For some reason, the working lives of music makers are not often given the attention in popular music studies which might be expected. The launch of the UK Year of the Artist – celebrating the role of artists in society – immediately before the 2000 conference of the UK branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM), meant that it was especially timely, then, for the IASPM event to address this state of affairs. The conference, The Popular Musician: Performance, Poetics, Power, was held at the University of Surrey, 7–9 July 2000, and took as its central theme the position of musicians – in the music industry, in relation to fans and audiences and in the media, politics and society.