PopCon 2025: Baby, It’s A Look!
By Elizabeth Farrington
The Pop Conference returns to USC Thornton with a focus on the intersection of music and fashion throughout history.
Once a field of study sitting on the outskirts of music academia, pop music scholarship has found a home at the USC Thornton School of Music, not only in its groundbreaking degree programs offered, but also through its hosting of the Pop Conference, also known as PopCon. Co-presented with the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM-US) and Critical Minded, PopCon returns to USC Thornton for three days of panels, keynotes and special events this week from March 13-15.
“PopCon 2025: Baby, It’s A Look! Popular Music, Style, and Fashion at the Edge” highlights the intersection of music and fashion throughout history. Both mediums utilize style to ‘push artistic cultural frontiers, moving us right to the edge,’ and this year’s conference frames those two creative forces while deconstructing today’s popular music.
As the longest-running conference on popular music scholarship and criticism, PopCon brings together writers, academics and musicians from many backgrounds. Originally launched in Seattle as the “Experience Music Project,” it has since bounced from Los Angeles to New York in the 2010s. In 2024, after being hosted by NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, Tisch School of the Arts, the conference came to USC following Dean Jason King’s installation as the new Dean of the USC Thornton School of Music. King describes PopCon as a transformative annual event in his life, and a “gathering place for the most incredible thinkers about music in general.”
Composed of panels, lectures and keynote speakers, PopCon is not only informative but immersive in its presentation. Over three days, guests are free to move throughout the panels during the conference to sample discussions of different genres, artists and trends in music. “I hope people gravitate to particular panels or paper presentations that inspire them, that get them to think about music differently, or that change the way that they think about the value and the role of scholarship itself,” said Dean King.
By including the study of popular music and culture in an academic setting, PopCon breaks down traditional hierarchies in music academia. “Pop music is incredibly important in an academic setting,” said Dean Jason King; “There was a time when pop music was not considered for academic scrutiny or consideration. That has changed now.” PopCon pushes the window of music scholarship even further with sessions on topics including the use of artificial intelligence, anime’s influence on music, and rave culture.
A sampling of panels over the three-day event include: “Girl Groups and Homegirl Divas,” “Hair Choreography: The Politics of Hair in Pop Music Performance” and “Mohawks, Country Music, and Rural Queer Style.” As many as six panels can run concurrently during the conference, highlighting PopCon’s commitment to creating an encapsulation of boundary-pushing music scholarship.
Perry B. Johnson, a professor in the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, is a speaker at this year’s Pop Conference. After first experiencing PopCon in 2010 as an attendee, she is now a speaker at PopCon’s opening roundtable. “First Person: Music Memoir’s Audiovisual Aesthetics” explores how music memoirs shape legacies and shift audience engagement with musicians they admire.
“It’s a wonderful model of how to do critical, rigorous work that doesn’t have to just be academic scholarship or investigative criticism, but that’s a marrying of the two together,” said Johnson on the structure of the Pop Conference. The virtual community transforms into the physical at PopCon as Alyxandra Vesey, a professor at the University of Alabama, will be also on the roundtable. “I’m excited to be in a community with my folks. I always leave so nourished and with so many new sorts of ways of thinking about music,” Johnson said on the community building through PopCon.
PopCon’s opening keynote, “Something Better Than You Are Today: Fashion, Style, and Pop Music in Times of Crisis” focuses on the role of fashion in shifting, stylistically expansive times. Moderated by renowned NPR music critic Ann Powers, the panel includes singer-songwriters Ravyn Lenae, Justin Tranter and Oscar-nominated costume designer Arianne Phillips. Other special events at PopCon include “Quincy Jones Symphonic: A USC Concert Experience” on March 14, featuring numerous USC Thornton faculty and students performing together and alongside the USC Thornton Symphony. Saturday’s special event “Altadena, The Music, The Memories” reflects on the artistic history of Altadena, a community devastated by the recent Eaton fire.
As PopCon returns to the USC Thornton School of Music, it remains a vital space for music scholarship, criticism and artistic exploration. PopCon’s new home at USC reaffirms Thornton’s commitment to push the boundaries of music academia, exploring every avenue of the modern music world. Whether presenters are examining the interplay between fashion and music, dissecting modern music technology, or paying tribute to lost musical communities and figures, PopCon continues to push the boundaries of engagement with popular music.
PopCon runs from March 13-15 on the campus of USC Thornton. All events are free and open to the public with conference registration on Eventbrite. Some events may require separate registration.
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Written by Elizabeth Farrington (’25), USC Dornsife student journalist on assignment for the USC Thornton Office of Communications; Featured photo by Jordan Hemingway.
