Dr. Mike Alleyne
Associate Professor
International Recording Industry
History of the Recording Industry
Music & Career of Hendrix
Music as Popular Culture
Office: Comm 220
Phone: 615.904.8336
Email: malleyne@mtsu.edu
Born in London, England, Mike Alleyne received his B.A. in English (graduating as valedictorian) and PhD in English/Cultural Studies from the University of the West Indies, Barbados. After working on-air in radio in Barbados, he created original music for television and radio commercials and themes while also working in music instrument retail and writing album reviews for Caribbean Week newspaper. He has interviewed artists and producers ranging from Phil Collins to Chuck D from Public Enemy, and most recently in 2006 legendary record producer and artist, Nile Rodgers.
He taught at the University of the West Indies and Florida A&M University in humanities related disciplines. He specializes in popular music research, with a career emphasis on the Caribbean. He has published articles on reggae and Caribbean music in Popular Music & Society, Social & Economic Studies, Bucknell Review, The Griot and Small Axe. He wrote a chapter on Bob Marley in the book, Caribbean Romances: The Politics of Regional Representation, published by University Press of Virginia, a chapter on digital music technology in Culture & Mass Communication in the Caribbean, published by University Press of Florida, and another written contribution in Globalization Diaspora & Caribbean Popular Culture published by Ian Randle Press in Jamaica.
His academic work has been used in courses at Columbia University, Colorado State University, and the University of Newcastle (England). He has presented conference papers on popular music in South America, the Caribbean, the U.S, and Europe. In 2004 & 2007, he also taught in Sweden in the Music Management program of the University of Kalmar, and conducted research on the Swedish reggae scene. The 2007 Sweden teaching featured a class on the History of the Album Cover.
Other international teaching has included the CCSA London Study Abroad courses, "Current Trends in European Music Culture" and “Global News & World Media Cultures.” In 2005, he presented a paper at the conference on World Music & Small Players in the Global Music Industry in Copenhagen, Denmark, and gave a public lecture at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad as a Distinguished Lecturer in Cultural Studies.
His historical overview of Jamaica’s dancehall reggae was published in the Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History: The Black Experience in the Americas.
2006 involved conference presentations in England & Scotland, and the publication of an article assessing Carolyn Cooper’s Sound Clash book, ‘Inside Out: Dancehall and the ‘Re-Cooperation’ of Meaning” in the journal Small Axe.
In 2007, he attended the international music market conference MIDEM in France, and presented conference papers in Brazil and Mexico.
He is an editorial board member of the journal, Popular Music & Society, and is also a member of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) and a writer member of the London-based Performing Right Society (PRS)
