I am currently Lecturer in Digital Media at the University of Stirling, having completed a PhD in Musicology at the University of Edinburgh, an MA in Music Criticism at McMaster University, and a BMus at the University of Alberta.
My research engages with various topics within digital media and society, focusing primarily on critical internet/algorithmic cultures, social media analysis, and audience mediation through interactive digital media. My research focuses on two applications of these themes: (1) popular music and technocultural critical discourse analysis (CTDA) on social media platforms; and (2) critical approaches to computational creativity and artificial intelligence popular music (AIPM).
In 2018 I published one of the first theoretical discussions of the use of artificial intelligence as the primary means of production in popular music, from a non-practitioner perspective. This article explores the first AI-human collaborated pop music album, Hello World by SKYGGE, through my theory of the audio uncanny valley. I continue to develop this work through a wider research agenda in development of a Critical AI Popular Music field of studies. Current research includes a large-scale examination of the present and speculative discourse of AI popular music, as it exists across social media platforms.
The International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) is my primary academic organization. I was most recently the Communications Coordinator for IASPM-Canada and currently hold this role at the IASPM Journal in addition to being an active member of the editorial board.
I am originally from Sechelt and the Sunshine Coast on the traditional territories of the Squamish (skwxwú7mesh), Sechelt (shíshálh), Sliammon (tla’Amin) and Kla’hoose First Nations. I acknowledge the significance of land-based epistemologies and recognize how land- and seascapes have shaped the ways in which I live, teach, research, and come to understand the importance of interconnectivity/relationality.
⊳ computational creativity ⊳ social media discourse ⊳ popular music and society ⊳ artificial intelligence and popular music ⊳ feminist theory ⊳ cultural theory
Article
Avdeeff MK (2021) TikTok, Twitter, and Platform-Specific Technocultural Discourse in Response to Taylor Swift’s LGBTQ+ Allyship in ‘You Need to Calm Down’. Contemporary Music Review, 40 (1), pp. 78-98. https://doi.org/10.1080/07494467.2021.1945225
Book Chapter
Avdeef M (2020) “Girl I’m Tryna Kick It with Ya”:: Tracing the Reception of the Embodiment of Girl/Bedroom Culture in “7/11”. In: Iddon M & Marshall M (eds.) Beyoncé: At Work, On Screen, and Online. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, pp. 226-250. https://iupress.org/9780253052841/beyonce/
Book Chapter
Canadian Pop in the Digital Age: Pioneering Pathways to Stardom and Representation via Justin Bieber
Avdeeff M (2019) Canadian Pop in the Digital Age: Pioneering Pathways to Stardom and Representation via Justin Bieber. In: Kannen V & Shyminsky N (eds.) The Spaces and Places of Canadian Popular Culture. Toronto: Canadian Scholars. https://canadianscholars.ca/book/the-spaces-and-places-of-canadian-popular-culture/#:~:text=%22The%20Spaces%20and%20Places%20of,texts%2C%20forms%2C%20and%20practices.
Article
Artificial Intelligence & Popular Music: SKYGGE, Flow Machines, and the Audio Uncanny Valley
Avdeeff M (2019) Artificial Intelligence & Popular Music: SKYGGE, Flow Machines, and the Audio Uncanny Valley. Arts, 8 (4), Art. No.: 130. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts8040130
Book Chapter
Kim Kardashian: I Made That B*tch Famous.
Avdeeff M (2018) Kim Kardashian: I Made That B*tch Famous.. In: Vaidya K (ed.) Celebrity for the Curious: Why Study Celebrity, Music, and Film Studies?. Franklin, TN: The Curious Academic Publishing.
Book Chapter
Beyoncé: Social media, authenticity, and the presentation of self
Avdeeff M (2016) Beyoncé: Social media, authenticity, and the presentation of self. In: Trier-Bieniek A (ed.) The Beyoncé Effect: Essays on Sexuality, Race, and Feminism. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, pp. 109-123. https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/the-beyonce-effect/
Book Review
Avdeeff M (2016) Radio in the Digital Age. Review of:
Andrew Dubber, Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2013, 208 pp. ISBN: 978-07456-6197-1. Popular Music and Society, 39 (1), pp. 139-141. https://doi.org/10.1080/03007766.2014.994302
Book Chapter
The Music of Twilight: Battling for Authenticity
Avdeeff M (2016) The Music of Twilight: Battling for Authenticity. In: Aker L (ed.) Bristol: Intellect, pp. 64-74. https://www.intellectbooks.com/fan-phenomena-the-twilight-saga
Book Review
Avdeeff M (2016) The Ringtone Dialectic: Economy and Cultural Form. By Sumanth Gopinath. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2013. 416 pp. ISBN 978-0-262-01915-6. Review of: The Ringtone Dialectic: Economy and Cultural Form. By Sumanth Gopinath. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2013. 416 pp. ISBN 978-0-262-01915-6. Popular Music, 35 (1), pp. 144-146. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0261143015000719
Book Review
Song Means: Analysing and Interpreting Recorded Popular Song
Avdeeff M (2014) Song Means: Analysing and Interpreting Recorded Popular Song. Review of:
Allan F. Moore Farnham and Burlington VT: Ashgate, 2012. ISBN: 978-1-4094-2864-0. IASPM@Journal, 4 (2), pp. 117-119. https://doi.org/10.5429/2079-3871%282014%29v4i2.9en
Book Chapter
Young People’s Musical Engagement and Technologies of Taste
Avdeeff M (2014) Young People’s Musical Engagement and Technologies of Taste. In: Bennett A & Robards B (eds.) London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 130-145. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137287021_9
Article
Technological engagement and musical eclecticism: An examination of contemporary listening practices
Avdeeff M (2012) Technological engagement and musical eclecticism: An examination of contemporary listening practices. Participations, 9 (2), pp. 265-285. https://www.participations.org/09-02-17-avdeeff.pdf
