Dr George Reid

About

I am a lecturer in music at Kingston University and associate lecturer at the University of Northampton, teaching across both practical and academic modules at UG/PG levels. My main research outputs are in the field of ludomusicology – the academic study of video game music – and in particular the intersections between video game audio technologies and identity. I am also interested in interdisciplinary approaches to music, multimedia, and (sub)culture; music, memory and nostalgia; and queer approaches to music (technology) in theory and practice-as-research.

In addition to my academic interests – and frequently integrating with them – I am also a composer of electronic and experimental music, freelance composer and sound designer for multimedia, and I am an avid pixel artist.

Academic responsibilities

Lecturer in Music

Qualifications

  • Ph.D in Musicology
  • Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA)
  • MA by Research
  • BA (Hons) in Music Technology, First Class

Teaching and learning

Module Leader:

MU4201 – Synthesis, Sampling, and Sequencing

  • This module develops skills  and practice in synthesiser programming, sampling, sequencing, electronic composition and orchestration within digital audio workstations. Through hands-on instruction, students learn methods for crafting their own unique approaches to sound design, arrangement, and music production, covering the musical concepts of melody, rhythm, harmony, and form.

Lecturer: 

MU4205 – Navigating Music Technology

  • This module develops professional identity and active citizenship through exploring concepts including understanding ethical issues and values, design thinking, and commercial awareness. These concepts and associated activities will support students in planning their own personal and professional development, developing creative practice and reflective skills. This is supported through active engagement with the Navigate programme, developing a design thinking approach to future skills development.

MU5205 – Exploring Music Technology

  • This module explores careers in the music industry for the music technology graduate and encourages students to continue to plan their own personal and professional development, nurturing independent thinking and the ability to consciously develop their own skillsets, through shaping their own values and ambitions whilst developing a comprehensive understanding of the business of music.

MU7001 – Researching Music

  • This module develops the academic skills of students, such as locating relevant information from a variety of sources, evaluating their relevance and quality, weighing evidence, critical and introspective reflection, and communicating effectively. Within this module, students engage with both historical and contemporary issues in musicology and popular culture including, but not limited to, music and multimedia, music subcultures, music and politics, and perspectives on music & identity.

Qualifications and expertise

  • Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA)

Undergraduate courses taught

Postgraduate courses taught

Research

My interdisciplinary research is situated in the burgeoning field of ludomusicology, and I am particularly interested in the ways in which the timbral qualities of early video game music – known as 'chiptune' – have become reappropriated as a means of shaping identity and community. My Ph.D. thesis developed a framework for the analysis of identity and its trans*formation in relation to ludomusicality, in which chiptune formed the main case study, and brought together lenses from critical feminist theory, affect theory, (ludo)musicology, and new media theory.

I am currently researching how musical aesthetics such as these relate to the production of queer subjectivity, with a practice-as-research methodology informing the project.

In addition to ludomusicology, my research interests also include the relationship between multimedia and nostalgia; music, identity, fandom and (sub)culture, and the remediation of obsolete music technologies and aesthetics.

https://orcid.org/0009-0001-2781-5715

Areas of specialism

  • Ludomusicology
  • Popular Musicology
  • (Sub)cultural & Fan studies
  • Affect Theory
  • Queer Theory

Scholarly affiliations

  • University of Northampton
  • The Ludomusicology Research Group
  • The Queer Video Game Audio Research Network
  • Sonic Scope Journal

Professional practice, knowledge exchange and impact

Professional and scholarly affiliations

  • University of Northampton

Leadership and management

University responsibilities

  • Lecturer in Music
  • Module Leader
  • Personal Tutor

Social media

LinkedIn