Research

My research consists of three main areas, with some overlap, as outlined below.

Disruption in the music industries

A large proportion of my research concerns disruption within the music and creative industries, including technological innovations, economic change, shifts in cultural policy, globalization, and the effect of these for music education. In particular, I am interested in interrogating discourses of technological progress and creative empowerment as a foil for centralising power and consolidating capital.

• Read: Collins, S. & Keith, S. (2024) Catalogue acquisitions: who wins? In The Palgrave handbook of critical music industry studies, eds. Arditi, D. & Nolan, R. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 387-403.

East Asian popular culture

My other main area of research concerns East Asian popular culture, particularly Korean popular music (K-pop) as a global music genre. I have also published on Taiwanese and Japanese popular musics. In general, my interest here lies in the intersections of popular music and expressions of national/cultural identity, and the complexities raised by global cultural flows. 

• Read: Keith, S. (2021), ‘BTS as Cultural Ambassadors: K-pop and Korea in Western Media’. In Soft Power of the Korean Wave: Parasite, BTS and Drama, ed. Youna Kim, Routledge, pp. 155-167

Music and screen media

A third area of my research interest is, broadly speaking, music and screen media. This includes music for documentary, film, and television, and interactive media. 

• Read: 'Half of it is just the fun of finding the right music': music and the films of Adam Curtis', Keith, S., (2013), Studies in Documentary Film, 7(2) p. 161-178

Research supervision

I am interested in supervising research projects aligned with the research areas outlined above.

To date, I have supervised postgraduate research projects on various topics and at several levels, including 1 BPhil, 3 Masters Research (MRes), and 5 PhD (as Associate or Co-Supervisor). Projects include:

• Rhythm as a marker of genre in contemporary electronic music (PhD, primary supervisor, ongoing) 

• Larrikins in Australian indie music (PhD, primary supervisor, ongoing)

• Cultural hybridity of Australian K-pop idols (MRes, ongoing) 

• Programming the beat: Techno music formalisation and implementation as a computer-aided compositional system (MRes, completed 2022)

• Internationalisation of K-pop production (MRes, completed 2021)

• Autonomized Performance: Operatic Voice and Looping Technology (MRes, completed 2020)

• Story, Song, Voice: Investigating the musical creativities of Australian singer-songwriters (PhD, completed 2018)

• Pop Perspectives, Pop Layers: Exploring Interactive Pop Music (BPhil, completed 2018)

I have examined numerous postgraduate theses at Honours and Masters level.

Reviewing

I have reviewed for a range of publishers and academic journals, including:

• Bloomsbury Academic

• International Journal of Applied Linguistics

• Journal of International Communication

• Gender and Language

Grants

2024: Macquarie University – University of Groningen Strategic Partner Framework Travel Grant

Funding source: Macquarie Strategic Partner Grant, Macquarie University

Project title: ‘Korean popular music and (multi)cultural understanding’, 2016-2017

Funding source: Australia-Korea Foundation, Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Category 2)

As sole investigator for this research project, this grant facilitated research data collection (including interviews) in Korea and Australia. Findings were presented/published as 3 book chapters, 2 conference presentations, and 2 workshops.

Project title: ‘Career development strategies within the new music industries’, (with D. Hughes, M. Evans, D. Crowdy, and G. Morrow), 2012–2014

Funding source: Macquarie Research Development Grant, Macquarie University

As a chief investigator for this project, this grant facilitated team-based research data collection (including individual and group interviews) in major cities across Australia. Findings were published as a co-authored book and 2 journal articles.