New Directions for Ethnomusicological Research into the Politics of Music and Culture: Issues, Projects, and Programs
Abstract
This article identifies a set of issues that are at the heart of contemporary ethnomusicological research on the politics of music and suggests directions for future work in this area. Populism, the dialectical relationship between the expressive and the instrumental dimensions of musical practice, and the tension between critical and relativistic impulses in ethnomusicology are explored. The article argues that further work is needed on the concrete mechanisms by which music making and listening impact conduct in other spheres of social life and suggests the utility of a practice theory approach to the notion of power for ethnomusicological inquiry on the politics of culture.