Staff Profile

Richard Elliott is Senior Lecturer in Music at the International Centre for Music Studies. He is a cultural musicologist who works mostly in the discipline of popular music studies. He is the author of the books Fado and the Place of Longing (2010), Nina Simone (2013), The Late Voice (2015), The Sound of Nonsense (2018) and DJs do Guetto (2022). He has also written articles, essays and reviews covering popular music, literature, consciousness, ageing, memory, nostalgia, place and space, affect, language and technology. In addition to his academic publications, he writes about music, popular culture and materiality on his Substack, Songs and Objects.

Richard holds degrees in Music (PhD, Newcastle University), Popular Culture (MA, Open University) and Comparative American Studies (BA, University of Warwick). Further details of his work can be found at his website latevoice.com.

Richard is a member of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Other links:

Google Scholar profile

Humanities Commons profile

Richard Elliott is a cultural musicologist with a particular interest in popular musics of the world. He is the author of the books Fado and the Place of Longing: Loss, Memory and the City (Ashgate, 2010), Nina Simone (Equinox, 2013), The Late Voice: Time, Age and Experience in Popular Music (Bloomsbury Academic, 2015), The Sound of Nonsense (Bloomsbury Academic, 2018) and DJs do Guetto (2022, part of Bloomsbury Academic's 33 1/3 Europe series) He has also published articles and reviews on popular music, literature, consciousness, ageing, memory, nostalgia, place and space, affect, language and technology.

Richard’s research interests are wide but mostly connect to ways in which music reflects and produces time, space and memorable objects. His early work explored the roles played by loss, memory, nostalgia and revolution in popular music and was heavily influenced by theories of place and spatiality. These ideas were developed in his first book Fado and the Place of Longing, which analysed Portuguese fado music as a reflection and production of space and place.

The topics of memory, nostalgia and revolution are also present in Richard's book on Nina Simone, which combined history, biography and song analysis and which - unusually for publications about this artist - explored the whole of Simone's career. As well as attending to the often-discussed role Simone played in the civil rights era of the 1960s, Richard discusses the artist's late style and starts to outline his theory of the late voice.

Another ongoing theme in Richard's work is the various ways in which music creates or evokes ‘memory places’ that take on significance for individuals and communities. More recent work reflects music’s potential to soundtrack lives and histories; His 2015 book The Late Voice explores the representation of time, age and experience in popular song, building its narrative around extended case studies of Ralph Stanley, Frank Sinatra, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. Richard has written further about late voice in the work of Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen, and in a study of the song 'Who Knows Where the Time Goes', also contributing to an episode of the BBC series Soul Music devoted to that song. In a related vein, Richard's article on popular music and aging features in the Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging.

The Sound of Nonsense, published at the very end of 2017 (with a 2018 publication date), reflects Richard’s interest in words, music and sound studies. It brings together novelists, nonsense writers, sound poets, experimental composers, comedians and pop musicians in an attempt to get at the role of sound in creating, maintaining and disrupting meaning. The book builds on ideas previously explored in two articles about the musician Robert Wyatt.

Richard’s other areas of specialisation include the global span of popular music styles from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, music and cultural theory, urban musicology, the poetics of song and the politics of authenticity. He has a background in a variety of disciplines, having gained a Bachelor’s degree in Comparative American Studies, a Master’s in Popular Culture and a PhD in Music.

Richard is currently conducting research on the materiality of song and on the representation of global popular musics in the phonographic era. This work is appearing in a variety of formats, including a Substack about songs and objects, an article about Newcastle singer-songwriter Richard Dawson's object-oriented songcraft (forthcoming in Songwriting Studies), an entry in the 33 1/3 Europe series on DJs do Guetto (a 2006 compilation of Luso-African beats) and a chapter on the 1981 pop song 'Japanese Boy' for a collection about One-Hit Wonders.

Richard supervises MA dissertations and PhD theses on areas relating to the topics above.

Undergraduate Teaching

Richard is on sabbatical in 2024-25 and will not be offering any modules during this period.

In the past, Richard has led or co-led the modules American Popular Music (MUS2083), Popular Music and Media (MUS2085), Global Pop (MUS3009) and Case Studies in 21st Century Music. He has also contributed to Academic Practice for Music Studies (MUS1018), MUS2016 (DJing Skills and Turntablism), MUS1014 (Introduction to Popular Music Studies), MUS1012 (Understanding Music HIstory), MUS2108 (Music and Empire) and MUS8169 (Studies in Popular Music).

Popular Music and Media (MUS2085, co-taught with Dr Adam Behr) explores the relationship between popular music and media from a variety of critical and sociohistorical perspectives. In posing questions about the ways in which music has been produced, consumed, curated and mutated, the module sheds light on the ideological structures underpinning the mediation of music in the past and present. It does so by examining the relationships between musical production and media technologies (the microphone, phonograph, radio, film, television, mp3, social media, etc.); the changing role and place of music in society as understood through an analysis of media technologies; the meaning and nature of musical mediation and reception in society; the political economy of the music industry; the creative potential of media technologies for processes of musicking and remediation (including mixing, mash-ups, memes and plunderphonics); the mediation of music in work and leisure activities (the use of music while we work and play); case studies of key figures who have shaped our understanding of popular music and media, from musicians and producers to theorists and philosophers.

American Popular Music (MUS2083, not currently running) examines the historical, social and cultural contexts of American popular music, focussing predominantly on the USA. Emphasis is placed on popular genres and styles of the twentieth century, the period in which the USA took on a dominant role in the creation and spread of popular culture across the globe. As well as charting this growth in dominance, the module analyses popular music as representative ‘people’s music’. Genres and styles—including the blues, jazz, country, soul, funk, punk, disco, hip hop and grunge—are used to read aspects of change and continuity in the American twentieth century.

Rather than providing a simple chronological history of musical styles in the USA, the module uses the music to examine concepts of race, place, tradition, commerce and authenticity. The music industry is analysed in terms of American business models, and recording and revival are explored as ways of thinking about representation, commercialization and exceptionalism. Vital socio-historical moments—such as the emergence of rock and roll and the use of music in the civil rights era—are studied alongside the ‘invention’ of the teenager and the rise of a counterculture. The module concludes with a series of reflections on the various soundscapes associated with America and with the notion of multiple Americas audible through the myriad of non-Anglophone genres that exist within North America.

Global Pop (MUS3009, not currently running) traces the growth in awareness of musics from around the world from the early twentieth century onwards, an awareness made possible by developments in sound recording. From the first global recording boom of the 1920s to the contemporary mania for digging into the past (vinyl archaeology), sound recordings have been a primary means for listeners to experience otherness, for the music industry to diversify its market and for ‘experts’ (critics, DJs, collectors, academics) to attempt to master discourses around other cultures. The module also explores the contemporary global pop scene (its artists, objects, networks, practices and platforms) and considers the ways in which this scene (incorporating World Music 2.0 and outernational musics) can be distinguished from earlier periods of 'international' and 'world' music. To get a sense of the kind of things we study, check out the playlists on YouTube, Spotify and SoundCloud.

Postgraduate Teaching

MMus elective: Popular Music and the Politics of Authenticity (not currently running)

MMus dissertation supervision

PhD supervision in areas connected to Richard's teaching and research.

• Articles

  • Elliott R. The Reincarnation of an Egyptian Queen: Dystopian Lateness and Speculation in Nina Simone’s Afrofuturism. Jazz Research Journal 2022, 15(1-2), 25-50.
  • Elliott R. 'The Most Annoying Noise of All Time'. Australian Humanities Review 2022, (70), 58-66.
  • Elliott R. Brilliant disguises: Persona, autobiography and the magic of retrospection in Bruce Springsteen’s late career. Persona Studies 2019, 5(1), 17-32.
  • Elliott R. Species of Sonic Spaces. Literary Geographies 2017, 3(1), 69-86.
  • Elliott R. “My Tongue Gets t-t-t-”: Words, Sense and Vocal Presence in Van Morrison’s It’s Too Late to Stop Now. Twentieth-Century Music 2016, 13(1), 53-76.
  • Elliott R. The Choreography of Longing: Songs, Screens and Space in Carlos Saura’s Fados. Quaderns de Cine 2014, 9, 71-78.
  • Elliott R. “Time and Distance Are No Object”: Holiday Records, Representation and the Nostalgia Gap. Volume! 2014, 11(1), 131-143.
  • Elliott R. Free, Confused and Lonely: On Age, Pop, Fashion and Incompatibility. Radical Musicology 2013, 6.
  • Elliott R. The Same Distant Places: Bob Dylan's Poetics of Place and Displacement. Popular Music and Society 2009, 32(2), 249-270.
  • Elliott R. Popular Music and/as Event: Subjectivity, Love and Fidelity in the Aftermath of Rock ’n’ Roll. Radical Musicology 2008, 3.

• Authored Books

  • Elliott R. DJs do Guetto. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022.
  • Elliott R. The Sound of Nonsense. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018.
  • Elliott R. The Late Voice: Time, Age and Experience in Popular Music. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015.
  • Elliott R. Nina Simone. London: Equinox, 2013.
  • Elliott R. Fado and the Place of Longing: Loss, Memory and the City. Farnham: Ashgate, 2010.

• Book Chapters

  • Elliott R. Leaving the Table: Intimations of Mortality in Leonard Cohen’s Late Work. In: Marx W, ed. Music and Death: Funeral Music, Memory and Re-Evaluating Life. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2023, pp.134-149.
  • Barker J, Elliott R, Longstaff G. ‘Standing in Your Cardigan’: Evocative Objects, Ordinary Intensities, and Queer Sociality in the Swiftian Pop Song. In: Sikka,T;Longstaff,G;Walls,S, ed. Disrupted Knowledge: scholarship in a time of change. Leiden: Brill, 2023, pp.259-279.
  • Elliott R. Aneka, "Japanese Boy". In: Hill, S, ed. One-Hit Wonders: An Oblique History of Popular Music. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022, pp.129-138.
  • Elliott R. Aging and Popular Music. In: Gu, D; Dupre, ME, ed. Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging. Cham: Springer, 2020.
  • Middleton R, Elliott R. Voice as Instrument (Revised 2018). In: John Shepherd, David Horn, Dave Laing, Paul Oliver and Peter Wicke, ed. Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume II: Performance and Production. New York: Bloomsbury, 2018.
  • Middleton R, Elliott R. Vocalized Tone (Revised 2018). In: John Shepherd, David Horn, Dave Laing, Paul Oliver and Peter Wicke, ed. Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume II: Performance and Production. New York: Bloomsbury, 2018.
  • Elliott R. Sounding Out Popular Music History: A Musicological Approach. In: Baker, S; Strong, C; Istvandity, L; Cantillon, Z, ed. The Routledge Companion to Popular Music History and Heritage. London, UK: Routledge, 2018, pp.46-54.
  • Middleton R, Elliott R. Songwriter (Revised 2018). In: John Shepherd, David Horn, Dave Laing, Paul Oliver and Peter Wicke, ed. Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume II: Performance and Production. New York: Bloomsbury, 2018.
  • Middleton R, Elliott R. Song (Revised 2018). In: John Shepherd, David Horn, Dave Laing, Paul Oliver and Peter Wicke, ed. Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume II: Performance and Production. New York: Bloomsbury, 2018.
  • Middleton R, Elliott R. Singing (Revised 2018). In: John Shepherd, David Horn, Dave Laing, Paul Oliver and Peter Wicke, ed. Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume II: Performance and Production. New York: Bloomsbury, 2018.
  • Elliott R. “Words Take the Place of Meaning”: Sound, Sense and Politics in the Music of Robert Wyatt. In: Marc I; Green S, ed. The Singer-Songwriter in Europe: Paradigms, Politics and Place. London: Routledge, 2016, pp.51-64.
  • Elliott R. Words from the New World: Adventure and Memory in Patti Smith’s Late Voice. In: Chastagner C, ed. Patti Smith: Outside. Montpellier: Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée, 2015, pp.113-135.
  • Elliott R. Across the Evening Sky: The Late Voices of Sandy Denny, Judy Collins and Nina Simone. In: Haworth, C; Colton, L, ed. Gender, Age and Musical Creativity. Abingdon: Ashgate/Routledge, 2015, pp.141-153.
  • Elliott R. You can't just say “words”: Literature and Nonsense in the Work of Robert Wyatt. In: Carroll R; Hansen A, ed. Litpop: Writing and Popular Music. Farnham: Ashgate, 2014, pp.49-62.
  • Elliott R. So Transported: Nina Simone, “My Sweet Lord” and the (Un)folding of Affect. In: Thompson, M; Biddle, I, ed. Sound, Music, Affect: Theorizing Sonic Experience. London: Bloomsbury, 2013, pp.75-90.
  • Elliott R. Public consciousness, political conscience, and memory in Latin American nueva canción. In: Clarke D; Clarke E, ed. Music and Consciousness: Philosophical, Psychological, and Cultural Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011, pp.327-341.

• Editorial

  • Elliott R, Gardner A. Aging, Time, and Popular Music Special Issue Editorial. IASPM Journal 2024, 14(1), 1-4.

• Online Publications

  • Elliott R. Prince: an icon of a new form of classical music. The Conversation Trust, 2016. Available at: https://theconversation.com/prince-an-icon-of-a-new-form-of-classical-music-58270.
  • Ellliott, R. Why does Samuragochi’s musical fraud put artistic value in question?. The Conversation Trust, 2014. Available at: https://theconversation.com/why-does-samuragochis-musical-fraud-put-artistic-value-in-question-23096.
  • Elliott R. Vinyl fetishism and exhaustion on Record Store Day. The Conversation Trust, 2014. Available at: https://theconversation.com/vinyl-fetishism-and-exhaustion-on-record-store-day-25883.
  • Elliott R. Sometimes we need to recall music’s materiality. The Conversation Trust, 2014. Available at: https://theconversation.com/sometimes-we-need-to-recall-musics-materiality-28164.
  • Elliott R. Kurt Cobain and the search for a sincere rock star. The Conversation Trust, 2014. Available at: https://theconversation.com/kurt-cobain-and-the-search-for-a-sincere-rock-star-25335.
  • Elliott R. It’s time to embrace the ageing pop star. The Conversation Trust, 2014. Available at: https://theconversation.com/its-time-to-embrace-the-ageing-pop-star-24051.
  • Elliott R. Grammys remain out of touch with the modern music industry. The Conversation Trust, 2014. Available at: https://theconversation.com/grammys-remain-out-of-touch-with-the-modern-music-industry-22370.
  • Elliott R. Blood on the Tracks: Place and Displacement. PopMatters Media, 2010. Available at: https://www.popmatters.com/124623-blood-on-the-tracks-place-and-displacement-2496202276.html.

• Report

  • Elliott R. PHD Thesis: Loss, Memory and Nostalgia in Popular Song: Thematic Aspects and Theoretical Approaches. Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle University, 2008. International Centre for Music Studies.

• Reviews

  • Elliott R. The Endless Circuits of Global Music (Review of Ronald Radano and Tejumola Olaniyan (eds), Audible Empire: Music, Global Politics, Critique (Duke University Press, 2016). Reviews in Cultural Theory 2019, 8(1).
  • Elliott R. Guilbault, Jocelyne, and Roy Cape. 2014. Roy Cape: A Life on the Calypso and Soca Bandstand. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-5760-5 (hbk), 978-0-8223-5774-2 (pbk). 304 pp. Perfect Beat 2016, 17(2), 192-194.
  • Elliott R. Fado Resounding: Affective Politics and Urban Life by Lila Ellen Gray (Duke University Press, 2013) [book review]. Popular Music 2015, 34(2), 337-338.
  • Elliott R. Enciclopédia da Música em Portugal no Século XX edited by Salwa Castelo-Branco (Temas e Debates/Circulo de Leitores, 2010) [book review]. Popular Music 2014, 33(1), 161-164.
  • Elliott R. Bob Dylan. Volume! 2012, 9(1), 181-183.
  • Elliott R. 33 1/3: Johnny Cash's American Recordings by Tony Tost [Continuum Books; 2011]. Tiny MIx Tapes 2011.
  • Elliott R. The Secret Lives of Buildings: From the Ruins of the Parthenon to the Vegas Strip in Thirteen Stories by Edward Hollis (Picador, 2010) [book review]. PopMatters 2011.
  • Elliott R. The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl edited by Trevor Schoonmaker (Duke University Press, 2010) [book review]. PopMatters 2011.
  • Elliott R. On Elegance While Sleeping by Emilio Lascano Tegui,, trans. Idra Novey (Champaign, Ill: Dalkey Archive Press, 2010). PopMatters (10 February 2011). PopMatters 2011.
  • Elliott R. John Coltrane and Black America’s Quest for Freedom: Spirituality and the Music edited by Leonard Brown (New York City: Oxford University Press, 2010) [book review]. PopMatters 2011.
  • Elliott R. The Selling Sound: The Rise of the Country Music Industry. Popular Music 2010, 29(3), 506-509.
  • Elliott R. The Elephant’s Journey by José Saramago, trans. Margaret Jull Costa (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010) [book review]. PopMatters 2010.
  • Elliott R. Linthead Stomp: The Creation of Country Music in the Piedmont South (Book review). Popular Music 2010, 29(2), 320-322.
  • Elliott R. Country: A Regional Exploration. Popular Music 2010, 29(2), 320-322.
  • Elliott R. In Search of the Blues: A Journey to the Soul of Black Texas by Bill Minutaglio (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010) [book review]. PopMatters 2010.
  • Elliott R. Give ’em Soul, Richard! Race, Radio, and Rhythm and Blues in Chicago by Richard Stamz and Patrick A. Roberts (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2010) [book review]. PopMatters 2010.
  • Elliott R. Acoustic Territories: Sound Culture and Everyday Life by Brandon LaBelle (Continuum, 2010) [book review]. PopMatters 2010.
  • Elliott R. A Culture of Improvement: Technology and the Western Millennium by Robert Friedel (MIT Press, 2007) [book review]. 2010.
  • Elliott R. Words and Music of Bruce Springsteen. Popular Music 2008, 27(2), 336-338.
  • Elliott R. True to the roots: Americana music revealed. Popular Music 2008, 27(1), 179-181.