Matt Grimes is the degree leader for music industries at the Birmingham School of Media and lecturer in music industries and radio. Prior to joining the Birmingham School of Media and the Birmingham Centre for Media & Cultural Research as an academic, Matt worked extensively in the West Midlands as a radio trainer, bringing radio production to marginalised groups such as Romany and Gypsy Travellers, young adults and children in rural areas, community groups, prison inmates, and the long term unemployed.

His rationale for the training is using radio, an accessible and affordable media, as a vehicle for social and personal change, raising self-esteem and increasing confidence, giving marginalised people a voice, skills acquisition and development, social and cultural bridge building.

He has also previously worked as a sound engineer, an art technician and consultant, and a drummer of various bands that never “made it”.

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Birmingham Centre for Media & Cultural Research - Interactive Cultures

Member of International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM)

Matt teaches across a number of programmes in the Birmingham School of Media; specialist areas taught include music industries skills, music promotion and PR, music business, popular music culture, music enterprise and radio production. Matt also leads the BA (Hons) Media and Communication (Music Industries) degree specialism within the school, including evaluating and developing courses, as well as networking with industry and recruiting and managing visiting lecturers and guest speakers.

Matt is the link tutor for the faculty of Performance Media and English, at BCU, where he manages and develops collaborative provision with franchise colleges and external educational providers. He is also an external examiner to the BA/Fda Music Business and Management at Northbrook College (Brighton University).

Matt is currently working on his research degree within the Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research where he is investigating British anarcho-punk and the construction of it as a cultural object amongst fans and popular music canonisers.

He was the project administrator for the AHRC/BBC Radio Listeners On-line research project that was led by the Birmingham Centre for Media & Cultural Research

‘Call it Crass, but ‘There is No Authority But Yourself’: Re-canonising Punk’s Underbelly’ in “Sights and Sounds: Interrogating the Music Documentary” forthcoming  publication by Routledge,  May 2013

Radio as a Tool for Rehabilitation and Social Inclusion’ [with Stevenson, S] in Mollgard, M (ed) ‘Radio & Society: New Thinking for an Old Media’ Cambridge Scholars Publishing (2012)

Chair on “Music in the Digital Age” Panel SWN Festival, Cardiff, Oct 2011

‘Anarcho-punk webzines – transferring symbols of defiance from the print to the digital age?’ Subcultures, Popular Music and Social Change: A cross disciplinary symposium London Metropolitan University, September 2011

Chair on “Stream or Sell” Panel at Tuned On symposium, Birmingham Symphony Hall, April 2011

‘Music Webzines: Acts of Defiance in a Digital Age?’ [with Horrocks, R] Shifting Ground II: A Symposium on Music and Publishing. Oxford Brookes University, April 2011

‘Radio for Rehabilitation and Inclusion’ [with Stevenson, S] The Radio Conference: A Transnational Forum. Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand, Jan 2011

‘Punk’s Underbelly: De-canonizing histories of punk’. Sights & Sounds: Interrogating the Music Documentary. Salford University, June 2010

‘Using radio for health promotion in prisons’ World Health Organisation International Conference Prison Health Protection Madrid, 2009