Email sent to Dean of Music, McGill University, 2006-08-18

Dear Dean,

I take this opportunity of expressing my interest in participating in the Future of Music Coalition 6th annual Policy Summit.

Having founded IASPM (International Association for the Study of Popular Music) in 1981 and having taught various aspects of and approaches to music qualifiable as "popular" since 1971, it would be surprising if I were to have had no coherent thoughts nor written anything about the future of music and music studies. Several aspects of the future of musics are of considerable interest to me. They are, in short and with reference to texts accessible online:

1. Copyright matters. The problems caused by commercially orientated legislation regulating intellectual and artistic property rights; viable solutions to such problems (partly explained in "Copyright vs. the democratic right to know" ). Other copyright matters are explained in direct reference to materials on my website, especially at http://tagg.org/infowhy.html. One particular set of solutions is presented on the Mass Media Music Scholars' Press site.

2. Music education. The institutionally organised study of musics outside the Central European art music canon has become increasingly common in many parts of the world. However, the structural organisation of tertiary-education music institutions remains very much that associated with particular needs of the classical canon and thwarts efforts to reflect the technological and artistic realities of musical practices in the digital, mass-media phase of the post-Edison era. For some thoughts on this set of problems, please see Chapters 1 and 2 in "Ten Little Title Tunes" ("The problem of musical absolutism" -- and "The decline of musical absolutism" -- ). See also "Popular Music Studies: a brief introduction" (PowerPoint presentation) and "The Göteborg connection - Lessons in the history and politics of popular music education and research (1997)"

3. Utopian and dystopian visions of imminent musical futures. See for example "Music 2017 - A British Dystopia", used by 'Copenhagen Wild Cards' as press release material for their futurologist exhibition and events in June 1996.

Hoping you will find these ideas of interest and of relevance to the upcoming Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit and looking forward to hearing from you shortly.

Yours sincerely,

Philip Tagg
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