Uppsatsen utreder populärmusikens ställning i den svenska kulturpolitiken med fokus på musikarrangörer. Bakgrunden består delvis i grundandet av riksförbundet Svensk Live och deras publikationer "Vi fortsätter spela pop (men vi håller på att dö)" och "Maktens Musik" som menar att delar av populärmusiken inte kan överleva eller utvecklas utan stöd. Stödet menar man att populärmusiken oftare nekas än andra genrer med en längre historia av att organisera sig och beviljas statliga stöd. Bakgrunden redogör även för musikvetenskaplig forskning och diskussioner kring begreppet "populärmusik" samt en historisk överblick av modern svensk kulturpolitik med musikarrangörer i fokus och ett redogörande för dagsläget utifrån rapporter från Myndighet för Kulturanalys och Kulturrådet. Populärmusik definieras utifrån Svensk Lives definition att begreppet innefattar all musik som inte är jazz eller konst-, folk- och världsmusik. Undersökningen görs genom en närläsning av hur sökande populärmusik-arrangörer motiverar sin rätt till medel i bidragsansökningar från 2007 och 2017 till Musikverket, Kulturrådet och Stockholms Kulturförvaltning. 2007 och 2017 jämförs för att notera eventuella skillnader då det tidigare kulturpolitiska målet om att motverka kommersialismens negativa verkningar togs bort 2009 och bildandet av Svensk Live 2017. För att komplettera och skapa underlag för diskussion undersöks även ansökningar från genrer som tillhör konstmusiken och jazzen. Även genrefördelningen undersöks genom att ta fram statistik över fördelning och hur den förändrats under samma tidsperiod. Resultatet av undersökningen visar att genrefördelningen skiljer sig mellan institutionerna, samt att populärmusikens del generellt sett har ökat i takt med ett ökat söktryck men att den generellt sett fortfarande får mindre än en majoritet av övriga genrer. Undersökningen visar att argumentationen från populärmusiken har förändrats mellan 2007 och 2017 samt att den skiljer sig från övriga genrer genom att generellt sett motivera med fler utommusikaliska aspekter och värden samt ett större behov att hävda icke-kommersialism. 2017 riktar man även kritik mot bidragsgivarna och visar i flera exempel på inflytande från Svensk Lives publikationer och opinionsdrivning som bland annat menar att "s k pop ska ses som kultur". Utifrån resultatet görs en analys och diskussion grundad i Pierre Bourdieus teorier om fält samt kulturproduktionsfältet två värdepoler där den ekonomiska setts som negativ och kulturella positiv. Begreppen populär- och konstmusik diskuteras med fokus på dess historiska konnotationer betydelse för ansökningarna samt hur begreppen ställs på tvären när ett ökat söktryck tyder på att en del av populärmusiken inte längre är tillräckligt kommersiell för att överleva utan stöd. Paralleller dras till hur jazzen gick från populärmusikalisk genre till konstmusikalisk status när den tappade sin popularitet och hur samma utveckling just nu håller på att ske med delar av den undersökta populärmusiken.

The purpose of this essey is to investigate whether and if so how women's separatist music rooms can create an extended acting space for female musicians. To do this, I have conducted an interview study of organizers and former music participants at the organizations Popkollo and Femtastic. The analytical discussions is held with the theoretical approach of Judith Butler's "heterosexual matrix" and Cecilia Björck's interpretation of Michel Foucault's "The gender disciplinary gaze". The results show that the main reason to choose women's separatist music room has been a longing to ”take place” and to ”get to the be yourself". Furthermore, the results show that the room enabled a liberation from outsiders ideal images of the "mild" and "fragile" female musician, whereupon more expressive positions was made possible. The study also reveald a dilemma in a balance to be liberated, but at the same time adapt to popular music gender-coded ideals. Furthermore the results show that in this context it is sometimes perceived as disfavouring to be coded as both a female artist and a feminist. This is because of the tendency to be seen and treated as a homogenous group with a common political agenda. Finally, I note, however, that women's separatist music room at least can create possibilities for an extended acting space as the informants has expressed a development both personally and musically.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the didactic potential of Mikael Niemis novel Popularmusic from Vittula as it relates to working with the fundamental values of the Swedish schoolsystem from two perspectives. The first of these relates to how the novel portrays gender, witha particular focus on masculinity and how it interprets itself, femininity, and the world aroundit. The second of these perspectives relates to how it portrays the national minority grouptornedalingar and their situation in Sweden. This paper aims to illustrate not only how thesetwo perspectives are portrayed but motivate why they are useful in the work with fundamentalvalues. To answer these questions this paper utilizes the qualitative method of close reading in theanalysis of Niemis novel. The theoretical lense through which this is done includes researcherMalin Alkestrands definition of didactic potential as well as a repertoire of gender study andpostcolonial terminology, such as otherfication, masculinity and boyology. The study findsthat the didactic potential of Mikael Niemis text as it relates to gender lay in how it breakswith the traditional gender norms of rural masculinity. Another important factor is how thetext highlights the role of femininity and music in shaping the new male identity of thenovel’s protagonist, Matti. The study also finds that the didactic potential in Niemis portrayalof tornedalingar lay in its emphasizing of the political nature and origins of the historicotherfication of said ethnic minority.

At times creative writing has been employed by Tanzanians in order to demonstrate the progress of African peoples and to reflect the changes, or lack of them, in this society. Popular songs are another continually vibrant medium of intellectual exchange which appeals to various sectors of the Tanzanian populace. Such oral and written works, directed as they are to local and intra-national audiences, are most often created in the Swahili language. The relatively young age of Tanzania’s population, with nearly 65 percent of the population under 25 years of age has brought about a situation in which this young and dynamic population is increasingly seeing their voice and interests represented in literary and aural/oral works. What are the themes and strategies utilized by such songwriters and literary artists and what are their trajectories of dissemination, consumption and activation within Tanzanian social contexts?

Flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucía, taking advantage of the ongoing cultural revolution in Spain during the seventies decided to break from tradition by shaping ”Nuevo Flamenco” through flamenco-jazz ensemble ”Paco de Lucía Sextet”. Within its repertoire, the first regular flamenco bass-line: ”Monasterio de Sal”. Electrical bassist Carles Benavent would have a key role in this development, a trait seldom found in academical works of musicology. The aim of the present thesis is to partially fill this void while shedding some light on the revolutionary contributions of Benavent. In order to do so, studying relevant literature, listening to phonograms comparatively, transcribing/analyzing ”Monasterio de Sal” and interviewing Mr. Benavent himself were used as main methods. The conclusion has been drawn that there was barely any electrical bass in flamenco before Benavent and that his work with de Lucía (and later others) would entirely reform the way electric bass was perceived from within and outside this genre of music. It is of no less interest to observe that Benavents main influences for this endeavor were the principal figures of contemporary jazz-bass (Jaco Pastorius) and flamenco-guitar (Paco de Lucía) respectively, infusing ”Monasterio de Sal”, with meaningful historical value. / <p>Numera Inti Oyarzun-Jonsson.</p>

This essay deals with recurring grotesque motifs in Mikael Niemi’s novels Kyrkdjävulen, Populärmusik från Vittula (Popular Music from Vittula), Fallvatten and Koka björn (To Cook a Bear). It aims to widen the academic understanding of Niemi’s works by focusing on their aesthetics in relation to previous studies, which have mostly been concerned with placing Niemi in a context of Tornedalian minority literature. With the grotesque defined as monstrous and boundary breaking imagery that challenges common rational, ideological or moral world views, this study shows that these motifs can both strengthen, nuance and undermine postcolonial interpretations of the novels.Through Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of the grotesque, emphasis is placed on the subversive and utopian aspects of the grotesque motifs. With the use of Sigmund Freud’s term the uncanny (das unheimliche) and Julia Kristeva’s term the abject, psychological and emotional aspects of the selected motifs are drawn to the surface. And, by turning to Sara Ahmed’s thoughts on emotions and performativity, the function of disgust in said motifs is examined. The grotesque motifs in question are: the degradation of the mouth, the lower animals, the boy with the knife, the witch mother, and the androgyne. The first part of the analysis shows that in Niemi’sworks the mouth is associated with storytelling, power, agency and the subject’s ability to both knowand express himself, but also to take the world into himself and be changed by it. The mouth is often degraded, which in a carnivalesque manner results in a linguistic revival. The second part of the analysis argues that lower animals, such as rats, reptiles and bat-like devil spawn, are symbols of the abject – that which man must cast out in order to exist. The motifs of the rats and devils are associated with themes of language, identity and writing, but also allude to a threatening feminine principle. In the third part of the analysis, the motifs of the boy with the knife, the witch mother and the androgyne are found to be juxtaposed to and interwoven with each other in narratives concerning gender, sexuality and coming of age. The results of the study show that Mikael Niemi utilizes grotesque aesthetics to give shape toprocesses of growth and change, captivity and liberation, and a complicated sense of identity that eludes clear and rational definitions. The grotesque in these novels is not purely utopian in a Bakhtinian sense, but more emotionally ambivalent. A determining factor to whether the grotesque image brings true renewal or only a repetition of past pain is the will and choice of the individual. Thus, Mikael Niemi’s novels speak not so much of the power of a minority identity, as of the power and potential of the individual to reinvigorate that identity. They form an individualized, existential project in a Tornedalian context.