معرفی
Lewis Kennedy serves as Academic Manager for the School of Popular Music and Voice at Leeds College of Music, where he coordinates the popular strand of Contextual Studies modules within the BA (Hons) Music (Popular) program. He completed his PhD in Music at the University of Hull in 2018, with a thesis focusing on functions of genre in metal and hardcore music.
Dr. Kennedy's research centers on the multimodal experience of popular music in the twenty-first century, with particular expertise in metal music studies, genre theory, and cultural intersections. His work examines how genre functions as both an organizing principle in music historiography and as a creative apparatus for participants. He has made significant contributions to understanding the symbiotic relationship between metal and hardcore, the New Wave of American Heavy Metal, and the phenomenon of kawaii metal through analyses of bands like Babymetal.
His publications reveal a consistent focus on how music scenes negotiate identity, heritage, and place, with particular attention to the Hull metal/hardcore scene, Chicano/Tejano influences in metal, and the transnational dimensions of metal culture. Kennedy's work often employs mixed methodologies, combining textual analysis with ethnographic approaches to understand how fans and musicians construct meaning within metal communities.
As Treasurer and Membership Officer of the International Society for Metal Music Studies, Kennedy actively contributes to the institutional development of this growing academic field. His conference presentations at venues like the International Society for Metal Music Studies and Punk Scholars Network demonstrate his engagement with interdisciplinary approaches to understanding contemporary music culture.
