- The X Factor and Reality Television: Beyond Good and Evil Graham, Stephen. 2017. The X Factor and Reality Television: Beyond Good and Evil. Popular Music, 36(1), pp. 6-20. ISSN 0261-1430
- Boogie Nights: Joe Cutler, Danserye: Michael Wolters, Kathrine and Peter Play the Recorder: Michael Wolters (CD Review) Graham, Stephen. 2015. Boogie Nights: Joe Cutler, Danserye: Michael Wolters, Kathrine and Peter Play the Recorder: Michael Wolters (CD Review). Tempo, 69(272), pp. 80-83. ISSN 0040-2982
- Frank Zappa and the And. Edited by Paul Carr (Book Review) Graham, Stephen. 2015. Frank Zappa and the And. Edited by Paul Carr (Book Review). Popular Music, 34(1), pp. 147-150. ISSN 0261-1430
- Justin Timberlake’s Two-Part Complementary Forms: Groove, Extension, and Maturity in Twenty-First-Century Popular Music Graham, Stephen. 2014. Justin Timberlake’s Two-Part Complementary Forms: Groove, Extension, and Maturity in Twenty-First-Century Popular Music. American Music, 32(4), pp. 448-474. ISSN 0734-4392
- Untroubled Pathways (Record Review) Graham, Stephen. 2014. Untroubled Pathways (Record Review). Tempo, 68(267),
- 'Popular Music and Television in Britain' Ian Inglis (ed.). (Book Review) Graham, Stephen. 2013. 'Popular Music and Television in Britain' Ian Inglis (ed.). (Book Review). Music, Sound, and the Moving Image, 7(1), pp. 83-88. ISSN 1753-0768
- Ronald Schleifer, Modernism and Popular Music (Cambridge: 2011) (Book Review) Graham, Stephen. 2011. Ronald Schleifer, Modernism and Popular Music (Cambridge: 2011) (Book Review). Popular Music, 32(3),
- David Toop, Sinister Resonance: The Mediumship of the Listener (2010) (Book Review) Graham, Stephen. 2011. David Toop, Sinister Resonance: The Mediumship of the Listener (2010) (Book Review). Journal of the Society for Musicology in Ireland(6), pp. 93-100.
- Beyond the Postmodern: Music and Theory at the Start of History Graham, Stephen. 2011. Beyond the Postmodern: Music and Theory at the Start of History. The Musicology Review(7),
- (Un)Popular Avant-Gardes: Underground Popular Music and the Avant-Garde Graham, Stephen. 2010. (Un)Popular Avant-Gardes: Underground Popular Music and the Avant-Garde. Perspectives of New Music, 48(2), pp. 5-20. ISSN 0031-6016
- August Halm, A Critical and Creative Life in Music (University of Rochester Press, 2009) (Book Review) Graham, Stephen. 2009. August Halm, A Critical and Creative Life in Music (University of Rochester Press, 2009) (Book Review). The Musicology Review(6),
Professor Stephen Graham
Stephen's research theoretically analyses a wide range of current music, from underground to popular and avant-garde.
Staff details
Stephen is Executive Dean of the Faculty of Creative Arts and Media and Professor of Music. He was Co-Head of Music from 2018-2020.
Stephen studied at UCD and King’s College London, completing a PhD at Goldsmiths. After becoming Lecturer in Music in 2011, Stephen developed his PhD into a book; Sounds of the Underground was published by University of Michigan Press in May 2016.
Stephen's Becoming Noise Music was published by Bloomsbury in 2023. Stephen co-authored a multi-generic history of 20thC music for CUP (2022, with Tom Perchard, Holly Rogers and Tim Rutherford-Johnson). Stephen and Roddy Hawkins' The Work of New Music is under contract with CUP.
Stephen wrote chapters on popular modernism (Routledge, 2018), popular music biography and life writing (Oxford, forthcoming) and fringe music writing (Routledge, 2024). His article on late style and popular music appeared in the JRMA in 2021 and a piece on 1970s fringe music writing in 20th C. Music in 2019.
Research interests
Twentieth and twenty-first century music, including underground, experimental, popular, and art musics; music and cultural theory/philosophy; music and politics; music analysis; music journalism.
Featured publications
2023:
Becoming Noise Music
A book telling the story of noise music over the last fifty years through its music and musicians
2022:
Twentieth-Century Music in the West
A polygeneric textbook for CUP on the history of twentieth-century music
2016:
Sounds of the Underground
A cultural, political and aesthetic mapping of underground and fringe music
2021:
‘Summer’s Gone: Late Style and Popular Music’
An article on late style in popular music for the Journal of the Royal Musical Association
2019:
‘From Microphone to the Wire: Cultural change in 1970s and 1980s music writing’.
An article on music writing in the 1970s and cultural change for Twentieth-Century Music
Publications and research outputs
Book
- Becoming Noise Music: Style, Aesthetics, History Graham, Stephen. 2023. Becoming Noise Music: Style, Aesthetics, History. London: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9781501378669
- Twentieth-Century Music in the West Perchard, Tom; Graham, Stephen; Rutherford-Johnson, Tim and Rogers, Holly. 2022. Twentieth-Century Music in the West. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108481984
- Sounds of the Underground: A Cultural, Political and Aesthetic Mapping of Underground and Fringe Music Graham, Stephen. 2016. Sounds of the Underground: A Cultural, Political and Aesthetic Mapping of Underground and Fringe Music. Michigan: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 9780472119752
Book Section
- Familiarity Breeds Consent? Distance and Dependence in Fringe Music Writing Graham, Stephen. 2023. Familiarity Breeds Consent? Distance and Dependence in Fringe Music Writing. In: Ian Pace and Christopher Wiley, eds. Writing on Contemporary Musicians: Promotion, Advocacy, Disinterest, Censure. Abingdon: Routledge.
- Modernism for and of the Masses? On Popular Modernisms Graham, Stephen. 2018. Modernism for and of the Masses? On Popular Modernisms. In: Björn Heile and Charles Wilson, eds. The Routledge Research Companion to Modernism in Music. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 239-257. ISBN 9781472470409
- Historical Documents of the Irish Avant-Garde Graham, Stephen. 2015. Historical Documents of the Irish Avant-Garde. In: Jennifer Walshe, ed. Historical Documents of the Irish Avant-Garde. Aisteach Foundation.
Article
- Ulyssess Journey - In Context Graham, Stephen. 2022. Ulyssess Journey - In Context. Contemporary Music Centre, Dublin,
- Summer’s Gone: Late Style and Popular Music Graham, Stephen. 2021. Summer’s Gone: Late Style and Popular Music. Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 146(2), pp. 315-333. ISSN 0269-0403
- From Microphone to the Wire: Cultural change in 1970s and 1980s music writing Graham, Stephen. 2019. From Microphone to the Wire: Cultural change in 1970s and 1980s music writing. Twentieth-Century Music, 16(3), pp. 531-555. ISSN 1478-5722
Thesis
- Notes from the underground: a cultural, political, and aesthetic mapping of underground music Graham, Stephen. 2012. Notes from the underground: a cultural, political, and aesthetic mapping of underground music. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London
Professional projects
Ongoing projects include a wide-ranging and collaborative research project on music since 1970 (alongside Dr Roddy Hawkins at the University of Manchester).
Stephen runs the Fringe and Underground Music Group at Goldsmiths. He also engages in a wide range of knowledge exchange and journalism, from appearing in a Channel Five documentary on Abba to being interviewed by papers such as Metro and the Irish Times to hosting a musicology podcast to writing on contemporary music in various venues and, finally, to consulting on changes to the Music Theory curriculum for the ABRSM.
Stephen was Co-Head of the Music Department from 2018 to 2021.
Conferences and talks
2024:
After the Avant-Garde in 1980s Britain (with Roddy Hawkins)
Paper presentation at the Royal Musical Association annual conference
2023:
‘Marking, Crossing and Blurring Boundaries in (Experimental) Music History’
University of Manchester Research Seminar
2023:
Royal Musical Association Annual Conference, Nottingham University
Becoming Noise Music paper
2023:
Becoming Noise Music Launch
Book Launch at Goldsmiths
2023:
Music Education Council Seminar: Higher Education and excellence
What do we mean by excellence? How do we value creativity in the same space as virtuosity? Panel of experts from across the Music sector
2022: EDIMS Parenting and Caring Working Group’s workshop at the RMA/BFE Annual Students' Conference
2021:
‘Introduction’ at Beyond the Avant-Garde? Rethinking the Vanguard in British Music since 1970
Conference at Goldsmiths
2022:
Ulysses Journey: Pre-Concert Talk
I hosted a pre-concert talk as part of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival's presentation of various commissioned works from the Irish Contemporary Music Centre