Rupert Till | University of Huddersfield (original) (raw)
Books by Rupert Till
Music and Ritual: Bridging Material and Living Cultures (Raquel Jiménez, Rupert Till and Mark How... more Music and Ritual: Bridging Material and Living Cultures (Raquel Jiménez, Rupert Till and Mark Howell eds.). ICTM Music Archaeology Series, Vol.1. (2013) Ekho-Verlag, Berlin. ISBN 978-3-944415-11-6 [available at https://www.ekho-verlag.com/music-and-ritual/]
This book explores the development of a range of cults of popular music as a response to changes ... more This book explores the development of a range of cults of popular music as a response to changes in attitudes to meaning, spirituality and religion in society. At a time when fundamentalism is on the rise, traditional religions are in decline and postmodernity has challenged any system that claims to be all-defining, young people have left their traditional places of worship and set up their own, in clubs, at festivals and within music culture. "Pop Cults" investigates the ways in which popular music and its surrounding culture have become a primary site for the location of meaning, belief and identity. It provides an introduction to the history of the interactions of vernacular music and religion, and the role of music in religious culture. Rupert Till explores the cults of heavy metal, pop stars, club culture and virtual popular music worlds, investigating the sex, drug, local and death cults of the sacred popular, and their relationships with traditional religions. He concludes by discussing how and why popular music cultures have taken on many of the roles of traditional religions in contemporary society.
Papers by Rupert Till
When approaching a new, interdisciplinary field it is important to consider what has gone before.... more When approaching a new, interdisciplinary field it is important to consider what has gone before. Music archaeology, archaeoacoustics and sound archaeology are closely related areas, which have a history stretching back 40 years or more. This paper discusses some of the previous developments in the field, providing a context for current work. It points readers to a number of different sources of further information as well as discussing some of the issues raised by working across the borders of the disciplines of music, archaeology and acoustics. It addresses intentionality, scientific studies and interpretation, as well as the freedom post-processual archaeology offers from the dogma of trying to find simple answers to complex questions.
Bloomsbury Academic eBooks, 2023
This paper is an investigation into the acoustic culture of Stonehenge. It begins by discussing t... more This paper is an investigation into the acoustic culture of Stonehenge. It begins by discussing the importance of music and sound in the life of an aural/oral culture, and its importance as ritual technology. It goes on to provide background about the site in prehistory and in popular culture. Thomas Hardy's writing about Stonehenge raises the question of whether there are significant acoustic features at the site. There is then a study of the acoustics of Stonehenge, beginning with existing work on the subject and a theoretical consideration. It goes on to study the acoustics of a full size replica and a digital model before discussing the results of field tests in the stone circle itself. It concludes that the sonic features of Stonehenge were noticeable and significant, and that it is likely that they were a part of the ritual culture of the site.
This chapter explores ritual and trance in popular music contexts, focusing on the UK and Anglo-A... more This chapter explores ritual and trance in popular music contexts, focusing on the UK and Anglo-American traditions, but with relevance elsewhere. It begins by discussing conflict between and positioning of popular music and Christian traditions, and a wider opposition between popular and official (or high) culture. This is explored broadly through discussing examples of collective effervescence and trance practices in popular music fields, including in particular music festival traditions. Activities at the annual Buddhafields music festival in the UK are explored as a specific case study, discussing shamanic trance and ecstatic dance workshops. These are compared briefly with other trance and dance practices within electronic dance music culture. The chapter concludes by discussing how postmodernity has seen the erosion of boundaries between high art and popular culture, resulting in the field of religion, meaning and spirituality in a re-enchantment (Partridge 2005). The end of the modern experiment, that began with the rationalist enlightenment, has allowed ritual and trance practices to emerge within popular music cultures. It is interesting to compare these new cultural formations, influenced as they are by traditional and ancient practices, with their antecedents. This provides us with an opportunity to further inform our understanding of the significance of for example trance practices within human cultures.
Reprinted by permission of the Publishers from ‘Possession Trance Ritual in Electronic Dance Musi... more Reprinted by permission of the Publishers from ‘Possession Trance Ritual in Electronic Dance Music Culture: A Popular Ritual Technology for Reenchantment, Addressing the Crisis of the Homeless Self, and Reinserting the Individual into the Community’, in Exploring Religion and the Sacred in a Media Age ed. Christopher Deacy and Elizabeth Arweck Aldershot etc.: Ashgate, 2009), pp. 169–188. Copyright © 2009 ISBN 978-0-7546-6527-4
IASPM@journal, May 20, 2015
This Popular Music in Education (PME) special issue includes contributions discussing development... more This Popular Music in Education (PME) special issue includes contributions discussing developments in several countries, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Singapore and the United States. It covers a range of approaches, exploring technology, hermeneutics, theory, guitars, jazz, songwriting, DIY/DIWO, politics and music industry perspectives. As music institutions have increasingly opened their doors to popular music, this has inevitably led to a greater level of interest in how you teach and learn popular music. PME is presenting a louder presence within Popular Music Studies (PMS), as the ground prepared by PMS has made space for a wave of new PME courses and students to sweep through educational contexts. In the wake of such expansion, this special issue intends to promote a further understanding of relevant issues such as
Oxford University Press eBooks, Apr 14, 2021
This chapter explores how the representation of music has developed within human cultures. It beg... more This chapter explores how the representation of music has developed within human cultures. It begins by discussing the soundscapes of prehistoric landscapes, in order to better understand the acoustic ecologies of the past. This is followed by investigating the role of music within societies, addressing how music interacts with work, ritual, and trance. Discussion of lithophones, drums, and dancing is followed by addressing bone pipes, the earliest musical instrument archaeologists found, exploring music as technology for socialization and community. Bronze horns in Europe such as the Carnyx and Greek and Roman music provide evidence of complex technological processes applied to music making, showing an increasing sophistication in the use of technology to create sonic meanings. The paper concludes that the representation of meaning in sound through an aural symbolic language, combines semiotics and embodied knowledge in complex networks of understanding that play a significant role in human cultures.
I.B.Tauris eBooks, Jun 1, 2011
Till, Rupert (2011) 21st Century Trance Cult: Electronic Dance Music Culture as a Form of Possess... more Till, Rupert (2011) 21st Century Trance Cult: Electronic Dance Music Culture as a Form of Possession Trance, and its Role in Replacing the Traditional Roles of Religions Within Western European Popular Youth Culture. In: Religion and Popular Music in Europe: New Expressions of Sacred and Secular Identity. I. B. Tauris Library of Modern Religion (18). I. B. Tauris, London/New York, pp. 145-162. ISBN 9781848858091
Routledge eBooks, Jan 20, 2017
IASPM@journal, Apr 15, 2011
This paper is an investigation into the acoustic culture of Stonehenge. It begins by discussing t... more This paper is an investigation into the acoustic culture of Stonehenge. It begins by discussing the importance of music and sound in the life of an aural/oral culture, and its importance as ritual technology. It goes on to provide background about the site in prehistory and in popular culture. Thomas Hardy's writing about Stonehenge raises the question of whether there are significant acoustic features at the site. There is then a study of the acoustics of Stonehenge, beginning with existing work on the subject and a theoretical consideration. It goes on to study the acoustics of a full size replica and a digital model before discussing the results of field tests in the stone circle itself. It concludes that the sonic features of Stonehenge were noticeable and significant, and that it is likely that they were a part of the ritual culture of the site.
Music and Ritual: Bridging Material and Living Cultures (Raquel Jiménez, Rupert Till and Mark How... more Music and Ritual: Bridging Material and Living Cultures (Raquel Jiménez, Rupert Till and Mark Howell eds.). ICTM Music Archaeology Series, Vol.1. (2013) Ekho-Verlag, Berlin. ISBN 978-3-944415-11-6 [available at https://www.ekho-verlag.com/music-and-ritual/]
This book explores the development of a range of cults of popular music as a response to changes ... more This book explores the development of a range of cults of popular music as a response to changes in attitudes to meaning, spirituality and religion in society. At a time when fundamentalism is on the rise, traditional religions are in decline and postmodernity has challenged any system that claims to be all-defining, young people have left their traditional places of worship and set up their own, in clubs, at festivals and within music culture. "Pop Cults" investigates the ways in which popular music and its surrounding culture have become a primary site for the location of meaning, belief and identity. It provides an introduction to the history of the interactions of vernacular music and religion, and the role of music in religious culture. Rupert Till explores the cults of heavy metal, pop stars, club culture and virtual popular music worlds, investigating the sex, drug, local and death cults of the sacred popular, and their relationships with traditional religions. He concludes by discussing how and why popular music cultures have taken on many of the roles of traditional religions in contemporary society.
When approaching a new, interdisciplinary field it is important to consider what has gone before.... more When approaching a new, interdisciplinary field it is important to consider what has gone before. Music archaeology, archaeoacoustics and sound archaeology are closely related areas, which have a history stretching back 40 years or more. This paper discusses some of the previous developments in the field, providing a context for current work. It points readers to a number of different sources of further information as well as discussing some of the issues raised by working across the borders of the disciplines of music, archaeology and acoustics. It addresses intentionality, scientific studies and interpretation, as well as the freedom post-processual archaeology offers from the dogma of trying to find simple answers to complex questions.
Bloomsbury Academic eBooks, 2023
This paper is an investigation into the acoustic culture of Stonehenge. It begins by discussing t... more This paper is an investigation into the acoustic culture of Stonehenge. It begins by discussing the importance of music and sound in the life of an aural/oral culture, and its importance as ritual technology. It goes on to provide background about the site in prehistory and in popular culture. Thomas Hardy's writing about Stonehenge raises the question of whether there are significant acoustic features at the site. There is then a study of the acoustics of Stonehenge, beginning with existing work on the subject and a theoretical consideration. It goes on to study the acoustics of a full size replica and a digital model before discussing the results of field tests in the stone circle itself. It concludes that the sonic features of Stonehenge were noticeable and significant, and that it is likely that they were a part of the ritual culture of the site.
This chapter explores ritual and trance in popular music contexts, focusing on the UK and Anglo-A... more This chapter explores ritual and trance in popular music contexts, focusing on the UK and Anglo-American traditions, but with relevance elsewhere. It begins by discussing conflict between and positioning of popular music and Christian traditions, and a wider opposition between popular and official (or high) culture. This is explored broadly through discussing examples of collective effervescence and trance practices in popular music fields, including in particular music festival traditions. Activities at the annual Buddhafields music festival in the UK are explored as a specific case study, discussing shamanic trance and ecstatic dance workshops. These are compared briefly with other trance and dance practices within electronic dance music culture. The chapter concludes by discussing how postmodernity has seen the erosion of boundaries between high art and popular culture, resulting in the field of religion, meaning and spirituality in a re-enchantment (Partridge 2005). The end of the modern experiment, that began with the rationalist enlightenment, has allowed ritual and trance practices to emerge within popular music cultures. It is interesting to compare these new cultural formations, influenced as they are by traditional and ancient practices, with their antecedents. This provides us with an opportunity to further inform our understanding of the significance of for example trance practices within human cultures.
Reprinted by permission of the Publishers from ‘Possession Trance Ritual in Electronic Dance Musi... more Reprinted by permission of the Publishers from ‘Possession Trance Ritual in Electronic Dance Music Culture: A Popular Ritual Technology for Reenchantment, Addressing the Crisis of the Homeless Self, and Reinserting the Individual into the Community’, in Exploring Religion and the Sacred in a Media Age ed. Christopher Deacy and Elizabeth Arweck Aldershot etc.: Ashgate, 2009), pp. 169–188. Copyright © 2009 ISBN 978-0-7546-6527-4
IASPM@journal, May 20, 2015
This Popular Music in Education (PME) special issue includes contributions discussing development... more This Popular Music in Education (PME) special issue includes contributions discussing developments in several countries, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Singapore and the United States. It covers a range of approaches, exploring technology, hermeneutics, theory, guitars, jazz, songwriting, DIY/DIWO, politics and music industry perspectives. As music institutions have increasingly opened their doors to popular music, this has inevitably led to a greater level of interest in how you teach and learn popular music. PME is presenting a louder presence within Popular Music Studies (PMS), as the ground prepared by PMS has made space for a wave of new PME courses and students to sweep through educational contexts. In the wake of such expansion, this special issue intends to promote a further understanding of relevant issues such as
Oxford University Press eBooks, Apr 14, 2021
This chapter explores how the representation of music has developed within human cultures. It beg... more This chapter explores how the representation of music has developed within human cultures. It begins by discussing the soundscapes of prehistoric landscapes, in order to better understand the acoustic ecologies of the past. This is followed by investigating the role of music within societies, addressing how music interacts with work, ritual, and trance. Discussion of lithophones, drums, and dancing is followed by addressing bone pipes, the earliest musical instrument archaeologists found, exploring music as technology for socialization and community. Bronze horns in Europe such as the Carnyx and Greek and Roman music provide evidence of complex technological processes applied to music making, showing an increasing sophistication in the use of technology to create sonic meanings. The paper concludes that the representation of meaning in sound through an aural symbolic language, combines semiotics and embodied knowledge in complex networks of understanding that play a significant role in human cultures.
I.B.Tauris eBooks, Jun 1, 2011
Till, Rupert (2011) 21st Century Trance Cult: Electronic Dance Music Culture as a Form of Possess... more Till, Rupert (2011) 21st Century Trance Cult: Electronic Dance Music Culture as a Form of Possession Trance, and its Role in Replacing the Traditional Roles of Religions Within Western European Popular Youth Culture. In: Religion and Popular Music in Europe: New Expressions of Sacred and Secular Identity. I. B. Tauris Library of Modern Religion (18). I. B. Tauris, London/New York, pp. 145-162. ISBN 9781848858091
Routledge eBooks, Jan 20, 2017
IASPM@journal, Apr 15, 2011
This paper is an investigation into the acoustic culture of Stonehenge. It begins by discussing t... more This paper is an investigation into the acoustic culture of Stonehenge. It begins by discussing the importance of music and sound in the life of an aural/oral culture, and its importance as ritual technology. It goes on to provide background about the site in prehistory and in popular culture. Thomas Hardy's writing about Stonehenge raises the question of whether there are significant acoustic features at the site. There is then a study of the acoustics of Stonehenge, beginning with existing work on the subject and a theoretical consideration. It goes on to study the acoustics of a full size replica and a digital model before discussing the results of field tests in the stone circle itself. It concludes that the sonic features of Stonehenge were noticeable and significant, and that it is likely that they were a part of the ritual culture of the site.
Journal of Beliefs & Values-studies in Religion & Education, Apr 1, 2010
Prince is an artist who integrates elements from the sacred into his work. He uses popular iconog... more Prince is an artist who integrates elements from the sacred into his work. He uses popular iconography to present himself as an icon of consumer culture, as a deified 'rock god' worshipped by his fans, and as a preacher leading his audience like a congregation. His personality cult mixes spirituality and sexuality, and deals with issues of ecstasy and liberation, a transgressional approach that draws both controversy and public interest. This paper investigates Prince's work and the role of the pop star as an icon within contemporary culture, an icon that contains a physicality and sexuality not present in contemporary western religious traditions. It discusses to what extent popular musical culture operates as a form of religious practice within contemporary western culture, and the implications that this has. The paper investigates the construction of Prince's public character, his manipulation of the star system, and how he uses popular iconography to blur the distinctions between spirituality and sexuality, the idealised performer and the real world, the sacred and the profane, and the human and the divine. It explores how he possesses and is possessed by the audience, who enter into the hollow vessel he offers up to his fans.
Acoustics, Aug 9, 2019
This paper explores the acoustics of three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: five caves in Spain that ... more This paper explores the acoustics of three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: five caves in Spain that feature prehistoric paintings that are up to 40,000 years old; Stonehenge stone circle in England, which is over 4000 years old; and Paphos Theatre in Cyprus, which is 2000 years old. Issues with standard acoustic methods are discussed, and a range of different possible approaches are explored for sound archaeology studies, also known as archaeoacoustics. The context of the three sites are examined followed by an analysis of their acoustic properties. Firstly, early decay time is explored, including a comparison of these sites to contemporary concert halls. Subsequently, reverberation, clarity of speech, and bass response are examined. Results show that the caves have a wide range of different naturally occurring acoustics, including reverberation, and strong bass effects. Stonehenge has acoustics that change as the design of the site develops, with some similarities to the effects in the caves. Acoustic effects vary considerably as you move further into the centre of the stone circle, and as the stone circle develops through time; these effects would be noticeable, and are a by-product of the human building of ritual sites. At Paphos Theatre, acoustics vary from the best seats on the front rows, backwards; here, the architects have considered acoustics in the design of the building. The paper illustrates the changing acoustics of ritual sites in human cultures, showing how sound contributed to giving spaces an individual character, helping to afford a sense of contextualized ritual place.
Dancecult, 2011
St John bookends the volume; his introduction provides a useful assessment of writing on psytranc... more St John bookends the volume; his introduction provides a useful assessment of writing on psytrance, whilst providing a contextual framework. He makes a strong case for the need for the collection and prepares the ground for the variety of different approaches that follow. ...
Popular Music, 2008
The International Association for the Study of Popular Music's biennial international confer... more The International Association for the Study of Popular Music's biennial international conference took place in July this year in Mexico City. The facilities in the Universidad Iberoamericana, a modern private Jesuit University in the city's business quarter, were excellent, with video ...