The 17th annual Pop Conference at Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) will take on a subject that everyone can relate to: “Only You and Your Ghost Will Know: Music, Death and Afterlife.”
The four-day (April 11-14) gathering of journalists, musicians and music fans will bring together 160 presenters for conversations, including Thursday’s keynote panel “Going Up Yonder: How Music Makers and Writers Confront Loss and Grief,” moderated by author/NPR Music’s Ann Powers, and featuring panelists Ishmael Butler (Shabazz Palaces), former Journey lead singer Steve Perry, Daphne A. Brooks (writer, Yale University scholar), David Toop (musician, London College of Communication) and Efrim Manuel Menuck (Godspeed You! Black Emperor).
“Throughout the history of popular music, songs, recordings and musical traditions have expressed both mourning and celebration, and — in some cases — helped envision the possibilities of a continued existence where ‘death is not the end,’” said MoPOP Manager of Public Engagement Robert Rutherford in a statement. “Beyond the music itself, a wave of recent prominent musician deaths, from David Bowie to Aretha Franklin, has amplified conversations over music’s relationship to mortality and the nature of fan mourning in the digital age.”
This year’s event will explore these subjects with panels on hauntings, inheritance, memorials and figurative rebirths, including “Listening for the Dead,” “There Will Be No Death: Prince’s Afterlife in Place, Dead, and Image,” “Korean Spectres: Manifestations and Apparitions of Korean Pop Music,” “Death in the Dance,” “Digital Deaths,” “The Rebirth of the B-Side,” “Resurrecting Rock Bands,” “Gone But Not Forgotten,” “A Country Song Will Survive: Death and Rebirth in Country Music” and “Afterlives of the Sample,” among many others.
Click here for a ful llist of this year’s panels. In addition to the daily conference schedule, Slate’s Hit Parade Podcast will air from the event on Saturday, with Chris Molanphy hosting a live episode during the event that will include stories as well as spinning posthumous hits from Biggie Smalls, Kurt Cobain, Freddie Mercury and Otis Redding; tickets ($30) for the broadcast are separate from the MoPOP fees. Four-day conference passes are $50, and include access to all Pop Conference events (plus GA admission to MoPOP galleries), including keynote panel and welcome reception. Click here to purchase tickets.