Fernán del Val is PhD in Sociology in the Universidad Complutense of Madrid. Nowadays he is postdoctoral researcher at Universidade do Porto (Portugal). He has published several articles, in Spanish and in English, about popular music, youth, media and politics in Spain. He was visiting scholar at Newcastle University (2010) and Universidad Pompeu Fabra (2019). He is president of the Spanish branch of IASPM (International Association for the Study of Popular Music).