PMRU has been on haitus during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, Dr Jan Butler is on the committee of the inaugural Sound on Screen online conference, 16–18th June – further details, including the programme, can be found here.
About us
The Popular Music Research Unit (PMRU) at Oxford Brookes supports research in popular music at various levels:
- Internationally, usually through publication (both as authors and editors)
- Nationally, usually through conferences
- Regionally, by offering support for events or media.
PMRU was established in 2009 as a focus of popular music research in the department, and has particular expertise in pop music analysis, production analysis, popular music history, music publishing and music journalism. Its founder members were Drs Dai Griffiths, Jan Butler and Lisa Busby.
The Music department performed very well in the REF 2014 exercise, with 98% of our research being internationally recognised and 57% being rated world leading or internationally excellent.
Members of PMRU are often also members of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) and attend both national and international conferences.
We welcome applications from postgraduate students, particularly in the fields of popular musicology, record production analysis, popular music analysis and music journalism.
In this video Dr Dai Griffiths discusses his publications, his current research interests, how popular music is covered in the Music MA at Oxford Brookes, and the work of the Popular Music Research Unit (PMRU).
PMRU 