Professor Bowman pioneered popular music studies at York University. He lectures publishes and broadcasts in many areas of popular music, from country, R & B and gospel to reggae, rap and funk. He has written liner notes for dozens of recordings and regularly authors produce and advise on major documentary and CD reissue projects for record companies in Europe and North America. His many broadcast credits include a five-part radio series on the history of Canadian popular music and frequent guest spots on CBC Radio’s Definitely Not the Opera.

Rob Bowman’s work as an interpreter and documentarian of historical recordings of popular music has been recognized internationally. A six-time Grammy Award nominee, he won a Grammy in 1996 for Best Album Notes for his 47,000-word monograph accompanying the 10-CD boxed set of The Complete Stax/Volt Soul Singles, Vol. 3: 1972-1975, which he co-produced. His nominations include Best Album Notes for the 4 CD box set The Stax Story, Best Album Notes for The Malaco Records Story: The Last Soul Company and The Complete Stax Singles, Vol. 1 1959-1968, and Best Historical Reissue for The Otis Redding Story. He received his sixth Grammy nomination in December 2018, for Best Historical Album for Jackie Shane: Any Other Way.

Professor Bowman’s book, Soulsville, U.S.A. – The Story of Stax Records (1997), a definitive history of the legendary Memphis-based record label, has garnered numerous honours, including the winner of the 1998 ASCAP-Deems Taylor and ARSC Awards for Excellence in Music Research. In 2013 Soulsville U.S.A. was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in Memphis.