Dr Jan Butler

I teach across a number of modules and supervise dissertations at UG and PG level, usually focusing on popular music history and analysis, and film music studies.

 I have previously co-supervised a PhD student exploring Radiohead and genre, and am currently supervising two PhD students - one working on the impact of the welfare state on working class musicians in the UK in the 1950s and 60s, the other exploring the New Romantics. 

Inquiries from prospective PhD students exploring areas of pop musicology or film musicology are always welcome. 

I specialise in the study of rock in the context of its surrounding institutions, exploring how musicians negotiate the expectations of their audience, the industry and the media and analysing the resultant sounds and visuals. Much of this work so far has focussed on the birth of rock in the 60s, looking at the Beach Boys, Jimi Hendrix and Jefferson Airplane as particular examples.  I am also interested in the nature of recordings and the analysis of record production and am currently working on a collaborative project exploring these questions in relation to the Squeeze album, Spot the Difference.  I also study film music, and am currently writing a chapter on Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet. 

Research grants and awards

• My MA in Music was supported by a bursary from the Society for Music Analysis.
• My PhD was supported by an AHRC studentship.
• The 2011 Shifting Ground Study Day exploring Music and Publishing was supported by the Royal Musical Association.

Research projects

With members of PMRU, I am currently working on two projects:

• Shifting Ground - an ongoing series of events exploring different aspects of publishing of and publishing about music.
• Spot the Difference - an exploration of the Squeeze album 'Spot the Difference', looking at issues of music copyright and exact reproduction of recordings.

I co-organised PMRU's 'Nightshift: Exploring Oxford’s Music Magazine', a one-day public symposium at Oxford Brookes University bringing together academics and broadcasters, journalists, promoters and musicians of the Oxford music scene journalists to discuss the history and impact of Nightshift magazine.

I organised and presented at a PMRU workshop on our 'Spot the Difference' project as part of the Oxford Ideas Festival, September 2018.

I am an Associate of the Higher Education Academy, and a member of the International Association for The Study of Popular Music and the Association for the Study of the Art of Record Production.

• Sep 2018, ''Spot the Difference': Reproduction, Re-recording and the Reimagining of historic tracks', Crosstown Traffic, Popular Music Theory and Practice international conference, Huddersfield University
• Apr 2018, Interview with Ronan Monroe, Nightshift: Exploring Oxford’s Music Magazine Study Day, Oxford Brookes University (co-organiser)
• Apr 2013, 'The Musicology of Record Production', Institute for Musical Research postgraduate training day, invited speaker 
• Apr 2011,  Lead organizer of Shifting Ground II: A Symposium on Music and Publishing, Oxford Brookes University
• Jan 2010,  ‘The Role of the Rock Cultural Intermediary: The Birth of the American Rock Press in the 1960s’, Shifting Ground: A Study Day in Popular Music and Publishing, Oxford Brookes University (co-organiser) 
• Nov, 2009 ‘Authentic Independents: Myth or Reality?’, The Art of Record Production Conference, University of Cardiff
• Jul 2009,  ‘The Critic as New Cultural Intermediary: the rise of the American rock press in the 1960s’, 6th International Conference on Music since 1900, University of Keele
• Jul 2009, 'The Reception of the Use of Technology in the work of Jimi Hendrix', 15th Biennial International IASPM Conference, University of Liverpool
• Jun 2009, ‘Ticket To Ride’: Album Art as a Gateway to the Psychedelic Community’, RMA Study Day: Image, Music, Identity: Constructing and Experiencing Identities through Music in Visual Culture Conference, University of Nottingham
• Sep 2005, ‘The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and the musicology of record production’, CHARM/The Art of Record Production Conference, University of Westminster 
• Aug 2005, ‘High Fidelities: The discourse of authenticity and Jimi Hendrix’, 4th International Conference on Twentieth-century music, University of Sussex                            
• Jan 2004, ‘Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge: A new film music?’, RMA Students’ Conference, Royal Holloway

You can find out more about the work I have done as part of the Popular Music Research Unit at PMRU blog.