[Air-L] CfP for "Artificial Intelligence and Popular Music" Special Issue of Popular Music and Society

[Bondy Kaye]

 Artificial Intelligence and Popular Music
<https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issues/artificial-intelligence-and-popular-music/>

Dear colleagues,

We invite submissions for a special issue of *Popular Music and Society* on
the theme of artificial intelligence and popular music.

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is spreading rapidly through
creative and cultural sectors, including popular music, and is already
proving to be a disruptive technology. The recording industry, recalling
earlier technological upheavals such as MP3 files and peer-to-peer (P2P)
networks, has moved quickly to urge lawmakers to regulate AI. This can be
seen in recent U.S. legislative proposals to establish intellectual
property rights protecting artists' voices (the "NO FAKES Act" and the "No
AI FRAUD Act") and the widely publicized EU AI Act, which outlines risks
associated with AI systems and which has faced backlash from many
stakeholders in the European cultural industries.

Yet the implications of AI for popular music reach far beyond legal and
market concerns. AI covers—such as "Kurt Cobain sings a Frank Sinatra song"
(or vice versa)—represent a form of amateur cultural play, while in
professional studios AI is becoming another creative tool, following
earlier innovations such as Auto-Tune, drum machines, and digital audio
workstations. Each application prompts us to reconsider creativity, the
creator–audience relationship, and the contested idea of authenticity in
music.

We encourage submissions that draw on critical studies of AI and apply them
to the music industry. Examples include political economy approaches,
research that foregrounds indigenous and traditional knowledges,
post-capitalist modes of thought, and studies that explore AI and the
future of cultural labor and that question the ways AI may shift our
epistemic understandings of the world around us.

This special issue seeks to examine the impact of AI on popular music at
this formative stage of its mass adoption. We welcome theoretical and
empirical perspectives, including—but not limited to—the following topics:

   - The impact of AI on the music industry and music markets
   - AI regulation in the music industry
   - AI clones of popular musicians' voices or styles
   - AI and independence in music
   - AI and virtual artists or holograms
   - AI and the nature of musical creativity
   - AI and musical labor
   - AI and music production, composition, and songwriting
   - AI and "functional" music
   - AI and music education and training
   - How AI contributes to existing inequalities in the music industry.

The timeline for the publication process is as follows:

*December 20, 2025:* Deadline for submitting abstracts; feedback on
abstracts will be provided within 30 days

June 30, 2026: Deadline for submitting full manuscripts (please send us
your paper as an email attachment)

September 30, 2026: Editorial decisions sent to authors for revisions

November 30, 2026: Deadline for submitting revised papers

May or July 2027: Special issue published

Please submit an abstract (200 words maximum) and author bio(s) (150 words
maximum) by *20 December 2025* using the link below:


Abstract submission form <https://forms.gle/oiH1AsnivbdKJjN89>


For any questions about this special issue please contact the editors:

D. Bondy Valdovinos Kaye <d.kaye1 at leeds.ac.uk>

Patryk Galuszka <patryk.galuszka at uni.lodz.pl>