Forschungszentrum Populäre Musik
The Research Center for Popular Music was founded by a student initiative in 1983, when the field of popular music studies was still in its infancy. It was located from the beginning in its current home on the fourth floor of the historic Humboldt University building, Am Kupfergraben 5, as part of what is now called the Institute for Musicology and Media Studies. In 1993 the professorship for theory and history of popular music was created and attached to the research center. Prof. Dr. Peter Wicke assumed the professorship and direction of the center until his retirement in 2016. This position is now held by Prof. Dr. Mark Butler.
The research center’s collections of books, papers, and recordings spanning the 1980s-2010s remain in situ, in an office now occupied by Dr. Sydney Hutchinson and the popular music studies student assistant, Carl Lange. As part of the Second World Music project, Hutchinson, Lange, and project interns are working to organize the collections and make them more accessible. A selection of the center’s own publications will be made available in digital form soon.