Biography

Education

PhD (York University) MA (McMaster University) BMus (McMaster University)

Biography 

Dr. Jennifer Taylor specializes in popular music studies, with a focus on the intersection of popular music making and gender. Dr. Taylor’s MA thesis examined issues of representation and identity in the all-woman music festival Lilith Fair. That work was published in the Cambridge Companion to the Singer Songwriter (2016). Her doctoral dissertation explored how rock music education for girls can serve as a tool to redress sexism in the rock music industry while also fostering self-esteem in girls through the lens of Rock’n’Roll Camp for Girls in Portland, Oregon. This research was expanded to similar camps in Washington D.C. and Peterborough, ON and considered the myriad ways rock music education was deployed to foster musicianship and self-expression. She is presently exploring issues of identity and country music in relation to Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter and Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion, as well as exploring performances of gender and sexuality in the work of Liz Phair.

Dr. Taylor’s research and teaching interests include: popular music; musicology; ethnomusicology; music and gender studies; critical theory; cultural criticism; women’s studies; and musical activism.