Dr Simon Morrison
Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader for Music Journalism
Dr Simon A. Morrison is a writer, academic and Programme Leader for the Music Journalism degree at the University of Chester. Author of the book Discombobulated - a collection of Gonzo ‘Dispatches From The Wrong Side’ columns penned for DJmagazine and published in the UK and US by Headpress – Simon has reported on the music scene everywhere from Beijing to Brazil; Moscow to Marrakech. He edited Ministry of Sound’s Ibiza magazine for two years and has also produced and presented TV and radio. A screenplay Simon penned, based on a story he wrote for The Guardian, is currently with a TV production company.
Within academe, Simon has contributed to Bloomsbury books including How To Write About Music, DJ Culture in the Mix and Kerouac on Record, as well as various academic publications including the journal Popular Music. His research interest, like his own practice, lies in the intersection of words and music, and his current writing stretches from a co-authored book about the global club scene for Reaktion to a co-edited title about Pink Floyd for Routledge to the publication of his PhD – Dancefloor-Driven Literature: The Rave Scene in Fiction – by Bloomsbury New York, in May 2020. Simon has presented this research at conferences across the world, including Portugal, Holland and Australia.
Simon’s lecturing began as a guest speaker at a variety of institutions, with audiences ranging from primary schoolchildren to Master’s students to an E.B.D school, where he spoke to emotionally and behaviourally disturbed children about his career as a music journalist. Simon has lectured on journalism at universities including Chester, Staffordshire and Salford, conducted many employability sessions at Manchester University and also given several masterclasses on music journalism for the Manchester City Music Network.
Simon has taught on the Popular Music and the Press module at Leeds University, and has also worked as an Associate Lecturer at the new Business School at Manchester Metropolitan University, lecturing around PR and marketing.
Simon has presented his research into EDMC (electronic dance music culture) at conferences in the UK and overseas and has had papers published in journals such as Dancecult. His chapter ‘DJ-driven Literature: A Linguistic Remix’ formed part of the collection DJ Culture in the Mix, published by Bloomsbury in late 2013. He is currently working on a book for the Reaktion publishing house in the USA, looking at the place and function of the discothèque.
Books
Morrison, S. A., Dancefloor Driven Literature: The rave scene in fiction (New York, USA: Bloomsbury, 2020)
Morrison, S. A. and Chris Hart, eds., Tear Down The Wall: An Interdisciplinary Interrogation of the Music and Significance of Pink Floyd (London: Routledge, 2021)
Morrison, S. A., and Katie Milestone, Transatlantic Drift: The UK, US and the flows of electronic dance music (London: Reaktion, forthcoming)
Book Chapters
Morrison, S. A., ‘Tramps Like Them: Jack and Bruce and the Myth of the American Road’, in Simon Warner and Jim Sampas eds., Kerouac on Record: A Literary Soundtrack (New York: Bloomsbury, 2018)
Morrison, S. A., ‘DJ-Driven Literature: A Linguistic Remix’, in Bernardo Alexander Attias, Anna Gavanas and Hillegonda C. Rietveld eds., DJ Culture in the Mix: Power, Technology and Social Change in Electronic Dance Music (London: Bloomsbury, 2013). pp. 219-314
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
Morrison, S. A., ‘Dancefloor-driven literature: subcultural big bangs and a new center for the aesthetic universe’, Popular Music, Volume 36.1 (The Critical Imperative), January 2017, 43-54
Morrison, S. A., ‘"Surely people who go clubbing don’t read”: Dispatches From The Dancefloor and Clubland in Print”’ in IASPM Journal, ed. C. Jacke, M. James & Ed Montano, 4.2, 2014
Books
Morrison, S. A., Dancefloor-Driven Literature: The Rave Scene in Fiction (New York, Bloomsbury, 2020)
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
Morrison, S. A., ‘Dancefloor-driven literature: subcultural big bangs and a new center for the aesthetic universe’, Popular Music, Volume 36.1 (The Critical Imperative), January 2017, 43-54
‘"Surely people who go clubbing don’t read”: Dispatches From The Dancefloor and Clubland in Print”’ in IASPM Journal, ed. C. Jacke, M. James & Ed Montano, 4.2, 2014
‘“Clubs aren’t like that” Discos, Deviance and Diegetics in Club Culture Cinema’, Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture 4.2 (2012), 48–66
Book Chapters
Morrison, S. A., ‘Tramps Like Them: Jack and Bruce and the Myth of the American Road’, in Simon Warner and Jim Sampas eds., Kerouac on Record: A Literary Soundtrack (New York: Bloomsbury, 2018)
‘DJ-Driven Literature: A Linguistic Remix’, in Bernardo Alexander Attias, Anna Gavanas and Hillegonda C. Rietveld eds., DJ Culture in the Mix: Power, Technology and Social Change in Electronic Dance Music (London: Bloomsbury, 2013). pp. 219-314
- B.A. (Hons) English and American Literature (University of Manchester)
- University of Amsterdam - Erasmus Scheme, a year spent on an exchange scheme
- M.A. in Novel Writing (University of Manchester)
- PhD (Currently researching a PhD within the School of Music at the University of Leeds, looking at club culture and its representation in literature)