Digital Commons Network^™

The Youth Music Institute At The University Of Wisconsin, Summer 1969, Phillip Hash

Faculty Publications - Music

The purpose of this historical study was to examine the planning, implementation, participants, and activities associated with the Youth Music Institute (YMI) held at the University of Wisconsin from July 7 to August 1, 1969. Organizers hoped this event would bridge the communication gap between society, educational institutions, and youth through a collaborative learning environment involving students, music educators, guidance counselors, and professional recording artists. Participants used the term “youth music” to encompass multiple genres that captured the interest of young people, including various forms of rock, blues, soul, country western, jazz, and ethnic styles. The program consisted of lectures …

The Devil Sounds Out: Affect And Intentionality In Conservative Evangelical Anti-Rock Discourse, 1965-1990, Philip Bixby

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Scholars have often described the evangelical reception of rock music as a discourse that changes in a positive direction, from the full-sail rejection of rock in the 1960s to the cautious acceptance of the genre as legitimate worship music throughout the 1970s, '80s, and '90s. This dissertation surveys anti-rock texts written by conservative evangelicals from the mid-1960s to the early 1990s, observing an alternative trajectory of the discourse. The dissertation shows that an uncompromising trend of anti-rock criticism persists well into the 1980s, especially promoted by preachers and writers (for example, Jeff Godwin and Jimmy Swaggart) who sought to deny …

Islamic Themes In Us Hip-Hop Culture, Anders Ackfeldt

Music & Performance in Muslim Contexts

Explores how Islam is produced in American hip-hop culture by both Muslims and non-Muslims

Islam has been a part of hip-hop culture since it sprang from New York’s street culture in the 1970s. Today hip-hop has evolved into a global artform with a diversity of Muslim Islamic discourses expressed. Using tools from the field of social semiotics, this book examines how Islamic themes feature in US hip-hop culture, maintaining a particular awareness that both Muslims as well as non-Muslims participate in their production.

Anders Ackfeldt analyses a collection of lyrics, sounds and images to show how Islamic themes are featured …

The Local Recording Industry And Chinese Songs In Singapore, 1950s And 1960s, Song Wei Goh

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

This paper argues that the local Chinese recording industry in post-Second World War Singapore functioned as a discursive sphere, which reflected the different understandings between the state and the people about what constituted “local Chinese culture”, during the formative years of the newly independent Singapore. In the 1950s and 1960s, technological advancement and state policies motivated the establishment of numerous local record companies with many singers discovered and recordings produced. Following Singapore’s independence, the local Chinese song recordings were employed by different agencies into narratives of nation-building and portrayed as the formation of “local Chinese culture”. This was notwithstanding the …

Commodification Of Kecak Ramayana As Tourism Art In Melasti Beach, Ungasan Village, District Of Kuta Selatan, Badung, Bali, Robby Hidajat, Ew. Suprihatin Dp., Surasak Jamnongsarn, Muhammad Afaf Hasyimy

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

This research examines the integration of Kecak Ramayana into Balinese traditional tourism art, focusing on the tourism art industry in the Beach of Melasti, Ungasan, Bali. The central theme explores the commodification of art’s role in attracting tourists and enhancing their imaginative experiences, delving into its impact on the ritual values and spiritual aspects of Kecak Ramayana. Utilizing a qualitative approach with interviews, observation and content analysis, the study addresses how this integration unfolds. Findings reveal that commodification causes a dissociation from ritual contexts, leading to the erosion of spiritual values due to a strong consumer-centric emphasis. This phenomenon also …

“Women Who Don’T Know How To Stay Married”: The Poetic Afterlives Of The 1927 Bristol Sessions, Aubrey R. Adkins

Honors Theses

This project begins from the understanding that song lyrics can have lasting impacts on the poetic work that proceeds from them, and can and should, therefore, be read as literature. In the cultural context of Southern Appalachia, a historically underserved and academically underrepresented region, this understanding is intertwined with Audre Lorde’s idea that “For women...[poetry] is a vital necessity of our existence.” The women of Southern Appalachia, denied access to particular modes of expression as a result of external circumstances such as poverty and sexism, need poetry, according to Lorde, to take “tangible action” in their lives. What came before …

Guide To The William T. Dargan Collection, Columbia College Chicago

CBMR Collection Guides / Finding Aids

William Thomas Dargan is a published ethnomusicologist and an elder in the United Methodist Church, retired from teaching Music at Fisk University and St. Augustine’s College. Dargan grew up listening to Dr. Isaac Watts' hymn singing as well as rhythm and blues. His collection holds audio musical examples that accompany the written text in his book, Lining Out The Word, and field recordings of spirituals and hymns discussed in his work. The term “lining out” is a form of a cappella hymn-singing where a leader sings or chants each line of a hymn before the congregation sings it together.

Expanding The Bibliographic Palette: Diversifying The Binghamton University Libraries Fine Arts Collection, Ari Hoffman

Research Days Posters 2025

The classical music canon, often emphasizing Western Art Music, remains the primary focus of academic music curricula. As a result, academic library collections may omit materials presenting diverse global musical traditions and cultures. In light of the emphasis on inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility in 21st century academic libraries, it is crucial to decolonize fine arts collections to allow exposure to underrepresented composers and marginalized musical communities. This research project explores strategies for diversifying the Fine Arts Collection at Bartle Library, aiming to reflect a broader range of cultural, historical, and artistic perspectives. Providing access to materials relating to African …

Playing Through Music History: The Contextualizing Function Of Western Historical Music In Fantasy Role-Playing Video Games, Laney Abigail Sheehan

Wayne State University Theses

This thesis focuses on the presence of Western historical music in contemporary video games. Through a combination of music-theoretical analysis, iconography, and Peircean semiotics, the author demonstrates that the nondiegetic soundtracks of fantasy role-playing video games utilize elements of major style periods in music history—including the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical eras—to enhance existing representations of time and place in their visual environments. This phenomenon is particularly apparent in three games, which serve as case studies: Baldur’s Gate 3 (2023), The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017), and Elden Ring (2022). Ultimately, the project contributes research to …

Review Of Historia De La Cumbia Peruana: De La Música Tropical A La Chicha, By Jesús Cosamalón, Juan Suárez Ontaneda

Spanish Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Popularizing Autogestión: Punk, Zapatismo, And Anarchist Ethics In Mexico City, Livia K. Stone

Faculty Publications – Sociology and Anthropology

Autogestión (self-management), has been a popular articulation of radical politics since its emergence in the 1960s. This article examines how Mexico City's anarcho-punk scene transformed autogestión in the 1990s from an anarcho-syndicalist principle into a unique ethical practice detached from industrial material production. It was then popularized and made more mainstream through university rock festivals. As these were Zapatista benefit concerts, autogestión became inadvertently attached to Zapatismo and detached from anarchism and punk. This history is a crucial one for understanding the political development of an entire generation of the political left in Mexico City who were young in the …

2025 Asia-Pacific Symposium For Music Education Research: Conference Proceedings, Jason Goopy, Jason Boron, Emily Wilson, Han Meng, Cynthia Howard, Philippa Chapman

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The 2025 Asia-Pacific Symposium for Music Education Research (APSMER) was held from 9 – 11 July at Edith Cowan University in partnership with the School of Education and the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). APSMER is the official regional conference of the International Society for Music Education (ISME), and in 2025, it was proudly supported by the Australian Society for Music Education (ASME). The symposium was last held in Australia in Launceston, Tasmania, in 1999. APSMER 2025 welcomed over 300 international delegates to Perth, Western Australia, for scholarly and cultural exchange. The theme, “Being and becoming musical in …

“Single Girl, Married Girl:” Female Perspectives On Marriage, Maidenhood, And Motherhood In English-Language Folk Music, Avery Schanbacher

Libraries Award for Undergraduate Scholarship

In 1928, the Carter Family released “Single Girl, Married Girl.” The recording featured only Sara and Maybelle Carter, and in three short stanzas, highlighted the vastly differing lives of the single girl, who dressed fine and went where she pleased, and the married girl, with a baby on her knee, who rocked the cradle and cried. Sara and Maybelle Carter weren’t the only people who knew this song – before they recorded it for Ralph Peer at the famous Bristol sessions, it was alive as a part of musical traditions not just in their home in Scott County, Virginia, but …

“Listen To The Angels Shouting”: Witnessing, Erasure, And The Legacy Of John Wesley Work Iii, Kennedy Uselton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Questions surrounding the relationship between erasure, music, and memory are deeply embedded within contemporary academic discourse. Music and its makers are continually remembered, forgotten, rediscovered, and lost. How we frame these conversations about memory is especially critical when considering the legacy and cultural remembrance of the Blues. This includes acknowledging that the truth of musical memory extends beyond the artists themselves—it includes those who document, study, and shape how the Blues is archived, interpreted, and narrated. This thesis addresses these questions of memory and erasure through a reconsideration of the figure of John Wesley Work III (1901–1967), a Black scholar, …

Musical Analysis Of Chanting Melodies In The Teochew Chinese Yoga Tantra Ritual In Thailand, Rachan Sornchai, Narongchai Pidokrajt, Poonpit Amatyakul

Journal of Urban Culture Research

This study explores the musical elements of the Dharma Sankhita chants in the Mahayana Teochew Chinese Yoga Tantra ritual at Kak Hang Niam Huk Lim Monastery, Bangkok, Thailand. It examines the ritual’s background and musical analysis. Practiced by both Teochew and Cantonese Chinese, the ritual known in Teochew as “Bang Iem Kao” is a profound act of filial piety and ancestor veneration, rooted in the Eight Cardinal Virtues of Chinese ethics. The ceremony is held to dedicate merit to deceased ancestors and preserve cultural traditions. It can be performed at both family and community levels, encouraging intergenerational participation and solidarity. …

An Initial Report On The Search For The Missing Gamelan Heritage Of The Sumenep Palace, Madura, East Java-Indonesia, Aris Setiawan, Zulkarnain Mistortoify

Journal of Urban Culture Research

This research endeavors to locate the long-lost heirloom gamelan from the Sumenep Palace. Since the abolition of aristocratic status in 1883, the Sumenep Palace has lost political and economic legitimacy. To maintain the luxurious lifestyle of the aristocratic court, valuable items, including gamelans, were sold. The heirloom gamelans in the Sumenep Palace are believed to have been gifts from the Mataram Palace, often exchanged during various events, such as marriages. Employing an investigative ethnographic approach, this study gathered data through in-depth interviews with cultural practitioners, palace descendants, and private collectors; direct observation of remaining artifacts; and analysis of historical documents …

Journal Policies, Jucr Staff

Journal of Urban Culture Research

No abstract provided.

Musicking And Identities In And From Religious Places Of Thai Diasporas In Chicagoland, Matthew Werstler

Journal of Urban Culture Research

Thai Americans are constantly imagining, sustaining, and performing their Thai identity to varying degrees, and this can be seen in the Chicagoland area. Regardless of the differences in musical genre or form, Thai diaspora communities perform and negotiate identity within sacred spaces through musicking. The act of musicking is important for Thai Americans to share their life with one another. With the onset of the Covid-19 Pandemic, Thai musicking communities of religious spaces in the Chicagoland area turned to virtual and outdoor mediums to perform and create. While changes were needed so that musicking opportunities could continue during the pandemic, …

Lakhon Rong Songs Of The Nakhon Bantoeng Troupe (Mae Bunnak Kanlayanamit) & The Phenomenon Of Music In Siam, Tharanat Hin-On, Poonpit Amatayakul, Narongchai Pidokrajt, Anak Charanyananda, Nachaya Natchanawaku

Journal of Urban Culture Research

This study examines the evolution of lakhon rong, a form of Thai musical theater, within the context of Siam’s socio-political and cultural changes during the early 20th century, particularly under the influence of Western modernization. The research focuses on the Nakhon Bantoeng Troupe, exploring how adaptations in lakhon rong performances reflected and contributed to the broader societal efforts towards crafting a modern Thai identity. The integration of Western musical elements with traditional Thai forms exemplifies strategic cultural negotiation, aligning with theories of adaptation and appropriation. Through an analysis of play scripts and historic recordings, this study highlights how cultural practices …

Afrissippi, Peter Muvunyi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how Guelel Kumba, a Senegalese Fulani griot, chef, and musician currently residing in Oxford, Mississippi, incorporates West African cuisine and music into his daily life in the South. This profile study asks: How does Kumba's performances and cooking translate Fulani heritage into Mississippi's blues and soul-food scenes? The research employed observation, secondary sources, purposeful semi-structured interviews, and a documentary.

Kumba views tradition as an arsenal, preserving its essential rhythms and flavors while reworking family recipes and tunes to suit local tastes. Customers can eat, listen, and interact their way into shared history at his food truck and …

The Sociological Engagement In John Coltrane's A Love Supreme: Examining The Impacts Of Race, Music, And Culture In Video-Based Learning Amongst College Students, Kinyel K. Ragland Sr.

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

This project consists primarily of the interest in Video Based Learning (VBL) and understanding the impacts of a video based on the connections between John Coltrane’s song Acknowledgement on the Jazz suite A Love Supreme to the Civil Rights movement and systemic racism. Research confirms that VBL has an impact on student learning, yet this project finds that because of the content of the video, it fits into scholarship where there are gaps. The methodological approach, which was qualitative, found that students were overall enlightened, entertained, and were interested in learning more. Other findings include suggestions and recommendations for future …

The Effects Of Operatic Voice Type On Singer Identity, Adelaide J. Mcdonald

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Within Western art music, voices are typically classified using the Fach system, which is based upon vocal characteristics and separates singers into the categories of soprano, mezzo soprano, contralto, counter tenor, tenor, bass, and baritone. Over time, these categories have become embedded with social and cultural meaning within the operatic world, leading to the development of stereotypes and expectations surrounding singers, as well as social categories and identities, referred to in this study as “sociocultural vocal categories” and “sociocultural vocal identity,” respectively. Currently, there are limited explorations of the sociocultural vocal categories and their associated stereotypes, with research on singer …

Music, Terror, Disaster, Healing, Zuzana Jurková, Oldrich Podebradský, Zuzana Gulová

Journal of Urban Culture Research

On December 21, 2023, a student of Charles University in Prague, one of the safest places in the world, shot dead 14 academics and students. Amidst omnipresent grief and mourning, the process of coping and “healing” started immediately, manifested in particular through a series of events called the “Month for the Faculty.” This text is based on participation in and research of these activities. The theoretical part uses the Durkheim's concept of piacular rites, the aim of which is to “reconfirm [a] community's solidarity.” Following the recommendations of Bin Xu (2016), we investigated who the main agents were in the …

Journal Policies, Jucr Staff

Journal of Urban Culture Research

No abstract provided.

A Comparison Of Informal Choral Singing Experiences, Christopher Powell

Theses and Dissertations--Music

A traditional choir relies on the interest and participation of the population in communal singing. However, drawing willing participants into a traditional choir program can often prove challenging to music educators, community choir directors, and leaders of religious music programs. One of the most prevalent informal singing groups in the USA is Sacred Harp. Sacred Harp “singings” have been around since the early years of The Sacred Harp itself. These singings occur regularly in multiple locations across the country and around the world. These events have an open atmosphere and, despite the mostly Christian material, have no expectation of a …

You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby: Authenticating Popular Music Tribute Shows, Colin James Outhwaite

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This article forwards an alternative perspective on how authenticity can be constructed through popular music tribute show performances. It adopts Edward Bruner's (1994, American Anthropologist, 96, 397-415) categorisation of authenticity in relation to the replication of 'historical sites' in museum exhibitions. It argues that rather than focusing on sonic and historical 'accuracy', tribute musicians strive to curate their history and personal experiences with the music they play to prove their 'authority' as cultural ambassadors. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Perth, Western Australia, and a case study of a UK-based international touring tribute to The Smiths, this article highlights how …

Comusichiamo. First Language, Life-Soundtracks And Storytelling To Support The Cultural Wellbeing Of Migrants Living With Dementia, Simone Marino, Loretta Baldassar

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This study, located at the intersection of anthropology, ageing, music therapy and dementia, explores the value of music, life-storytelling and first language, to support the cultural identity and wellbeing of people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds living with dementia in Australia. It uses participant observation, the collection of oral histories and ‘life soundtracks’ to co-create a song with older Italian migrants and their families. This paper presents the first case study which informed the development of the music engagement program we call Comusichiamo (let’s make music together). The case study shows that the co-creation of a culturally tailored song, …

Floating Signifiers: Ai, Semiotics, And The Crisis Of Meaning In Music, Kehinde Aruwajoye

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

This thesis examines how AI-generated music disrupts traditional meaning-making processes in musical expression. Through semiotic analysis (Saussure, Peirce) and cultural theory (Hall), I demonstrate how AI produces technically proficient but culturally hollow compositions, what I term "floating signifiers." Case studies reveal AI's inability to replicate the lived experiences that give music its depth, despite accurate stylistic reproductions. The work identifies three fundamental losses: contextual grounding, authentic hybridity, and historical consciousness. I propose ethical frameworks for human-AI collaboration that preserve music's essential humanity while leveraging algorithmic capabilities. Ultimately, this research shifts the debate from technical possibility "Can AI compose?" to cultural …

Liner Notes On Black Trans Girlhood: Afrofuturist Affect & Black Popular Music As A Praxis Of Self-Fashioning, Shawn J. Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Liner Notes on Black Trans Girlhood: Afrofuturist Affect & Black Popular Music as a Praxis of Self-Fashioning interprets Black musical performance in identity-making, with a focus on how music and Black trans identity intersect and informs Black trans girlhood. As such, Black trans girls render ourselves legible, i.e. understood without shame or judgment, by constructing our identities through the music by Black women we listen and dance to, or watch and sing. These musical connections affirm the possibilities of Black femme expression. This expression of Black femininity is due to what I call an Afrofuturist affect, by which I refer …

The Violin Through Centuries And Nations Scholarly Program Notes For A Graduate Violin Recital, Iasmim Bonfim De Carvalho

Research Papers

No abstract provided.