Professor Michael Drewett
Prof Michael Drewett
MSocSc (Rhodes) PhD (Rhodes)
E-mail: m.drewett@ru.ac.za
Teaching: Introductory Sociology
Popular Culture
Popular Music
Sex and Gender
Research Interests:
Representations of warfare in popular music and popular culture
The Censorship of Popular Music
Popular Music
Sex, gender and popular culture
Teaching Sociology
Profile:
My central research area is the politics of popular music and the censorship of popular music in particular. My PhD focused on the censorship of popular music in South Africa during the apartheid era. I co-ordinated a national exhibition on popular music censorship in South Africa (at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown in 1999) and a sub-section on resistance music in South Africa for an exhibition hosted by the Museum of World Culture in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2008 and 2009. I produced, researched and co-scripted Stopping the Music, a documentary film about anti-apartheid musician, Roger Lucey. It premiered in Copenhagen at the 2nd World Conference on Music and Censorship in September 2002, screened by the Danish Film Institute. It has since been screened at film festivals and censorship workshops worldwide, including: The WOMEX (World Music Exhibition) in Essen, Germany October 2002; the Folk Alliance Conference in Nashville, U.S.A. February 2003; One World 5th Annual International Human Rights Festival in Prague, Czech Republic April 2003; 3rd International Gathering for Freedom of Expression in Istanbul, Turkey in July 2003; the Zanzibar International Film Festival in August 2003, the Durban Film Festival, South Africa October 2003; Freemuse Censorship of Music Workshop in Harare, Zimbabwe March 2005, the Clandestino Festival in Gothenburg, Sweden May 2005, Wordfest, National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, South Africa in July 2006. I have also overseen the re-release of the anti-apartheid A Naartjie in our Sosatie (1999) compilation cd and compiled a new compilation cd of South African resistance music, Shot Down (2007), working in conjunction with Shifty Records.
I am on the advisory board of Freemuse, an international organization concerned with the freedom of musical expression (http://www.freemuse.org/), the Chairperson of the South African branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) and the co-ordinator of the Cutting Grooves Censorship of Popular Music archive (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cutting-Grooves/195586047155683). I am presently involved in developing the archive and researching different issues relating to popular music including popular music and war, popular music censorship, politics and popular music in South Africa and issues relating to sex, gender and popular music.
Articles and Chapters (since 2000)
Drewett, Michael (2011), ‘The Road from Crisis to Catharsis in the Songs of Roger Lucey’ in the International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music Volume 42 Number 2.
Drewett, Michael, Sarah Hill and Kimi Kärki (2010), ‘Peter Gabriel: From Genesis to Growing Up’ with Sarah Hill and Kimi Kärki in Drewett, M, Hill, S. and Kärki, K. (eds). Peter Gabriel: From Genesis to Growing Up. London: Ashgate.
Drewett, Michael (2010), ‘The eyes of the world are watching now: the political effectiveness of “Biko” by Peter Gabriel’ in Drewett, M, Hill, S. and Kärki, K. (eds). Peter Gabriel: From Genesis to Growing Up. London: Ashgate.
Drewett, Michael (2008), ‘Developing a Retro Brand Community: Re-releasing and marketing Anti-Apartheid Protest Music in Post-Apartheid South Africa’ in Consumption, Markets and Culture Volume 11 Number 4.
Drewett, Michael (2008), ‘The Construction and Subversion of Gender Stereotypes in Popular Cultural Representations of the Border War’ in Baines, G. and Vale, P. (Eds.) Beyond the Border War: New Perspectives on Southern Africa’s Late-Cold War Conflicts. Pretoria: UNISA Press.
Drewett, Michael (2008), ‘Packaging Desires: Album Covers and the Presentation of Apartheid’ in Olwage, G. (Ed.). Composing Apartheid. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
Drewett, Michael (2007), ‘The eyes of the world are watching now: the political effectiveness of “Biko” by Peter Gabriel’ in Popular Music and Society Volume 30 Number 1.
Drewett, Michael (2006), ‘The Cultural Boycott Against Apartheid South Africa: A Case of Defensible Censorship?” in Drewett, M. and Cloonan, M. (eds.) Popular Music Censorship in Africa. London: Ashgate.
Drewett, Michael and Johnny Clegg (2006), ‘Why Don’t You Sing About the Leaves and the Dreams? Reflecting on Popular Music Censorship in Apartheid South Africa’ in Drewett, M. and Cloonan, M. (eds.) Popular Music Censorship in Africa. London: Ashgate.
Drewett, Michael and Martin Cloonan (2006), ‘Concluding Comments on the Censorship of Popular Music in Africa’ (with Martin Cloonan) in Drewett, M. and Cloonan, M. and (eds.) Popular Music Censorship in Africa. London: Ashgate.
Drewett, Michael (2005), ‘Stop this Filth: The Censorship of Roger Lucey’s Music in Apartheid South Africa’ in Journal of South African Musicology (SAMUS). Volume 25.
Drewett, Michael (2004), ‘Remembering Subversion’, in Korpe, M. (ed.) Shoot the Singer! London: Zed Books.
Drewett, Michael (2004), ‘Aesopian Strategies of Textual Resistance in the Struggle to Overcome the Censorship of Popular Music in Apartheid South Africa’, in Müller, B. (Ed.) Censorship and Cultural Regulation in the Modern Age. Amsterdam: Rodopi Press.
Drewett, Michael (2003), ‘Music in the Struggle to End Apartheid: South Africa’ in Cloonan, M. and Garofalo, R. (Eds.) Policing Popular Music. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Drewett, Michael (2003), ‘Battling Over Borders: Narratives of Resistance to the South African Border War Voiced Through Popular Music’ in Social Dynamics Volume 29 Number 1.
Drewett, Michael (2002), ‘Satirical Opposition in Popular Music Within Apartheid and Post- Apartheid South Africa’ in Society in Transition Volume 33 Number 1.
Books (authored, edited)
Drewett, Michael, Sarah Hill and Kimi Kärki, eds (2010), Peter Gabriel: From Genesis to Growing Up. London: Ashgate.
Drewett, Michael and Martin Cloonan, eds (2006), Popular Music Censorship in Africa. London: Ashgate.
Conferences (since 2000)
2012 Crossroads in Cultural Studies 9th International Conference in Paris, France. Paper entitled ‘Popular Musicians and the Economic Crisis in South African post-1994’.
2011 Situating Popular Musics 16th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music in Grahamstown, South Africa. Paper entitled ‘I Love a Man in Uniform! Gender, Militarisation and Popular Music in Apartheid South Africa’.
2010 Musics and Knowledge in Transit: 11th Conference of Sociedad de Etnomusicolgia and 1st Conference of IASPM, Portugal in Lisbon, Portugal. Paper entitled ‘African popular music in the 21st Century: insights and issues’.
2009 Joint Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association Annual Conference in New Orleans, United States. Paper entitled ‘The Road from Crisis to Catharsis in the Songs of Roger Lucey’.
2008 South African Sociological Conference, Stellenbosch, South Africa. Paper entitled ‘South African Musicians and the HIV/AIDS Conspiracy of Silence’.
2008 Pop Conference, Seattle, United States. Paper entitled ‘Stand Up and Be a Real Man: Patriarchal Patriotism in songs about the USA’s War in Vietnam and South Africa’s Apartheid Border War’.
2007 Music, Theories, Practices: Focus on South Africa: 1st Congress of the South African Society for Research in Music. Paper entitled ‘South African Musicians and the HIV/AIDS Conspiracy of Silence’.
2007 African Sociological Association Conference in Grahamstown, South Africa. Paper entitled ‘Rethinking Popular Music Censorship in Light of the African Experience’.
2007 Que Viva La Música Popular! 14th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music in Mexico City, Mexico. Paper entitled ‘Just Like That: Popular Music Censorship in Africa’.
2007 Pop Conference, Seattle, United States. Paper entitled ‘Retro Protest or What? Resurrecting Censored Anti-Apartheid Music in a Democratic Era’.
2006 3rd World Conference on Music and Censorship, Istanbul, Turkey. Paper (presented by invitation) entitled ‘The Freemuse South African Schools Workshop: An Assessment’.
2006 Association for Cultural Studies Crossroads Conference, Istanbul, Turkey. Paper entitled ‘The Critical Untrustworthy Narrator: A Post-Colonial Critique’.
2005 32nd Annual Congress of the Musicological Society of Southern Africa and 19th Ethnomusicological Symposium, Cape Town. Paper entitled ‘Stop This Filth’: The Censorship of Roger Lucey’s Music in Apartheid South Africa’
2005 Making Music, Making Meaning: 13th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music in Rome, Italy. Paper entitled ‘The Cultural Boycott in South Africa: A Case of Defensible Censorship?’
2005 Clandestino Talks at the Clandestino Festival, Gothenburg, Sweden. Paper (presented by invitation) entitled ‘Stopping the Music: A Film about Apartheid Censorship and Post-Apartheid Reconciliation’.
2005 Freemuse Music and Censorship in Zimbabwe Seminar, Harare, Zimbabwe. Paper entitled ‘Lessons from South Africa: Music Censorship During Apartheid’.
2004 Ten Years of Democracy Conference, UNISA, Pretoria. ‘Is Anything Undesirable These Days? Changing Dynamics in Popular Music Censorship in Post-Apartheid South Africa’.
2004 Composing Apartheid: New Music Indaba Conference in Grahamstown, South Africa. Paper (presented by invitation) entitled ‘Packaging Desires: Album Covers and the Presentation of Apartheid’.
2003 Practising Popular Music: 12th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music in Montreal, Canada. Paper entitled ‘The Eyes of the World are Watching Now: The Political Impact of “Biko” by Peter Gabriel’.
2002 2nd World Conference on Music and Censorship held in Copenhagen, Denmark in September. Paper (presented by invitation) entitled ‘Subversive Resistance to the Censorship of Popular Music in South Africa During Apartheid’.
2002 17th Symposium on Ethnomusicology, held in Grahamstown in September. Paper entitled ‘The Critical Untrustworthy Narrator: Is There a Problem?’
2002 Frontlines: Gender, Identity and War Conference, held at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia in July. ‘Fracturing Representations of Militarised Masculinity in Resistance to the South African Defence Force in the 1980s’.
2002 Narrative, Trauma and Memory conference held in Cape Town in July 2002.
Paper entitled ‘It’s My Duty, Not My Choice: Narratives of Resistance to the Border War Voiced Through Popular Music’.
2001 11th Conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music in Turku, Finland. Paper entitled ‘Satire and Music in Apartheid and Post-Apartheid South Africa’.
2000 Censorship: Phenomenology - Representation - Contexts conference in Newcastle, England. Paper entitled ‘Strategies of Resistance: The Struggle to Overcome the Censorship of Popular Music in South Africa During the 1980s’.
2000 International Association for the Study of Popular Music (UK) Conference in Guildford, England. Paper entitled ‘Theorising the Censorship of Popular Music in South Africa During the 1980s’.
2000 Joint Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association Annual Conference in New Orleans, United States. Paper entitled ‘Creating Spaces: The Response of Musicians to the Censorship of Resistance Music in South Africa’.
2000 Silence and Expression: Histories of Permission and Censorship conference at Texas A&M University, United States. Paper entitled ‘Resistant Voices and Creative Spaces: South African Protest Music Within the Context of Apartheid Censorship’.
PhD and Masters students – Graduated
PhD Komlan Agbedahin (2012)
PhD Jo-Anne Vorster (2010)
Masters Xin Ling Xi (2010) - distinction
Current PhD student
Precious Tanyanyiwa
"The provision of extended studies as a means of addressing transformation in the Humanities
Faculty of a historically white university"
Current Masters Students
Gwen Johnson
"The impact of an official diagnosis and label of ‘Dyslexia’ on Grahamstown pupils’ self-concept
and self-esteem"
Kanyabu Kazadi
"Popular protest music in Zambia"
Qondile Maseko
"Medical Waste Management Policies, Processes and Practices in Rural Hospitals in the Eastern
Cape"
Nombulelo Shange
"Integration of Shembe African Traditional Religion and Christianity"
