience in Latin American New Song; and popular music as 'event'. He is also working on project entitled "Technologies of Memory: Ritual, Remembrance and Recorded Sound" in collbaoration with two ICMuS colleagues, Ian Biddle and Nanette de Jong.

Future Research

Future scheduled projects include:
- an extended work on music, memory and place
- a study of the 'late voice' in popular music, using the examples of Ralph Stanley, Nina Simone, Amália Rodrigues, Bob Dylan and Robert Wyatt
- an analysis of representations of leisure, travel, exoticism and otherness by record labels associated with 'world musics' of various kinds

Research Roles

Richard is Associate Editor for the journal Radical Musicology and is a member of the Popular Music Research Network.

Postgraduate Supervision

Richard supervises MA dissertations and PhD theses on areas relating to his research and teaching expertise.

Funding

AHRC doctoral award.

Undergraduate Teaching

Music and Cultural Theory (module leader)
Understanding Vernacular Musics
Specialist Study supervision

Postgraduate Teaching

Studying Popular Music (module leader)
Popular Music and the Politics of Authenticity (module leader)
Ritual, Remembrance and Recorded Sound (module leader) Further details
Urban Musicology (module leader) Further details
Specialist Study supervision (Masters and PhD) 

• Elliott R. Nina Simone. London: Equinox, 2013. In Press.
• Elliott R. Fado and the Place of Longing: Loss, Memory and the City. Farnham: Ashgate, 2010.
• Elliott R. Public consciousness, political conscience, and memory in Latin American nueva canción. In: Clarke D; Clarke E, ed. Music and Consciousness: Philosophical, Psychological, and Cultural Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011, pp.327-341.
• Elliott R. The Same Distant Places: Bob Dylan's Poetics of Place and Displacement. Popular Music and Society 2009, 32(2), 249-270.
• Elliott R. Popular Music and/as Event: Subjectivity, Love and Fidelity in the Aftermath of Rock ’n’ Roll. Radical Musicology 2008, 3.
• Elliott R. PHD Thesis: Loss, Memory and Nostalgia in Popular Song: Thematic Aspects and Theoretical Approaches. Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle University, 2008. International Centre for Music Studies.
• Elliott R. Reconstructing the event: Spectres of terror in Chilean performance. British Postgraduate Musicology 2006, 8.
• Elliott R. The Selling Sound: The Rise of the Country Music Industry. Popular Music 2010, 29(3), 506-509.
• Elliott R. Country: A Regional Exploration. Popular Music 2010, 29(2), 320-322.
• Elliott R. Linthead Stomp: The Creation of Country Music in the Piedmont South (Book review). Popular Music 2010, 29(2), 320-322.
• Elliott R. Words and Music of Bruce Springsteen. Popular Music 2008, 27(2), 336-338.
• Elliott R. True to the roots: Americana music revealed. Popular Music 2008, 27(1), 179-181.