Peter Wicke


Peter Wicke is a German musicologist, who is particularly interested in popular music; he teaches as a university professor at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Life and achievements

Born in Zwickau, Wicke studied musicology in Berlin until 1974 and received his PhD in 1980 with a dissertation on the music aesthetics of popular music. In 1986, he was awarded a doctorate with a thesis on the aesthetics and sociology of rock music and in 1988 he was appointed Adjunct Research Professor at the Department of Music of Carleton University in Ottawa. In 1992 he was appointed to the Humboldt University Berlin, where he held the chair for "Theory and History of Popular Music" until his retirement in 2016. He was also director of the "Research Center for Popular Music" at the Department of Musicology of the Humboldt University.
Wicke is a member of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music and was its General Secretary in 1987 and 1991. From 1986 to 1992 he was European Director of the "International Communication and Youth Culture Consortium" of UNESCO and from 1993 to 1997 he was a member of the Presidium of the of the Federal Republic of Germany. Since 1998 Wicke has been a member of the Deutscher Musikrat.
Wicke has published several international articles on theoretical, historical and cultural policy. problems of popular music appeared, which were translated into over fifteen languages. In 1972 he was the winner of the of the GDR.

Publications