Abstracts for Agents and Actors: Networks in Music History, 1 June 2022

Published 11.4.2022 | Updated 20.5.2022

Keynote lecture by Antoine Hennion

Music. The Art of Making the Past Present

Drawing on debates among historians about our relationship to the past and what it means to write history, I’ll explore the way in which the musical case — this art only existing if continuously “played again” — may help us both conceive history in a more sensitive way, and conceive musical sensitivity in a radically historical perspective.

Biography: Antoine Hennion, researcher at the CSI, MinesParis, PSL Université/CNRS, extensively published in music and cultural studies. Drawing on music, an art relying on a wide range of heterogeneous mediations (instruments, bodies, scores, stages, medias, recordings…), he has developed a pragmatist approach on taste, amateurs and attachments. Inside several collectives, he now participates in collaborative research-actions on various situations of fragility (homecare, migrants), in which to develop new forms of pragmatist inquiries.  

Pennanen, Risto Pekka

Networks for and against Slavery: Trafficking Teenage Musicians in late Habsburg Bohemia

The networks for trafficking teenage musicians in Austria-Hungary consisted of local contact persons, itinerant agents and band leaders or other parties who were looking for cheap labour force. Itinerant agents purchased daughters and sons of poor parents for relatively small sums of money to work as musicians in touring ladies’ orchestras (Damenkapellen) for one to several years in Austria-Hungary or Central and Western Europe. However, tours could take the teenagers to the Balkans, Russia, the Far East and even South America. In worst cases, the girls could end up as prostitutes in far-away places, while some boys were forced to work as beggar musicians for their masters. Crossing ethnic and state borders, the trafficking networks were well organised which tended to impede police measures. Forces against the trafficking teenage musicians in Austria-Hungary consisted of local authorities, Governors’ Offices, the press and, from the early 1900s till the Great War, the networks of activists cooperating with the committee of The First Austrian Congress of Child Protection in Vienna and The Austrian League against White Slavery. These networks were comprised of, for instance, jurisprudents, members of the women’s movement and child and youth protection campaigners. One of the Bohemian members of the former network, jurist Bohuslav Gebauer, concentrated on court cases on trafficking teenage musicians; he even published a study on them. My paper sheds light on the structure and workings of the two sets of networks for and against trafficking teenage musicians in Bohemia and on a few cases of a teenager being sold as a musician.

Biography: Risto Pekka Pennanen – musicologist and historian of ideas specialising in the Balkans and the Austro-Hungarian Empire – holds a title of docent in ethnomusicology at Tampere University, Finland. Pennanen received his PhD from University of Tampere and has been an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the Department of Musicology at Georg-August-University in Göttingen, Germany, a research associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, and a research fellow at Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. Currently he is a visiting research fellow at the Uniarts Helsinki’s History Forum (Sibelius Academy), University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland. He has published articles on various Balkan musical styles, especially those of Greece, Bulgaria and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and on discography, the recording industry, soundscape, female musicians and the canons of music theory and music history.

Heimonen, Panu

Morality, 18th century performance, and dialogue: How performance values circulate in actor networks

Present paper examines how social and individual values are transmitted in musical networks designed for researching performance practice in late classical style. Circulation of the social takes place in flat actor networks, but also in such networks that extend from bodily experience to moral values. We are juxtaposing Latour’s (2005) material-semiotic approach with Tarasti’s (2015) existential semiotic approach comprising individual and social meanings that sees the world as from an artwork’s idealistic and subjective perspective. The approaches are clearly complementary in that Latour brings out the networked materialistic surroundings of an artwork whereas Tarasti’s is an exceedingly humanistic approach. Technological advances in instrument building on the one hand and the sphere of philosophical ideas on the other hand are to be considered. In ANT technical-material innovations are on an equal footing with humanistic ideas. This is based on the inclination of actants in ANT to derive their nature from networks. What makes this kind of joint meanings possible is to see musical discourse as a conversation where dialogue between themes is taking place. Enlightenment ideas such as Humean benevolence or self-interest can be localized in musical dialogue. An example is Mozart’s piano concerto d-minor KV 466 1st movement where entry theme in bars 77-87 expresses self-interest and an individual’s related isolation from society leading to tragic experience on the one hand, but also arouses a sense of benevolence when seen as a part in a dialogue between the calm and solemn entry theme and the tragic and forward-moving orchestral introduction on the other hand. How are technical advances in fortepiano building affecting the performance of this passage? Depending on the circulation in the networks one gets different musical interpretations. The precise temporal properties in this dialogue can be experimented with and analyzed in performance with historical instruments. These different elements form part of a constellation of networks where the elements of ANT bring together technical features of fortepianos with the inner existential experience of a performer.

Biography: Panu Heimonen has been educated at the Sibelius-Academy (MA, Music theory and analysis) and the University of Helsinki (MA, Musicology, Philosophy). He pursues doctoral studies at the University of Helsinki. He has special interest in bringing together narrative ways of analysing music with traditional music analytical techniques such as Schenkerian analysis and musical Formenlehre. His dissertation on WA Mozart’s piano concertos develops a music analytical approach that brings out the mechanism behind solo-ritornello -interaction in the first movement concerto form. The approach is based on existential semiotics, 18th century moral philosophy and deontic logic. He has published articles in edited books on semiotic methodology and the music of F Liszt (Maeder & Reybrouck (eds.) 2017, Grabocz (ed.) 2018). His other research interests include intertextuality in music analysis and application of methods of natural language processing (NLP) to repositories of Enlightenment culture.

Katalinić, Vjera

Ilma de Murska (1834-1889), a “Croatian nightingale” as Artist and Impresario

In the first half of the 19th-century Zagreb, only the basic institutional training in music (strings,singing, later winds as well as basic music theory) was available since 1829, when the Musikverein opened its school, as well as within the Normalschule for teachers (keyboards, music theory, since the late 18th c.). Thus, many gifted musicians had to continue their education abroad, mostly in Graz, Vienna, Prague, Budapest or Milan. That happened with the majority of Croatian singers, and among them was the soprano Ilma de Murska. The singing training brought her from Zagreb to Graz, and later to Vienna and Paris, where she started her professional career. She developed her repertoire in the theatres of Italy (between Florence and Catania), in Spain (Barcelona) and Berlin. Viennese theatres and audiences met her regularly between 1864 and 1873, where she performed some 230 times in at least 17 different roles and in London during early 1870s, with many other guest- performances around Europe. In 1873 she joined an Italian company for touring the USA, Cuba and Mexico for a year but the company fell apart. Then she and the singer Pauline Lucca founded their own company in Cuba, but neither this one was of a longevity. Murska continued her journey to Australia and New Zealand, returned to New York and back to Europe and died in Munich. Her adventurous and dynamic life – private and professional – was untypical for a woman at that time; she was a star then as she would be today, participating in existing networks and trying to create her own ones. Various types of her professional engagements, her repertoire and the reception of her performances will be presented in this paper.

Biography: Vjera Katalinić, scientific advisor and director at the Institute for the History of Croatian Literature, Theatre and Music, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb; full professor at the University of Zagreb, Music Academy, president of the Croatian Musicological Society (2007-2013; 2019-). Fields of interest: musical culture in the 18th and 19th centuries, the mobility of music and musicians and their networks; music archives in Croatia. Leader of the HERA project “Music Migrations in the Early Modern Age” (MusMig, 2013-2016); leader of the Croatian Research Foundation (CRF) project “Networking through Music: Changes of Paradigms in the ‘Long 19th Century’” (NETMUS19, 2017-2021), currently researcher on the CRF project “Institutionalization of modern bourgeois musical culture in the 19th century in civil Croatia and Military Border” (2021-2025). Published four books, some 230 articles, and edited 10 proceedings as well as 8 music scores.

Izquierdo, José and Bentley, Charlotte

Opera and its mid-19th century Latin American networks: commodities and agencies

By the mid-nineteenth century, opera had gone global. Performers and materials of all sorts spread rapidly beyond Europe, and operas could be heard everywhere from New Orleans to Calcutta, Melbourne to Manaus. In the Americas, opera thrived in the years after the Wars of Independence, thanks to enterprising agents and performers who strove to make it a commercial success. Even places that remained under colonial control, like Cuba, began to participate in a far wider range of networks of trade and exchange than ever before. In this paper, we want to discuss how, in a century marked by the rapid development of commodity markets, opera relied on a delicate balance between aesthetics and commerce for its international reach and significance in the Americas. Considering Havana as a centre for the Caribbean opera market, and Valparaíso in a similar role for the South Pacific, we propose that the expansion of opera in Latin America was part of a growing network of commodities and commercial routes, in which it participated and which it also perhaps helped to create. For example, it is possible to see how singers, hired to perform in a single venue, used existing commercial networks built by previous singers and impresarios to perform across the Americas, as part of a constant flow of voices and objects (like scores, libretti and costumes). Can we understand opera, and its practitioners, as a form of commodity? We believe that, when considered in those terms, opera becomes an active part of the formation and development of those networks, which in turn helps us understand the complex (and still largely unexplored and understudied) process by which opera managed to expand in the region. This is particularly true for the decades in which those networks were being first modelled, from the 1820s to the 1850s, when practices of operatic management originally developed in Europe (particularly in Italy) were increasingly transformed by local necessities, reshaping the transatlantic commerce of opera (and opera singers).

Biographies: Charlotte Bentley joined the International Centre for Music Studies as Lecturer in September 2021, having previously been a Research Fellow at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, an Affiliated Lecturer in the Faculty of Music at the University of Cambridge,and a Teaching Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. She holds degrees from the University of Cambridge (BA,PhD) and the University of Nottingham(MA), and she is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. José Manuel Izquierdo is associate professor of musicology in the Pontificia Universidad Católica, in Chile. He currently serves as director of research and postgraduate studies of the Faculty of Arts. He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge.

Bagge, Maren and Koch, Leonie

(Well-)Performing Networks? An Analysis of Relational Structures at the London Ballad Concerts in Late 19th- and Early 20th-Century London

In 1867, the first concert of a significant series of concerts was organised by the publisher John Boosey at St. James’s Hall, London. The so-called London Ballad Concerts were extremely prominent in the second half of the century. Founded by the publisher to promote the sales of their sheet music, the concert series continued for nearly 70 years. What (or who) contributed to the long-lasting success of the series? An advertisement of the second concert series in The Musical World on 26 October 1867 reveals the programme: “modern compositions by the most popular writers of the day […] sung by the most eminent artists”. How crucial singers were to the sales promotion of songs has been pointed out by Derek Scott in his pioneering study on “The Singing Bourgeois” (2nd ed. 2001). Taking this point seriously, it is not enough to look at individual actors (composers, singers, songs) separately. Moreover, the connections and interactions of singers, composers, songs, concert organisers, etc. must be considered in order to understand historical phenomena such as the success of this concert series. The perspective of (historical) network research seems to be particularly suitable for such a relational approach. To investigate this correlation in detail, we focus on the relation of London Ballad Concerts’ singers, songs and composers, analysing the concert programmes. These sources help to answer the (relational) questions of who performed what, how long and how often. Another important source is a ledger of the publisher firm listing the amount singers received for the performance of specific songs. This makes it possible to shed light on the concert organiser’s mercantile strategies. The (related) data extracted from these sources are evaluated and visualised using network research methods, of course not without (re-)contextualising the results. In our presentation, we will give a brief overview of the series as well as the sources and methodological approaches used. The results incl. some network visualisations will be presented and discussed in detail.

Biographies: Maren Bagge studied mathematics, music and musicology in Hanover and Oldenburg (Germany). She works as a Postdoc at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media at the Forschungszentrum Musik und Gender and is part of the interdisciplinary project “Cataloguing, Researching, and Conveying. Identity and Networks, Mobility and Cultural Transfer in Music-Related Activities of Women (1800-2000)”. In her recently published dissertation she examined British songs by women composers of the long 19th century. Leonie F. Koch, M.A., studied musicology and history in Germany at the universities of Münster and Hanover and was research assistant at the Department of Musicology at Detmold/Paderborn. Currently she is research assistant at the Forschungszentrum Musik und Gender at Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media and is working on her dissertation in the field of gender and theatre music about the composer Aleida Montijn (1908-1989).

Gourley, Ryan

Live in Manchukuo: Russian Musical Tour Networks in Northeast Asia

At its peak in the late 1920s, the Russian émigré population in Manchuria surpassed 150,000 people – a figure comparable to better-known Russian diasporic communities elsewhere in Europe and the United States. Music played a vital role in the cultural life and identity of this Northeast Asian branch of emigration. Russian concert halls, dancing clubs, and other musical venues dominated the nightlife of Harbin, the largest city in the region. Despite intense tensions and conflict with Imperial Japan and the Soviet Union in the 1930s, musicians continually crossed international borders on tour. Local ensembles from Harbin and Shanghai found success among audiences in Kobe and Tokyo. The top Soviet virtuosi crossed the Far Eastern border as part of a repatriation campaign. World-renowned Russian celebrities went out of their way to extend their musical tours to far-flung Manchuria, including operatic basso Feodor Chaliapin and cabaret superstar Alexander Vertinsky. This paper traces the development of Russian musical tour networks in Northeast Asia until the Second World War. Scholars have frequently represented Russian diasporic culture as insular and preservationist, to be described and evaluated according to standards of authenticity—”carrying the real Russia” in diaspora as Boris Raymond once put it. In this view, grand narratives of emigration and dispersion tend to efface the kind of regional exigencies that characterize diasporic communities in disparate parts of the globe. Drawing on the accounts of Harbin Russians, as well as previously un-researched archival documents, this paper tracks the circulation of touring musicians to reveal vibrant networks of musical exchange and intercultural contact. Amid militarized social upheaval, I show how distinct forms of Russian diasporic cultural expression emerged on tour, enabled by the unique constraints and affordances of musical production and reproduction. These musical tour networks, I argue, not only add substantially to our picture of the cultural landscape of Northeastern Asia during this period of intense crisis, but also prompt a distinctly musical revision of prevailing theories of diasporic regionalism.

Biography: Ryan Gourley is a PhD. candidate in Ethnomusicology at the University of California, focusing on Russian and Soviet popular music. His dissertation examines Russian musical circulation and the politics of memory in Northeast Asia. He is the recipient of several research grants, which have funded archival and ethnographic research in sites across Eastern Europe and the United States. Since 2018, he has collaborated with the staff at the Museum-Archive of Russian Culture in San Francisco to curate a community sound archive of over 3000 recordings. His research interests include Soviet, Post-Soviet, and Russian émigré aesthetics, media archeology, phonography, mobility studies, social network analysis, and Diaspora Studies.

Kudiņš, Jānis

Sound Records of Tango-Songs by Oscar Strok (Riga) as Stylistic Reflection of North-East-European States Popular Music Networks in the 20th Century Thirties

Oscar Strok (1893, Daugavpils-1975, Riga) a legendary personality in the Latvian and European popular musical culture before and after World War II. Strok was born in a Jewish family in Dünaburg/Dvinsk city of the former tsarist Russia Vitebsk province (nowadays Daugavpils, Latvia). From 1904 until 1922 Strok lived in Russia, St. Petersburg, and then returned to live in the Republic of Latvia, Riga. Until WWII Strok became active musician (pianist, composer) and music publisher in Riga, in which historically always is represented different nations and cultural traditions interaction. 20th century, in the thirties, Strok became one of the internationally best-known popular music composers (one of the Strok’s most popular tango-songs of all times has been the “Black Eyes”). After the WWII, when Latvia was occupied by the former Soviet Union, Strok’s music was officially banned. Musician and composer continued to work informally and only 20th century seventies beginning his music ban was partially lifted. Nowadays Oscar Strok often called as Tango King of Riga. One of the most intriguing questions is about the tango-songs (in Russian), which Strok created in Riga, 1930s. The musical scores of Strok’s tango-songs reflect a very simple notation. In turn, the arrangements and manner of performance of these songs, which is fixed in output of sound record companies at that time, highlights interesting creative interactions between musicians of different countries (Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Poland, former USSR, USA). Both musicians and traditions of musical performing can be perceived as tango stylistic adaptation actors and agents, and together they represent a branched international network. How did in the context of this network were constructed the peculiarities of the Oscar Strok tango-songs musical stylistics (“face” of genre)? What influences did it have on the creative work of composers of other countries in this genre? These issues will be focus of the presentation, characterizing the contextual and stylistic aspects of the network in the history of tango-song genre in North-East-Europe, 1930s.

Biography: Jānis Kudiņš is a graduate of the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music (in 1997 he obtained a Bachelor degree, in 1999 he obtained Master degree). In 2008, he defended his doctoral work, gaining the Dr. art. degree in musicology. He has been a lecturer at the JVLMA since 1996
(Professor since 2017), as a Researcher he also works in the Center for Scientific Research (was Head on Center from 2008 to 2012). From 2008 to 2017 he was the Head of the Department of Musicology. His major interests in musicology are linked with several issues. These issues include Latvian and Baltic music history in 19th–20th century; the concepts of Style, Modernism and Post-Modernism in music and art; methodology of scientific research; European popular music culture of 20th century first half. He is author of several scientific publications (including two monographs) in Latvian and English. He also actively participates in various international seminars and conferences in Latvia and other countries.

Palkisto, Janne

Composer and clarinettist Bernhard Crusell (1775–1838) as a Freemason: new acquaintances, charitable causes and musical symbols

This presentation examines the influence of Freemasonry on the professional life of the Swedish-Finnish clarinettist and composer Bernhard Crusell (1775–1838), and specifically his first seven years as a member of the fraternity (1795–1801). Freemasonry as a research topic has attracted increasing attention from a number of scholars over recent decades. The fact that Crusell was a Freemason is mentioned in modern biographies, although more detailed research on the subject has not been undertaken to date. This presentation tries to ascertain what kind of people Crusell got to know after entering the fraternity. To this end, the study uses the register of Swedish 18th Century Freemasons compiled by Nils Petter Sundius (published by Andersson & Önnerfors 2006). Sundius’ document shows how Freemasons were tightly connected to cultural, political and economic elites. Interestingly, the number of professional musicians listed in the register is relatively high and numbers 101 people. For a professional musician like Crusell Freemasonry was an important sphere to get to know wealthy patrons and music enthusiasts. However, being a Freemason did not automatically mean that the fraternity treated each other in a preferential or unqualified manner. The same kind of hierarchies that existed in society at large were also reflected within the fraternity. Therefore, when Crusell became a member in his twenties, it meant his social status was not automatically elevated to the upper elite. Crusell’s own attitude towards his membership of the fraternity seemed to fluctuate: at times he seems to have been more engaged, while at other times less so. Crusell himself does not mention Freemasonry in his autobiographies, travel diaries or on his CV. Despite Crusell’s ambivalence towards Freemasonry, he nevertheless rose up within its ranks over a period of time. In Crusell’s professional life, the influence of Freemasonry can be seen in his many charity projects, although the extent to which the fraternity was involved in them is unclear.

Biography: Janne Palkisto received his PhD in cultural history from the University of Turku, where his research focuses on the life of the clarinetist and composer Bernhard Crusell (1775–1838). A graduate of the University of Helsinki and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Palkisto works as a presenter and a radio/TV reporter for the Finnish Broadcasting Company specializing in classical music. He has also written columns and contributed to various music-related magazines. In addition, Janne Palkisto has written programme notes for key international music festivals including the Lahti Sibelius Festival and the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival. He has also introduced concerts by the Tapiola Sinfonietta, Kymi Sinfonietta and at various festivals. Palkisto’s publications include the travelling diaries of Bernhard Crusell (2010). He plays the clarinet in the Helsinki Metropolitan Orchestra, is Vice President of the Finnish Clarinet Society and a honorary member of the Crusell Society.

Masson, Jean-Baptiste

Sound hunting amateur networks and sound agency

In 1948, while Pierre Schaeffer was composing his Cinq études de bruits at the Club d’Essai, in an adjacent room, the radio producer Jean Thévenot was preparing an unusual program for the national radio. Through a broadcasted call, he asked some weeks before if there were amateurs recording, and if these amateurs would be keen to send their recordings – whatever they are – to him, in order to broadcast them. Such a success it was that what should have been a one-shot program became a weekly one, broadcasted until 2002. Proof was made that indeed a large number of people was using recording equipment, even in remote part of France. Between the 50’s and the 70’s, sound-hunting grew as an attractive hobby for dozens of thousand enthusiasts. In Europe, they soon organised themselves in local clubs, that were soon grouped under national and even international federations. Dedicated magazines and radio programs animated and publicised their activities, and an international contest was organised as soon as 1952. Sound-hunting, in what it represents – an interest of amateurs in recording and transforming (or not) sound –gives a vivid image of what was he interest of private individuals in sound and its manipulation in the 50’s and 60’s. Evolving in parallel to musique concrète – with very few, if any, contacts seeming to exist in the sources (we will mainly rely on local and nationals clubs in France and the UK, and on European ones) – how did these amateurs form a group identity? Why so less contact with musique concrète composers and institutions, while the equipment and sound results are similar? What can be learnt from their activities about bigger theories and practices of listening (Pierre Schaeffer’s Traité des objets sonores is published in 1966)? And ultimately, what can we learn from these sound-hunters’ communities about the relation of Western society with sound?

Biography: Jean-Baptiste Masson is a composer and PhD researcher at the University of York, part of the White Rose College of the Arts and Humanities. He works on listening and its relation with society, technology and musical creation. His music covers a broad spectrum, from field-recording to string quartet and choir. Jean-Baptiste often improvises with friends in the bands Jah Poney and Colonne Drone. He is also a cultural organiser, working with different organisations in France (Collège Contemporain, European Creative Academy, Fondation Royaumont).

Elflein, Dietmar

Networks in Popular Music History. The Case of Munich Disco

Social and Actor-Networks are an important means to understand driving forces behind popular music history regarding place, technology and genre/style. In addition to the concepts mentioned in the cfp (art worlds etc) I will talk about the concept of scenes as specific networks in music history. The paper tries to exemplify this general approach to popular music history in the one case study. In the mid 1970s Munich Disco becomes hugely successful on an international level with artists like Silver Convention (#1 Billboard Hot 100 1975), Donna Summer (#2 Billboard Hot 100 1976) and Boney M and producers resp. production teams like Moroder/Bellotte, Kunze/Lefay and Farian. Munich Disco evolves out of a network of producers knowing each other for years, includes a studio where everybody works and the heavy and innovative use of synthesizers for dance music productions. All mentioned production teams rely on the same network of studio musicians, who play on most of the records in more or less different line ups. Besides studio work these highly international crowd of musicians plays also in several jazz, rock and musical bands in and around Munich. A distinctive part of the vocalists has a history of performing in musical productions, e.g. Hair. Regarding technology the network has connections to the contemporary electronic art music scene. The paper will analyse social networks around Munich Disco, identify important human and non-human actors and describe actor-networks regarding the production of dance music. 

Biography: Dietmar Elflein (apl. Prof Dr,) is teaching popular music at the TU Braunschweig. He studied ethnomusicology and philosophy and wrote his PhD. on Heavy Metal music (analysis) in 2010. His forthcoming book is about the history of R&B, Soul and Funk music in both German states 1945-1980. 

Pilo, Baptiste

Actors and network in the Norwegian Black Metal scene of the 90s (1991-1999)

This individual presentation will focus on the inner workings and dynamics of network in the 90s Norwegian Black Metal scene. Since the 1980s, extreme metal has been backed by strong international and national underground networks built around local or translocal scenes. In the early 90s, this tradition carried on, particularly in Norway where Black Metal emerged as a reaction to Death Metal popularity. Throughout the 1990s, an extremely dense network of actors were involved in that scene. This is the network we wish to present in an in-depth case study. While also offering more general conclusions more general conclusions on the place of actors and networks in a historical approach to music. Our study will mainly rely on musicians, fanzine writers (fanzines like Slayer Magazine or Nordic Vision), label managers (Moonfog Records, Deathlike Silence Productions or Head Not Found) and studio managers (the Grieghallen Studio or the X-Ray Studio). We will focus on certain actorss likely to best represent this network and its history. Examples include: Thomas Haugen, Jon Kristiansen, Bard G. Eithun or Sigurd Wongraven, all eminent actors in this scene during the 1990s. First, we will show how the emergence of such a network predates Black Metal, by proposing to go back a few years in the history of extreme Metal in Norway. In a second step, we will focus on groups and see how musicians move from one group to another in a dense network form. The volatility of musicians being a central element of the scene but also of Extreme Metal in general. Thirdly, we will examine how the different roles (musicians, fanzine writers, label or studio managers) are often confused in the Norwegian scene. Finally, we will conclude with the ways in which a network history network allows a different approach to Music History, and more particularly to Popular Music History.

Biography: Baptiste Pilo is a doctor in musicology at the University of Rennes 2 (EA 1279). His thesis deals with the history of the Norwegian Black Metal scene in the 1990s. His research is devoted to Extreme Metal in its historical, musical, imaginary and ideological components. At the same time, he studies Dungeon Synth through the analysis of its music and its imaginary. He has taught popular music at the University of Rennes 2 and is a member of the International Society for Metal Music Studies (ISMMS) and the IASMP-bfE.