STAFF PROFILE
Dr Shelley Brunt
Shelley is Senior Lecturer in Music and Media.
As a popular music ethnomusicologist, Shelley focuses on ethnographic approaches to examining music cultures in Asia, Australia and New Zealand. She is the author of over 20 academic publications, many of which can be found in RMIT's Research Repository, including the book Made in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand: Studies in Popular Music (with G.Stahl Routledge, 2018). At present, she is writing the book Popular Music and Parenting (with L.Giuffre Routledge, 2021) about the shared experiences of listening, media engagement, and music performance participation between caregivers and young children. She speaks about this topic regularly in her podcast "Music Mothers and Others" cohosted with Liz Giuffre (University of Technology Sydney) and broadcast on Sydney's 2SERfm and musicmothersandothers.com.
One of Shelley's principal research interests is Japan’s popular music world. She continues to work on a long-running project that examines identity, community and nationalism in the annual NHK Red and White Song Contest (Kouhaku uta gassen) – a live television program that can be loosely described as “Japan’s Eurovision Song Contest”. Shelley has conducted fieldwork backstage at the event in Tokyo on numerous occasions since 2000, including 2013-14 and 2019-2020 as a two-time recipient of the Japan Foundation Japanese Studies Fellowship and other competitive research grants. A recent publication on the contest can be found in the book Made in Japan: Studies in Japanese Popular Music (Routledge, 2015). Shelley is an experienced public speaker on Japanese popular music topics for English language media commentary. In addition to song contests, she examines holographic televised song performances as well as ‘posthumous duets’ (where a living singer is paired with a deceased singer generated by digital means). She has presented talks in Japan at Tokyo University of the Arts, Kyoto Seika University, Hosei University Research Centre for Intercultural Studies in Tokyo, and Kansai University in Osaka, among others. More locally, she has presented a seminars for The Japan Foundation, Sydney. Her research about Japanese popular music has been quoted in international media outlets and she was profiled on NHK Japanese TV in a special programme about the 60th edition of the Red and White Song Contest.
Shelley's creative musical practice is varied. She is a retired cellist and chorister, and performed as a guitarist, keyboardist and singer in bands in 1990s–2000s, and later as a gamelan and taiko performer in the 2010s.
Websites:
- PhD (Ethnomusicology) Elder Conservatorium of Music, University of Adelaide
- BA (First Class Honours), University of Adelaide
- BA University of Adelaide
- Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Teaching and Learning
Academic publishing and advisory boards
- Co-Editor, "Perfect Beat: The Asia-Pacific Journal of Research into Contemporary Music and Popular Culture" Equinox https://journals.equinoxpub.com/PB/index
- Editorial Advisory Board, "33 1/3 Japan" book series, Bloomsbury
- International Advisory Board, IASPM Journal
Academic organisations
- Chair, (2007–2012) and Secretary (2004-2007) Australia/New Zealand Branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM–ANZ)
- Council Member, (2014-16) Australia/New Zealand Branch of the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM-ANZ)
- National Membership Secretary, (2005-2006) Musicological Society of Australia (MSA)
Television
- Researcher for the music television programme ‘Kouhaku Uta gassen’ (Red and White Song Contest), by broadcaster NHK, Tokyo, Japan
Radio
- Co-host of "Music Mothers and Others' podcast and radio show on Sydney's 2SERfm musicmothersandothers.com
- Casual correspondent for RNZ (Radio New Zealand Concert) ‘Upbeat’ programme
- Casual contributor to ABC Radio National / local
General music industry
- City of Melbourne Live Music Census 2017
Selected music performance experience
- Founding member of the Japanese drumming ensemble ‘O-Taiko’ Japanese taiko drumming ensemble, New Zealand
- Director and performer (2008–2012), ‘Puspawarna Gamelan’, Central Javanese percussion ensemble, New Zealand
- Brunt, S.,Nelligan, K. (2021). The Australian music industry’s mental health crisis: media narratives during the coronavirus pandemic In: Media International Australia, 178, 42 - 46
- Hoad, C.,Wilson, O.,Brunt, S.,Shill, G.,Howe, B. (2020). Work-integrated learning in university popular music programmes: localised approaches to vocational curricula in Melbourne, Australia and Wellington, Aotearoa/New Zealand In: British Journal of Music Education, 37, 181 - 192
- Keogh, B.,Brunt, S.,Giuffre, L. (2019). Sounds Like Australia? Listening to Australia's Eurovision Song Performances In: Eurovision and Australia: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from Down Under, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, Switzerland
- Strong, C.,Brunt, S.,Cannizzo, F.,Montano, E.,Rogers, I.,Shill, G. (2019). Adapting the studio model for the Australian popular music education context In: Journal of Popular Music Education, 3, 293 - 308
- Brunt, S.,Stahl, G. (2018). This is My City: Reimagining Popular Music Down Under In: Made in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand: Studies in Popular Music, Routledge, New York, United States
- Brunt, S. (2018). Outside The Square: Songs for Christchurch in a Time of Earthquakes In: Made in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand, Routledge, New York, United States
- Brunt, S. (2015). Performing Beyond the Grave: The Posthumous Duet In: Death and the Rock Star, Ashgate, Surrey, United Kingdom
- Brunt, S.,O'Reilly, E. (2015). Shaping a journal for emerging researchers in Japanese Studies: insights from an editorial perspective In: New Voices in Japanese Studies, 7, iv - xix
- Brunt, S. (2014). The infinite power of song: Uniting Japan at the 60th annual Kohaku song contest In: Made in Japan: Studies in Japanese Popular Music, Routledge, New York, United States
- Brunt, S.,Johnson, H. (2013). Click, play and save: The iGamelan as a tool for music-culture sustainability In: Musicology Australia, 35, 221 - 236
- Looking Outward, Looking Inward: Conveying Japan’s popular music as cultural heritage through Kouhaku Utagassen. Funded by: Japan Foundation Fellowship from (2019 to 2023)
- Can Songs Heal Japan? Building National Identity and Societal Resilience through a Televised Song Contest. Funded by: RMIT Cash Contribution from (2013 to 2014)
3 PhD Completions7 PhD Current Supervisions