Recent journalistic discourses have announced "the end of music genres", while common sense tends to perceive the latter as imposed categories, restricting the freedom of both artists and audiences In contrast to this preconceived idea, this special issue of Volume! draws on a historicist approach of the phenomenon to discuss the formation and development of music genres such as disco and dance, traditional music, heavy metal, dungeon synth, urban music, indie and progressive rock. Overall, the different papers pinpoint the powerful tool the concept of music genre can be to analyse the interconnection of musical sound and music's social meanings.
Volume! The French journal of popular music studies is the only peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to the study of contemporary popular music. It is published biannually by the Editions Mélanie Seteun, a publishing association specialized in popular music. The journal is in French with some non-translated articles in English. Volume! was established in 2002 under the title Copyright Volume! by Gérôme Guibert, Marie-Pierre Bonniol and Samuel Etienne, and obtained its current name in 2008.
Edited by Vanessa Blais-Tremblay and David Brackett.
Contributions by David Brackett, Mimi Haddon, Laura Risk, Eric Smialek, Iulia Dima et Baptiste Pilo, Claire Lesacher, Bruno Coulombe, Grégoire Bienvenu, Frédéric Trottier-Pistien, Édouard Degay Delpeuch, Philippe Birgy.
