Brian Fauteux, BA (University of Western Ontario), MA in Media Studies (Concordia), PhD in Communication (Concordia), Postdoc in Media & Cultural Studies (University of Wisconsin)

Area of Study / Keywords

Popular Music Studies Radio Studies Music and Media Industries Sound Studies

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About

Brian Fauteux is Associate Professor of Popular Music and Media Studies. He holds a PhD in Communication from Concordia (Montreal) and has completed a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship in Media & Cultural Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He studies music industries and music radio, often from the interrelated perspectives of cultural studies, history, and policy and is currently a co-investigator on a SSHRC-funded research project that investigates copyright and cultural labour in the digital music industries. His first book, Music in Range: The Culture of Canadian Campus Radio (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2015), explores the history of Canadian campus radio, highlighting the factors that have shaped its close relationship with local music and culture. The book traces how campus radio practitioners have expanded stations from campus borders to surrounding musical and cultural communities by acquiring FM licenses and establishing community-based mandates. His most recent book, Music in Orbit: Satellite Radio in the Streaming Space Age (University of California Press, 2025) is the first book to explore how satellite radio bridges legacy broadcast music radio and streaming platforms, serving as both precursor and integral player in today's streaming media environment.

Representative Works:

(for a more detailed list, see brianfauteux.com)

Fauteux, Brian. Music in Orbit: Satellite Radio in the Streaming Space Age. University of California Press, 2025.

Fauteux, Brian. Music in Range: The Culture of Canadian Campus Radio. Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2015

deWaard, Andrew, Fauteux, Brian, and Selman, Brianne. "Independent Canadian Music in the Streaming Age: The Sound from above (Critical Political Economy) and below (Ethnography of Musicians)." Popular Music and Society 45.3 (2022): 251 - 278. [open access]

Fauteux, Brian, Sutherland, Richard, and Taylor, Gregory. "Beyond the Branch Plant: Capitol-EMI's First Canadian Record Press and National Music Industries in the 1970s." Cultural Studies 36.3 (2022): 428-450.

Fauteux, Brian. "'When the Dial Goes Dylan:' 'Premium' Radio, Hybrid Authenticity and Theme Time Radio Hour." Popular Music 39.3-4 (2020): 652 - 658.

Fauteux, Brian. "(Residual) Public Music Radio in the Streaming Era: Listening for Diversity and Frequency on CBC Music." Journal of Radio & Audio Media 27.1 (2020): 8 - 24.

Fauteux, Brian. “The Edufication and Musicalization of Radio: CKUA, ‘Good Music,’ and ‘Uplifting Taste.” Music Radio: Building Communities, Mediating Genres. Eds. Morten Michelsen, Mads Krogh, Steen Kaargaard Nielsen, and Iben Have. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018: 120 – 144. 

Fauteux, Brian. “'Songs You Need to Hear': Public Radio Partnerships and the Mobility of National Music.” Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast and Audio Media 15.1 (2017): 47 - 63.

Fauteux, Brian. “Satellite Footprint to Cultural Lifelines: Sirius XM and the Circulation of Canadian Content.” International Journal of Cultural Policy 22.3 (2016): 313 - 330.

Fauteux, Brian. “Reflections of the Cosmopolitan City: Mapping Arcade Fire’s Reflektor and its Intermedia Promotional Campaign.” Journal of Popular Music Studies 21.7 (2015): 48 - 68.

Fauteux, Brian. “Beyond Campus Borders: Canadian Campus Radio and Community Representation on the FM Dial.” The Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media 11.2 (2013): 137 - 153.

Fauteux, Brian. “‘New Noise’ versus the Old Sound: Manifestos and The Shape of Punk to Come. Popular Music and Society 35.4 (2012): 465 - 482.

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Research

Research Areas:

Popular Music Studies; Media Studies; Cultural Studies; Radio Studies; Music/Media Industries; Music Scenes; Sound Studies; Cultural Policy; Community and Independent Media

Supervision: 

Interested in supervising a range of projects within the larger fields of Popular Music Studies and Media Studies, particularly in the areas of: Popular music and radio, music industries, music scenes, independent and/or local music, popular music and Canada 

Current and Recent Research Projects:

CanCon and its Digital Discontents: A Public Infrastructure Model for Canadian Music:

This project aims to uncover the difficulties facing independent, working Canadian musicians in the streaming age to identify policy changes needed to ensure equity, diversity, and inclusion and fair pay for artists. In addition, we aim to explore how public infrastructure (community and public radio and webstreams, public streaming platforms, non-profit venues) might help remedy issues facing musicians in Canada that result from the corporatization and concentration across record and tech companies in the digital age. [In collaboration with Dr. Andrew deWaard (UCSD) and Brianne Selman (Winnipeg)]. 

SiriusXM and the Value and Disposability of Music in the Digital Age:

This project investigates the development of satellite radio broadcasting in North America and explores the ways that satellite radio broadcasting organizes programming. More specifically, it looks at the role and function of music in the policies surrounding the North American satellite radio service SiriusXM. Music’s value has been emphasized in order to entice and maintain subscriptions but claims of music’s “secondary” status (as well as disposability and ubiquity) has enabled it to serve as a strategic cultural product in key policy decisions that have helped to solidify SiriusXM’s financial standing. The construction of value through exclusive content, celebrity radio hosts, and subscription listening are also key aspects of this project. This program of research began in the Department of Communication Arts at The University of Wisconsin-Madison (2012 - 2014), supervised by Professor of Media and Cultural Studies Michele Hilmes.

The Cultural Capital Project: Digital Stewardship and Sustainable Monetization for Canadian Independent Musicians:

Three transnational corporations (Universal, Sony, and Warner) control roughly 80% of the global recording and publishing industries and 86% of the North American market. This three-pronged research project responds to the problem of music industry consolidation by rethinking a digital music industry based on sustainability and fair pay for artists. We will conduct a political economic analysis of royalty rates and market concentration. We will investigate creative labour in the digital age through interviews with Canadian independent musicians and industry stakeholders, and we will examine stewardship potential by testing the application of creative commons principles to the music industry. We expect our findings to imagine and advance new frameworks and models for advocating a sustainable livelihood for smaller Canadian music creators. [In collaboration with Dr. Andrew deWaard (UCSD) and Brianne Selman (Winnipeg)]. 

The EMI Music Canada Collection and the Canadian Music Industry:

This study investigates the contributions of the Canadian subsidiary of UK-based EMI Music to Canada's musical culture and industry. EMI (and earlier, Capitol Records) was active in Canada from about 1950 until 2006. During this period, the company discovered, developed, and promoted many of Canada’s most important musical acts. This research is based upon the contents of the EMI Music Canada Archive collection - an archive recently acquired by the University of Calgary. The collection includes a variety of materials, such as master tapes, videos, and textual records including business correspondence. Taken as a whole they provide considerable details about EMI Canada’s operations. A key aim of this project is to develop the means to disseminate our research as a publicly accessible resource through the web, public talks, and physical museum exhibits, telling the stories this material contains in a way that makes them available to a wide audience. [In collaboration with Dr. Richard Sutherland (Mount Royal) and Dr. Gregory Taylor (Calgary)]

Canadian Campus Radio and the Shaping of Sounds and Scenes:

This project focuses on Canadian campus radio broadcasting and local music-making. Following extensive analysis of policy and archival documents, as well as interviews with radio station staff members, volunteers and local musicians, I argue that a campus radio station does not simply respond to federal broadcasting regulation by ensuring programming differs from that available on commercial and public radio – although policy is critical in ensuring the operations and sustainability of the sector. Rather, stations are inherently connected to the individuals and various cultural institutions within their broadcast range, and these connections largely determine a station’s programming and operations. Moreover, campus radio stations are significant institutions that have resources and technology such as record collections and recording equipment that helps to educate and train cultural producers – whether radio hosts, musicians, DJs, singers, writers or producers. I also argue that campus radio practitioners, staff members and volunteers play an integral part in policy debates surrounding the sector, and have been central in the sector’s development.

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Teaching

Fall 2024:

Music 670: Proseminar in Popular Music and Media Studies

Winter 2025:

Music 488/588: Studies in Music and Media

Music 203: Issues in Popular Music Studies

MST 100 - Introduction to Media Studies

The discipline of Media Studies, how it has developed, its historical objects and contemporary tools of study, and how it contributes to our understanding of culture.

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MUSIC 203 - Issues in Popular Music Studies

Critical study of popular musics in contemporary society, approached through social and cultural theory. Prerequisite: MUSIC 103 or consent of Department.

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MUSIC 488 - Studies in Music and Media

The intersections of music and media from academic, analytical, historical and critical perspectives. Prerequisite: consent of the Department. Variable topic course which may be repeated 5 times when content varies.

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MUSIC 588 - Advanced Studies in Music and Media

The intersections of music and media from academic, analytical, historical and critical perspectives. Prerequisite: consent of the Department. Variable topic course which may be repeated 5 times when content varies

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Browse more courses taught by Brian Fauteux

Andrew deWaard, Brian Fauteux, Brianne Selman

Popular Music and Society. 2022 May; 10.1080/03007766.2021.2010028

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Brian Fauteux

Popular Music. 2020 December; 10.1017/S0261143020000562

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2017 January;

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2017 January;

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2012 January;

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