Staff Profile

My research applies a cultural-historical approach to the intersection of ideology and musical practice in British folk and popular music. In 2017 I completed my AHRC-funded PhD thesis which combined ethnographic and desk-based research to explore the cultural significance of sound recording in the British post-war folk revival. I am interested in the role of recording and other media technologies in folk music cultures, and have published chapters on the role of recording within the British folk-rock movement, and on the media activism of the songwriter Ewan MacColl. In December 2017 I was appointed postdoctoral fellow on an AHRC Creative Engagement project on the development of music tourism in Scotland. I am currently preparing articles on contemporary English folk field recordings, and on theories of cultural transmission in folk music historiography. In addition to my research activities, I remain an active musician with significant professional experience as a singer and guitarist in a range of folk and popular styles.

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• Articles

  • Ord M. Common ground: landscape and place-identity in contemporary British folk. Ethnomusicology Forum 2023. Submitted.
  • Ord M, Behr A. Curating the music city: The accommodation sector in Glasgow’s music tourism ecology. Tourist Studies 2023, 23(3), 177-265.
  • Ord M. From Here: The Multimodal Construction of Place in English Folk Field Recordings. Journal of Language and Politics 2019, 18(4), 598-616.

• Authored Book

  • Ord M. Sound Recording and Authenticity in the Post-war British Folk Revival. New York; London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2025. In Preparation.

• Book Chapters

  • Ord M. Every Noise at Once: Online Music Discovery Maps and Cosmopolitan Subjectivities. In: The Bloomsbury Handbook of Popular Music and Social Class. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020, pp.117–132.
  • Ord M. Ewan MacColl’s Radio Ballads as Songs of Protest. In: Aileen Dillane, Martin J. Power, Eoin Devereux and Amanda Haynes, ed. Songs of Social Protest: International Perspectives. London: Rowman and Littlefield, 2018, pp.100-117.
  • Ord M. Song, Sonic Metaphor, and Countercultural Discourse in British Folk-Rock Recordings. In: Simon McKerrell and Lyndon Way, ed. Music as Multimodal Discourse: Semiotics, Power and Protest. London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017, pp.201-222.

• Report

  • Ord M, Behr A. Facilitating Music Tourism for Scotland’s Creative Economy. Newcastle University/AHRC/ Scottish Music Industry Association/Music Tourist, 2019.