Music Research Seminar: Matt Brennan (University of Glasgow)

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About Matt Brennan

Matt Brennan is an author, musician, and researcher. His creative practice as a musician informs his teaching and research process, which also draws from historical, sociological, business, and ethical approaches to understanding music in society.

He has served as Chair of the UK and Ireland branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM), and held a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship and Chancellor’s Fellowship at the University of Edinburgh prior to taking up his current post as Reader in Popular Music. At the University of Glasgow he is Director of the Interdisciplinary Music Industries Research Group (IMIRGe) and Convenor of the MSc Music Industries degree.

Matt has authored, co-authored, and edited several books in the field of popular music studies. His latest book, Kick It: A Social History of the Drum Kit (Oxford University Press 2020), establishes the drum kit's central role in shaping the history of music over the last 150 years; it was named one of the "best music books of 2020" by the Financial Times. His previous monograph, When Genres Collide (Bloomsbury 2017), earned numerous accolades (named as one of Pitchfork’s “Favourite Music Books of 2017”; Honourable Mention at the Association of American Publishers’ 2018 PROSE Awards; winner of the 2019 IASPM Canada Book Prize).

He has also co-authored the three-volume History of Live Music in Britain (Ashgate 2013; Routledge 2019; Routledge 2021), and co-edited The Cambridge Companion to the Drum Kit (Cambridge University Press 2021) and The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Music Education (Routledge 2017). Together with Simon Frith, he is editor of the Bloomsbury book series Alternate Takes -  Critical Responses to Popular Music.