legendary band studied // canavarlar

THE MYTH and legend of The Smiths is to be magnified ever further after
some of the world’s brightest brains made them the subject of an
academic conference

Songs that saved your life

The symposium features lectures and talks by:
- Dave Haslam (Manchester, England)
- John Harris (The Last Party: Britpop, Blair and the Demise of English Rock)
- Simon Goddard (The Smiths: The Songs That Saved Your Life)
- Sheila Whiteley (Women and Popular Music: Sexuality, Identity and
Subjectivity)

Literature and cultural experts from universities in USA, Portugal, Japan,
Ireland, Norway, Turkey and Australia join home-grown scholars and
sociologists from MMU’s Institute of Popular Culture

Dr Justin O’Connor, Institute Director, said: “The Smiths have had a
singular impact on popular culture. They looked like nobody else and
sounded like nobody else, and their music had an emotional depth that
moved people in a way that no band has managed before or since.

“In spite of their huge cultural significance and personal resonance, The
Smiths have yet to receive sustained academic attention. This conference
aims to put that right and to critically examine what the band meant and
continue to mean two decades after their untimely demise.”

The Smiths conference takes place at Manchester Metropolitan University
on April 8 and 9, 2005

http://www.mmu.ac.uk/news/news_item.php?id=251