Bailey Rudd

Music Postgraduate Researcher

Supervisors: Dr Richard Elliott and Dr Michael Waugh

Bailey Rudd is a session musician, music educator, and cultural musicologist who began researching his PhD in 2025. He has performed internationally and worked with organisations such as the BBC, Arts Council, MOBO Awards, Mercury Prize, and more. He has generated hundreds of thousands of streams through recordings. Bailey teaches instrumental lessons privately and through a community interest company in Northumberland.

Bailey’s thesis explores how YouTubers migrate from entertainment to musical fields, considering how their audience react to possible changes in persona. Cultural phenomena such as authenticity and parasocial relationships are mapped between case studies across different musical genres. Findings will also investigate how artists may intentionally signpost their transition of virtual identity as to retain their audience. A multimedial method collates existing data from several online sources – including social media platforms – alongside collecting primary data from interviews and focus groups. Engaging the research with previous critical work highlights the effects digitality can bring to a modern persona.

Bailey engages in the fields of popular music studies, authenticity, persona, ethnomusicology, and cultural studies. He has previous experience in jazz studies and the sociology of live music scenes.

Bailey's personal interests surround his lovely cat (Misty) and practicing.