Sonic Japan Research Association (SJRA) Official Launch Event & Book Launch: The Advent of Sound in Japanese Cinema: A Handbook

We are delighted to invite you to the official launch of the Sonic Japan Research Association (SJRA), a new international scholarly organisation bringing together researchers interested in contemporary and historical understandings of sound in Japanese culture and society.

To mark this occasion, we are partnering with editor Sean O'Reilly and contributors to celebrate the international release of The Advent of Sound in Japanese Cinema: A Handbook (Routledge, 2026), a groundbreaking collection exploring the 1930s transition from silent to sound film in Japan.

Date: Tuesday, 27 January 2026

Time: 19:30 JST / 11:30 CET / 10:30 GMT / 05:30 EST

Format: Online roundtable discussion via Zoom

Registration: https://uva-live.zoom.us/meeting/register/RVe7caehR1uEGfQjhxejfw
Webpage: https://www.sonicjapan.eu/sonic-japan-research-association-sjra-official-launch-event-book-launch-the-advent-of-sound-in-japanese-cinema-a-handbook/

Event Programme:

Part 1: Introducing SJRA

A brief introduction to the Sonic Japan Research Association, its mission, and future activities.

Part 2: Roundtable Discussion - The Advent of Sound in Japanese Cinema

An informal, free-ranging conversation with editor Sean O'Reilly, contributing authors, and SJRA co-founders exploring:

• Why attention to sound matters now for Japanese film studies

• What sound analysis adds to our understanding of cinema

• The contested, drawn-out transition to talkies in 1930s Japan

• New directions in sound studies of Japanese culture

Attendees are warmly invited to participate in the discussion.

About SJRA:

The Sonic Japan Research Association provides a platform for meeting, exchanging ideas, and networking for scholars researching sound across the arts, humanities, and social sciences. As disciplinary and national boundaries can restrict collaboration, SJRA creates a shared space for building lasting networks that strengthen possibilities for sonic research on Japan.

Website: https://www.sonicjapan.eu/

About the Book:

The Advent of Sound in Japanese Cinema: A Handbook, edited by Sean O'Reilly, offers fifteen diverse perspectives on the 1930s sound transition in Japanese cinema. From major studios' experimentation to new storytelling possibilities, from overlooked directors to evolving soundscapes beyond the cinema, this volume demonstrates that neither spectators nor filmmakers necessarily assumed the superiority of sync sound, challenging our own assumptions about cinema's "progress".

https://www.routledge.com/The-Advent-of-Sound-in-Japanese-Cinema-A-Handbook/OReilly/p/book/9789048572441

Event Registration:

Please register in advance via Zoom https://uva-live.zoom.us/meeting/register/RVe7caehR1uEGfQjhxejfw

(Please note that this event will not be recorded.)

The event will last approximately 60-90 minutes.

We look forward to welcoming you to this exciting double-launch event!

Contact: info@sonicjapan.eu

POP TALK 19 with Jun.-Prof. Dr. Christine Meltzer (January 20th, 2026)

For our next IASPM BENELUX POP TALK 19, we are excited to welcome Jun.-Prof. Dr. Christine Meltzer (Hanover University of Music, Drama, and Media) on January 20th, 16:30-17:30. The talk will have the title: Beyond the Beat: Four Decades of Gender Representation in Music Videos

Registration via: https://uva-live.zoom.us/meeting/register/dvANp2XkS367EoMJuqTbhA

Abstract:  

The portrayal of gender in music videos has significant implications for societal attitudes and behavior. Women continue to be underrepresented and sexualized in music videos. This study uses a comprehensive automated quantitative analysis of nearly 10.000 music videos spanning four decades and multiple genres. We used multimodal large language models (MLLMs) to examine the visibility and sexualization of women. We find that while women's visibility has increased over time, gender inequalities persist and vary significantly across genres. In particular, women artists tend to have higher visibility and are more likely to be sexualized in their videos. Genre differences also play a significant role, with the results revealing that dance videos have higher levels of sexualization. These findings emphasize the problematic role of music videos in shaping gender perceptions and highlight the need for continued awareness-raising to promote gender equality in media representations. 

Bio:  

Dr. Christine E. Meltzer is a Junior Professor of Communication Studies with a focus on Media and Music at the Department of Journalism and Communication Research (IJK) at Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media. Her major research interests include the role of media and music in social inequality and intergroup conflict, especially concerning marginalized groups and violence against women.

IASPM Benelux is launching its annual call for a student board member!

We invite (BA and MA) students with a dedication to the study of popular music (incl. jazz, EDM,…) at a university, university college or hogeschool in the Netherlands, Flanders or Luxemburg to apply for our one-year board membership program.

As a student board member, you will act as a representative for the popular music student population in the Benelux region. You will be able to fully participate in all board discussions (ca. monthly digital meetings) and have full voting rights on all board decisions. As such, you will gain an intimate understanding of the organizational and structural workings of IASPM, particularly the Benelux branch, and will be able to benefit from the global network of our organization. There may be a possibility of internship credits depending on your institution’s regulations.

Your tasks will include, among others, assisting with the organization of our annual student conference and other (digital or live) events such as our Pop Talks series. Also, you will support the board with external communication, both on social media and through e-mail, with our branch members and international colleagues.

To apply for this position, you need to submit a small dossier comprising a brief CV listing elements relevant to the position and a separate document with your response (ca. 100 words per question) to the following three questions:

• What is your connection to IASPM and/or, more specifically, the Benelux branch?

• In what way do you envision this board membership to help with your future endeavours as a popular music scholar?

• What type of initiatives would you undertake in this role as a student board member, considering that you will represent the popular music student population in the Benelux region?

Please submit your dossier (CV + document with answers to questions) to our branch secretary, Joanna Zienkiewicz (j.z.zienkiewicz@rug.nl) before 31 December 2025. The board will decide on the awarding of this position in January 2026, with the newly-elected student board member starting at their earliest convenience.

Would you like to know more about the position? Read the account from our departing student board member, Fae Janssen, below! 

Hi! I'm Fae and I was the student board member of IASPM Benelux for 2025. I learned a lot during my board year. Initially, I found the position daunting to take on. But once I took my first steps, it was extremely gratifying and stimulating to be in charge of something important. The ability to support popular music research and my fellow pop music scholars was an incredible motivator.  Additionally, the board gave me excellent guidance and encouraged me to be creative; to come up with my own initiatives. Organising the student conference was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. All the pieces coming together, like the budget, email correspondences with vendors/speakers and leading the student conference team.

I highly recommend applying for this position, especially if you plan to continue academia or are looking for a stepping stone to a future job. Good luck and I'm always here to lend you a hand! 

OPEN CALL: The IASPM Benelux Popular Music Thesis Prize 2025

IASPM Benelux invites student applicants to apply for the Bachelors and Masters Popular Music Thesis Prize. This prize honors outstanding research by students (previously enrolled in a university/university of applied sciences in the Benelux region) writing about popular music. The prize is awarded to the best-researched and best-written BA and MA thesis on some subject related to popular music. The winning thesis will incorporate one or more relevant perspectives which might reflect a broad range of academic and professional fields including but not limited to sociology, musicology, media studies, ethnomusicology, cultural studies, journalism, economics, performance studies, and/or history. The BA and MA thesis must be written in either Dutch or English.

The award ceremony is planned to take place during the IASPM Benelux student conference (June 2026).

Guidelines

All materials must be submitted by 31 January 2026 in pdf form to the student member of IASPM Benelux board, Fae Janssen: farijn.janssen@ru.nl

Please make sure to include the following three documents in your digital application:

• A digital copy of the student’s Graduation Certificate.

• BA or MA Thesis including:
  Title of thesis
  Short abstract (200–300 words),
  Full thesis text (please cross out any passages referring to your name or your university name on the thesis to ensure anonymity).

• Separate Title Page with:

• Student’s name,

• Student’s institution and major,

• Thesis supervisor,

• Education period (study dates),

• Degree granted (BA, MA or Pre-Master),

• Student’s email and address.

International Research Workshop: AND SUDDENLY THERE WAS CITY POP…

IASPM Beneulx is very proud and happy to invite you to the upcoming workshop:

AND SUDDENLY THERE WAS CITY POP…

THE GLOBAL DIMENSIONS OF THE RETROGRADE FORMATION OF A JAPANESE POPULAR MUSIC GENRE

International Research Workshop, University of Amsterdam, March 19-21, 2025

And suddenly there was “City Pop”. The music sounded familiar, and its name also rang a bell. But even if those in the know about the history of popular music in Japan might associate the term with the late 1970s and early 1980s, the music that today goes by the name “City Pop” usually wasn't called that back then. This is also the reason why there is much debate about exactly what Japanese popular music is meant by the term “City Pop”. “City Pop” only recently became a genre designation, and the coinage and filling of the term with musical content from the past appears to be a process that involves actors not only from Japan. Even if the production and reception of the music that today goes under the name of “City Pop” was completely analogue at the time it was created and was limited to Japan, the formation of the genre of “City Pop” seems to be a global process that retroactively takes place in the digital environment of the Internet and challenges existing academic genre theories which assume that the formation of music genres can be clearly dated historically and traced geographically.

The workshop will not be held in the form of a conference, but is intended as a kind of expert meeting during which scholars researching “City Pop” and/or Japanese popular music of the 1970s and 1980s will together attempt to trace this decades-spanning, global process in as much detail as possible, as an example of cultural production transitioning cultures, temporalities and technologies.

The workshop is supported by…

ASCA, the Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis,

IASPM Benelux, the Benelux Branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music,

K. Matsushita Foundation,

NICA, the Netherland Institute of Cultural Analysis,

the University of Amsterdam’s capacity group Musicology,

and the University of Osaka

… and organised by…

Oliver Seibt (University of Amsterdam, NL) & Ken Katō (Osaka University, JP)

REGISTRATION via the QR code on the poster or via e-mail: F.O.Seibt@uva.nl

Location: The UBA Singel, Potgieterzaal and Zoom (link will be provided after registration)

Wednesday, March 19, 2025

9.00-9.15 Welcome Address

Oliver Seibt (University of Amsterdam, NL) and Ken Katō (Osaka University, JP)

9.15-10.45 (Panel 1) “City Music” and “New Music” 1

Moritz Sommet (University of Fribourg, CH)
Urban Psychogeography as Transcultural Intertextuality in the Lyrics of Matsumoto Takashi

Ai Ishikawa (Tokyo University, JP)
Choreography for the Sudden Emergence of City Pop: Analysis of the Singing Voices of Happii Endo and Their Cover Versions

11.15-12.45 (Panel 2) “City Music” and “New Music” 2

Anita Drexler (Osaka University, JP)
Grasping the Amorphous: On the Formation of a Canon of Nyū Myūjikku

Tokikake Ii (University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, US)
“City Pop”? Cool Japan and the Perception of City Pop/New Music in and outside of Japan 

13.30-15.00 (Panel 3) From “City Pops” to “wamono” 1

Davide Gnoato (Art University Linz in Vienna, AT)
City Pop and the Digital Revolution. Genre and Sound Identity by New Technologies

Martin Roberts (Emerson University, US)
Endless Summer: Transcultural Geographies of City Pop Art

Thursday, March 20, 2025

9.15-10.45 (Panel 4) From “City Pops” to “wamono” 2

Chris Tonelli (University of Groningen, NL)
Shibuya-kei, Pico-Pico and Hipster Re-Presentation: Proliferating the Pastiche that Regenrefied City Pop

Tetsu Ōshima (Tamagawa University, JP)
Continuing Curatorial Practice: From Happy End via wamono to City Pop

11.15-12.45 Key Note

Toshiyuki Ōwada (Keio University, JP)
The Sonic Texture of City Pop – History, Musicians, and Its Representation

13.30-15.00 (Panel 5) Algorithms and Anemoia 1

Sayo Sakamoto (University of Southern California, US)
Collaging the Past: Vague Memory in Vaporwave and City Pop’s Nostalgia

Ollie Hershon (Durham University, UK)
Skylines and Supras: Exploring City Pop's Resurgence in the Age of Anemoia

Friday March 21, 2025

9.15-10.45 (Panel 6) Algorithms and Anemoia 2

Benjamin Düster (University of Göttingen, DE)
A City Pop Fanon in the New Media Age? Material Genre Formations Between Algorithms, Vinyl and Cassettes

Shang Gao (Communication University of China, CN)
Digital Echoes: The Evolution and Cross-Cultural Reinterpretation of City Pop in Chinese Online Communities

11.15-12.45 (Panel 7) Non-Japanese and “Neo-City Pop” 1

Viriya Sawangchot (Walailak University, TH)
Resonances of City Pop in the 1980s Thai Pop Music

Herb L. Fondevilla (Rikkyo University, JP)
The J-Pop in Manila Sound: Hybridization in Popular Music

13.30-15.00 (Panel 8) Non-Japanese and “Neo-City Pop” 2

Cody Black (Duke University, US)
Playlisting the City: Genre, “City Pop,” and the Aural Politics of Personal Playlists in Contemporary Seoul

Ken Katō (Osaka University, JP)
Reimagining the City: Neo-City Pop and Independent Soundscapes