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Ethnomusicology, the study of music in its cultural context, has undergone a profound evolution since its formal inception in the late 19th century. Its central questions have shifted from cataloging the world’s musical “specimens” and tracing their historical origins, to understanding music as social action, a medium of identity, and a site of political power. This journey reflects broader intellectual currents in the humanities and social sciences, marked by distinct methodological phases and rival scholarly commitments.
The field’s precursor, Comparative Musicology, emerged in the 1880s, driven by figures like Guido Adler and facilitated by new recording technologies. Scholars such as Erich von Hornbostel and Carl Stumpf established the Berlin School, focusing on the systematic analysis of non-Western musical scales, rhythms, and structures. The central paradigm was objectivist and scientific, treating recorded music as acoustic data to be measured and classified, often within an evolutionary framework that positioned Western art music as an apex. This phase established core methodologies of fieldwork, transcription, and analysis but was critiqued for its ethnocentric and decontextualized approach.
A decisive turn came mid-20th century with the rise of Anthropological Ethnomusicology, championed by Alan Merriam. His 1964 model, “The Anthropology of Music,” proposed a tripartite framework linking concept, behavior, and sound. This paradigm shifted the focus from music as a product to music as a process embedded in human activity. Concurrently, Linguistic Structuralism influenced scholars like John Blacking and Steven Feld, who sought the underlying “grammars” of musical systems, analyzing them as analogous to language. While structuralism provided analytical rigor, it sometimes risked overlooking the experiential and performative dimensions of music.
From the 1970s, Performance Theory and the study of Music as Social Action became dominant. Inspired by sociolinguistics and the work of Clifford Geertz, ethnomusicologists like Thomas Turino and Timothy Rice emphasized ethnography, participant-observation, and the analysis of musical events. The question “How is music performed and experienced?” replaced “What is the structure of this music?” This era also saw the formalization of Bi-musicality, a methodological tenet where scholars achieve deep understanding through learning to perform the music they study, as advocated by Mantle Hood.
The 1980s and 1990s introduced critical theories that challenged the field’s foundations. Marxist Ethnomusicology and later Political Economy approaches examined music’s role in class struggle, hegemony, and global capitalist systems. Feminist Ethnomusicology and Queer Theory deconstructed canonical narratives, foregrounding gender and sexuality as central to musical production and meaning. The most comprehensive challenge came from Postcolonial Critique, which interrogated the discipline’s colonial roots, the politics of representation, and power imbalances between researcher and subject. This reflexive turn made ethics and positionality central concerns.
Since the 1990s, Applied Ethnomusicology has emerged as a distinct paradigm, focusing on the practical use of ethnomusicological knowledge for cultural advocacy, heritage preservation, and social justice. Simultaneously, the Cognitive Ethnomusicology of scholars like Judith Becker and David Huron has reinvigorated the study of music and the mind, using insights from neuroscience and psychology to understand universal and culture-specific aspects of musical perception.
The current landscape is characterized by interdisciplinary synthesis and new materialist turns. Critical Sound Studies blends ethnomusicology with history, geography, and media studies to examine the cultural life of sound beyond “music” per se. Scholars investigate acoustemology, sonic ecologies, and the impact of digital technologies. While historical paradigms like anthropological ethnography remain vital, contemporary research is increasingly attuned to issues of migration, diaspora, digital circulation, ecology, and the decolonization of methodology. The field continues to grapple with its legacy while expanding its toolkit to understand the ever-changing role of sound in human life.
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