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Music reflects and frequently empowers its listeners. Freedom of artistic expression is a right enshrined in international conventions which is under threat in many countries across the world. Research undertaken at the University of Glasgow (UoG) by Martin Cloonan in the censorship, regulation and legislation of music has informed and had a direct impact on a number of different anti-censorship campaigns at both national and international levels. In the UK his work has informed policy changes, specifically in relation to the licensing of smaller live venues; and, internationally his expertise has supported the establishment of key bodies such as Freemuse, the World Forum on Music and Censorship, which lobbies against the imprisonment and censorship of musicians.
Research conducted 2008-11 by the university's Music and Entertainment Industries Research Group on the online music consumption habits of British 14-24 year olds has influenced national and international music industry stakeholders and legislative bodies. First, the findings helped industry body UK Music to inform its influential music industry membership's knowledge and understanding of copyright issues and changing music spending patterns. They also inspired a `Proposal', written by the Songwriters Association of Canada and widely read in north America, urging industry-wide adaptation to changing music listening preferences. Further, the work has contributed to pre-legislative copyright debate and policy making in Britain and overseas.
Live Music Exchange (LMX) is a resource used by the UK live music sector. It is underpinned by research findings from an AHRC funded project directed by Simon Frith (Edinburgh University) and Martin Cloonan (Glasgow University), which documented shortcomings in the UK's music policy-making process. LMX has had an impact on such policy making through the provision of relevant data and data analysis and by improving communication between the sector's stakeholders. It has had an impact at both the local and national level, improving the quality and reach of policy discussion. By August 2013 its online hub had 2177 hits/month, and in 2012/3 it organized 4 policy events across the UK with 180 participants.
This case study demonstrates the application of Joe Bennett's research into strategies for quantifying, observing and analysing creative processes used by songwriters. Impact has been achieved through three researcher-practitioners at the University — Bennett himself, plus Davey Ray Moor and Richard Parfitt. The research has been disseminated outside of academia through the publicly accessible workshops at the UK Songwriting Festival and Burnsong, which have received national media coverage (BBC, Sunday Times) and attracted participants from all over the world. The research has also had an impact in the commercial music industry through Bennett's forensic musicology songwriting consultancy reports, which have been used by music publishers and law courts in the settlement of songwriter copyright disputes. Summaries of the research have been presented to a non-academic music audience via international print publication (Total Guitar Magazine). Practitioners connected with the research (Moor and Parfitt) have achieved top 10 hits and international music publication for non-academic audiences.
Since 2008, Baily has reached out to Afghanistan's shattered communities, using music to recuperate their musical culture and rebuild their sense of identity. Baily's work falls into three categories: education about Afghan music, in and outside Afghan communities; preservation of Afghan musical culture; and deploying musical practice to restore community identity and dignity. His post-2008 work builds on his pioneering research and the Afghanistan Music Unit, founded in 2002. His scholarship is rooted in research, practice, networks, and decades of experience, giving him unique insight into Afghanistan's music and its citizens at home and abroad. Through his interactions with musicians, educators and policy-makers, as well as his own public performances, films and educational work, his research has had a major and direct influence in sustaining Afghan culture, both in Afghanistan and in its worldwide diaspora in Pakistan, Iran, Australia, Germany and the USA, as well as the UK.
Music at City University London has long demonstrated a commitment to ethnomusicological outreach. This is particularly manifested in the extensive research of Dr Laudan Nooshin which has facilitated access to and understanding of Iranian music and culture in Britain and internationally. The primary channels through which impact has arisen from this research comprise: educational work with schools; a wide range of print and broadcast media; consultancy work for a range of organisations and festivals; and performance work in a variety of different contexts. Overall, the impact of Nooshin's research has enhanced knowledge of a rich, historically-rooted culture and acted as a counterbalance to the often negative representation of Iranian culture in the British and international media. In particular it has influenced attitudes and perceptions of musicians, scholars, readers and listeners; enriched the cultural lives and aesthetic experiences of children and adults in a range of performance and multimedia contexts; enhanced knowledge and understanding in different educational environments; and contributed significantly to the preservation, renewal and interpretation of Iranian musical heritage.
Research by Professor Ian Cross and his co-workers in the Centre for Music and Science (CMS) investigates the evolutionary foundations of human musicality especially in respect of relationships between music and language. It has had impact in the domain of public engagement with science through frequent media representation and active outreach. It has also helped to shape public discourse concerning the nature of music and its role in contemporary society, as reflected in the assimilation of ideas deriving from CMS research into the treatment of music from scientific perspectives in print, broadcast and digital media.
This case study details the broader impact of an extensive programme of research on participation in music and arts activities from childhood through to older adulthood. The research shows how people respond to, feel about, and take up opportunities provided to engage with music and the arts. We have shown that developing a robust musical identity in the early stages of childhood is important in a range of educational situations, including decision-making about later educational qualifications and continued involvement or motivation for involvement in music-making in later years. We have also shown that participation in the arts can contribute to enhancing community identity and challenging negative stereotypes about ageing. The research has had an extensive impact on arts education and participation policy in the UK as evidenced by discussion at major forums and inclusion in staff training, on the international music and arts practice community through inclusion in policy documents and multiple invitations to various events, and on wider public debate about the value of music and arts in people's lives as evidenced in the development of community arts events and discussion in editorials.
Stephen Rose's research on the sources and contexts of German music 1500-1750 has benefited amateur musicians, professional musicians and commercial concert-life. Building on his research in early music-printing, his digitisation project Early Music Online has provided musicians worldwide with digitised copies of over 10,000 pieces of early printed music previously available only to researchers visiting the British Library. His research on the contexts of German music has influenced concert programming at the highest international level, enhancing public awareness of the cultural meanings of the music they hear, and introducing them to unfamiliar repertory that puts one of the giants of western music—J. S. Bach—in historical context.
Odell-Miller's music therapy work has benefitted residents and produced demonstrable alterations in policy and the environment at Methodist Homes for the Aged (MHA). MHA is a well-established care provider for older people, delivering a range of high quality services to 16,000 individuals across Britain. Since Odell-Miller's pioneering, controlled music therapy trial in residential settings, focusing on live music interaction with older people with dementia, MHA has changed its policy and care provision to offer music therapy to 1,500 of its clients. MHA has also recruited twelve qualified music therapists in the last five years to support this policy change.