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Music Research Guide: Introduction

Introduction

Welcome to the Music Research Guide! This guide provides resources specific to the field and study of Music. More specific resources for your classes (History of Music from 1750-1900: MUST 306, Research in Music: MUST 614, etc.) can be found on the Course Pages tab.

To get started, click on the tabs at the top of the page or the links below:

New Music Books & Resources

Music in the Human Experience: an Introduction to Music Psychology

Music in the Human Experience: An Introduction to Music Psychology, Second Edition, is geared toward music students yet incorporates other disciplines to provide an explanation for why and how we make sense of music and respond to it -- cognitively, physically, and emotionally. All human societies in every corner of the globe engage in music. Taken collectively, these musical experiences are widely varied and hugely complex affairs. How did human beings come to be musical creatures? How and why do our bodies respond to music? Why do people have emotional responses to music? Music in the Human Experience seeks to understand and explain these phenomena at the core of what it means to be a human being. New to this edition: expanded references and examples of non-Western musical styles; updated literature on philosophical and spiritual issues; brief sections on tuning systems and the acoustics of musical instruments; a section on creativity and improvisation in the discussion of musical performance; new studies in musical genetics; greatly increased usage of explanatory figures.

Beyoncé in Formation: Remixing Black Feminism

Making headlines when it was launched in 2015, Omise'eke Natasha Tinsley's undergraduate course "Beyoncé Feminism, Rihanna Womanism" has inspired students from all walks of life. In Beyoncé in Formation, Tinsley now takes her rich observations beyond the classroom, using the blockbuster album and video Lemonade as a soundtrack for vital new-millennium narratives.Woven with candid observations about her life as a feminist scholar of African studies and a cisgender femme married to a trans spouse, Tinsley's "Femme-onade" mixtape explores myriad facets of black women's sexuality and gender. Turning to Beyoncé's "Don't Hurt Yourself," Tinsley assesses black feminist critiques of marriage and then considers the models of motherhood offered in "Daddy Lessons," interspersing these passages with memories from Tinsley's multiracial family history. Her chapters on nontraditional bonds culminate in a discussion of contemporary LGBT politics through the lens of the internet-breaking video "Formation," underscoring why Beyoncé's black femme-inism isn't only for ciswomen. From pleasure politics and the struggle for black women's reproductive justice to the subtext of blues and country music traditions, the landscape in this tour is populated by activists and artists (including Loretta Lynn) and infused with vibrant interpretations of Queen Bey's provocative, peerless imagery and lyrics.In the tradition of Roxanne Gay's Bad Feminist and Jill Lepore's best-selling cultural histories, Beyoncé in Formation is the work of a daring intellectual who is poised to spark a new conversation about freedom and identity in America.

The Evolution of Music Through Culture and Science

The Evolution of Music by Culture and Science aims to recognise the impact of science on music, why it occurs, how we respond, and even to tentatively see if we can predict future developments. Technology has played an immense role in the development of music as it has enabled the production of new sounds, introduced new instruments and continuously improved and modified existing ones. Printing, musical notation, and modern computer aids to composition, plus recordings and electronic transmission have equally enabled us to have access to music from across the world. Such changes, whether just more powerful pianos, or new sounds as from the saxophone, have inspired composers and audiences alike. Acoustics and architecture play similar roles as they changed the scale and performance of concert halls, and with the advent of electronics, they enabled vast pop music festivals. No aspect of modern music making has been untouched by the synergy with scientific innovation. This is not a one-way interaction as the early attempts to make recordings were a major motivating force to design the electronics for amplifiers and these in turn inspired and enabled the designs of semiconductor electronics and modern computer technology. To appreciate the impact of technology on music does not require any prior scientific background as the concepts are invariably extremely simple and are presented here without technical detail. Understanding music and why we like different genres is far more complex, as this involves our personal background and taste. Both aspects change with time, and there is no contradiction in enjoying items as diverse as baroque madrigals, symphonies, jazz or pop music, or music from totally different cultures.

Soul in Seoul: African American Popular Music and K-Pop

K-pop (Korean popular music) reigns as one of the most popular music genres in the world today, a phenomenon that appeals to listeners of all ages and nationalities. In Soul in Seoul: African American Popular Music and K-pop, Crystal S. Anderson examines the most important and often overlooked aspect of K-pop: the music itself. She demonstrates how contemporary K-pop references and incorporates musical and performative elements of African American popular music culture as well as the ways that fans outside of Korea understand these references. K-pop emerged in the 1990s with immediate global aspirations, combining musical elements from Korean and foreign cultures, particularly rhythm and blues genres of black American popular music. Korean solo artists and groups borrow from and cite instrumentation and vocals of R&B genres, especially hip-hop. They also enhance the R&B tradition by utilizing Korean musical strategies. These musical citational practices are deemed authentic by global fans who function as part of K-pop's music press and promotional apparatus. K-pop artists also cite elements of African American performance in Korean music videos. These disrupt stereotyped representations of Asian and African American performers. Through this process K-pop has arguably become a branch of a global R&B tradition. Anderson argues that Korean pop groups participate in that tradition through cultural work that enacts a global form of crossover and by maintaining forms of authenticity that cannot be faked, and furthermore propel the R&B tradition beyond the black-white binary.

Music and Modernity among First Peoples of North America

Music and Modernity among First Peoples of North America is a collaboration between Indigenous and settler scholars from both Canada and the United States. The contributors explore the intersections between music, modernity, and Indigeneity in essays addressing topics that range from hip-hop to powwow, and television soundtracks of Native Classical and experimental music. Working from the shared premise that multiple modernities exist for Indigenous peoples, the authors seek to understand contemporary musical expression from Native perspectives and to decolonize the study of Native American/First Nations music. The essays coalesce around four main themes: innovative technology, identity formation and self-representation, political activism, and translocal musical exchange. Closely related topics include cosmopolitanism, hybridity, alliance studies, code-switching, and ontologies of sound. Featuring the work of both established and emerging scholars, the collection demonstrates the centrality of music in communicating the complex, diverse lived experience of Indigenous North Americans in the twenty-first century and brings ethnomusicology into dialogue with critical Indigenous studies.

Integrating Music Across the Elementary Curriculum

This book is designed to support K-5 classroom teachers as they integrate music throughout the elementary curriculum. It contains detailed, practical ideas and examples, including full lesson plans and over 100 teaching ideas and strategies for integrating music with visual art, language arts,social studies, science, and mathematics. Following an overview of the interdisciplinary approach, the remaining chapters explore connections between music and other areas of the elementary curriculum. Each chapter also includes a section addressing national standards with tables showing thespecific standards that are included in each lesson and activity.This text utilizes the most recent National Core Arts Standards (2015) as well as the most recent standards in mathematics, science, social studies, and language arts. All the lessons in this book are designed to be fully taught by classroom teachers; the content is accessible to those who lackformal music training, yet is solidly rooted in research and best practices. While classroom teachers can teach these lessons on their own, this book may facilitate partnerships and collaboration between classroom teachers and music specialists. All the lessons and activities included in this texthave been reviewed by practicing teachers and most have been field tested in elementary classrooms. Throughout the book, there is an emphasis on interdisciplinary lessons that demonstrate valid connections between disciplines while maintaining the integrity of each discipline involved, including ateacher-tested model that allows teachers to successfully create their own interdisciplinary lessons.

Copyright's Excess: Money and Music in the US Recording Industry

For more than two hundred years, copyright in the United States has rested on a simple premise: more copyright will lead to more money for copyright owners, and more money will lead to more original works of authorship. In this important, illuminating book, Glynn Lunney tests that premise by tracking the rise and fall of the sound recording copyright from 1961–2015, along with the associated rise and fall in sales of recorded music. Far from supporting copyright's fundamental premise, the empirical evidence finds the exact opposite relationship: more revenue led to fewer and lower-quality hit songs. Lunney's breakthrough research shows that what copyright does is vastly increase the earnings of our most popular artists and songs, which - net result - means fewer hit songs. This book should be read by anyone interested in how copyright operates in the real world.

How to Make It in the New Music Business

Hailed as an "indispensable" guide (Forbes), How to Make It in the New Music Business returns in this extensively revised and expanded edition. When How to Make It in the New Music Business hit shelves in 2016, it instantly became the go-to resource for musicians eager to make a living in a turbulent industry. Widely adopted by music schools everywhere and considered "the best how- to book of its kind" (Music Connection), it inspired thousands to stop waiting around for that "big break." Now trusted as the leading expert for "do it yourself" artists, Ari Herstand returns with this second edition, maintaining that a stable career can be built by taking advantage of the many tools at our fingertips: conquering social media, mastering the art of merchandising, embracing authentic fan connection, and simply learning how to persevere. Comprehensively updated to include the latest online trends and developments, it offers inspiring success stories across media such as Spotify and Instagram. The result is a must- have for anyone hoping to navigate the increasingly complex yet advantageous landscape that is the modern music industry.

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Music Liaison Librarian

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Tracy Pizzi
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