Popular music and politics are connected in many ways: popular music is by no means only "political" when it operates with political lyrics or is labelled with political attributions. It is also political because the practices of its actors - be they musicians, DJs, bookers, label or platform operators, publishers, commercially operating organisers or state sponsors as well as their audience, fans, journalists or critics - are always socially positioned and (can) become meaningful in various ways. Popular music is both a seismograph and a medium of collective negotiation processes and as such can become the subject of social, cultural, media, educational and academic debates.

The Research Centre for Popular Music and Politics aims to address this complex frame of reference in an analytical-reflective, empirical-research and advisory capacity. It is located in a university-academic environment and at the same time addresses social actors who are interested in shaping musical-social fields of action.