Some Notes on Popular Music in my (Professional) Life

Authors

  • Bruno Nettl University of Illinois

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jwpm.35121

Keywords:

Charles Hamm, ethnomusicology, George Herzog, Indiana University, University of Illinois, Society for Ethnomusicology, taxonomy of music

Abstract

This article sketches the author’s experience with popular music as a student of music and ethnomusicology in the United States, and as a professional in this field. Principally it is a personal meditation on the role of popular music in the history of ethnomusicology, particularly in the Society for Ethnomusicology, in the history of American musical academia, and the reasons for its initial neglect. It recalls some incidents witnessed by the author that were turning points in the eventual acceptance of popular music by both ethnomusicologists and historical musicologists.

Author Biography

  • Bruno Nettl, University of Illinois

    Bruno Nettl is Professor Emeritus of Music and Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he has been on the faculty since 1964. He is the author of several books, including Heartland Excursions: Ethnomusicological Reflections on Schools of Music (1995); The Study of Ethnomusicology: 33 Discussions (3rd edn, 2015), and an edited volume on urban ethnomusicology, Eight Urban Musical Cultures (1978).

References

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Cantrick, Robert B. 1965. ”The Blind Men and the Elephant: Scholars on Popular Music”. Ethnomusicology 9: 100–114. https://doi.org/10.2307/850315

Hamm, Charles. 1978. Yesterdays: Popular Song in America. New York: Norton.

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Herzog, George. 1950. “Song: Folksong and the Music of Folksong”. In Funk and Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend, edited by Maria Leach, vol. 2, 1032–50. New York: Funk and Wagnalls.

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—1977. “Definitions of ‘Comparative Musicology’ and ‘Ethnomusicology’: An Historical-Theoretical Perspective”. Ethnomusicology 21: 189–204. https://doi.org/10.2307/850943

Nettl, Bruno. 1972. “Persian Popular Music in 1969”. Ethnomusicology 16: 218–39. https://doi.org/10.2307/849722

—1995. Heartland Excursions: Ethnomusicological Reflections on Schools of Music. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.

—2002. Encounters in Ethnomusicology: A Memoir. Warren, MI: Harmonie Park Press.

Nettl, Paul. 1927. Beiträge zur böhmischen und mährischen Musikgeschichte. Brno: Rohrer.

Silverberg, Ann. 1995. A Sympathy with Sounds: A Brief History of the University of Illinois School of Music to Celebrate the Centennial. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois School of Music.

Thompson, Stith, ed. 1950. Four Symposia on Folklore, Held at the Midcentury International Folklore Conference, Indiana University July 21–August 4, 1950. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

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Published

2017-12-03

Issue

Section

Disciplinary Perspectives on Popular Music

How to Cite

Nettl, B. (2017). Some Notes on Popular Music in my (Professional) Life. Journal of World Popular Music, 4(2), 280-289. https://doi.org/10.1558/jwpm.35121

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