Public Musicology - How to Get There

http://chronicle.com/article/Making-a-Public-PhD/130716


Highlights:
Yale University has a public humanities initiative. As one of its American Studies professors puts it: "Students have to invent their own jobs." Similarly, a Yale historian says: "Historians have to get out and reach the broader public...the ultimate audience. ... If academic historians don't get involved, we have no right to complain about what we see at public historical sites." A professor at another institution says: "I'm alarmed that there aren't more people with strong history backgrounds actually doing public history."


Followup: 
In a related vein, George Mason University has the Center for History and New Media, which has a Ph.D. program in digital history, dozens of IT professionals and developers, a number of original software tools, and over one hundred web-based projects with more than 16 million users.


"Public history" should certainly be expanded to include "public musicology" (public music history & culture, etc.). However, musicology presently exists almost exclusively within music departments, as one of a number of music sub-disciplines that focus mainly on "specialized knowledge" about classical music performance, music theory, and so on. Musicology thus almost never participates in such humanities' contexts as Yale's or even in what is arguably the ultimate public forum: the internet. However, it absolutely can and should!


The American Musicological Society's brand-new professional development guide (188 pages) spends only two pages (i.e., that aren't document samples) on the non-academic world, yet it exclusively seems to mean by that such contexts as museums. In addition, the document does not update the sample documents from the Harvard Arts & Sciences publication that it borrowed for this purpose. Those resumes and cover letter do not have anything to do with music or music graduate degrees, and they are also all nearly twenty years old.

The Grammy Awards

I really want to like what Dave Grohl said last night at the 2012 Grammy Awards. However, I have to say that just because some people use Auto-Tune, etc. fairly cheesily doesn't mean that other people don't use technology in MUCH more interesting ways than what white, male rock bands (even Grammy-winning ones) supposedly do with their hearts and heads.

Anything I've heard by Foo Fighters is frankly not any better or worse than other mainstream, post-grunge hard rock music--such as by Nickelback (who, at least, weren't once the drummer of Nirvana). I'm sure that this sentiment is going to surprise people who think I sit around all day listening to Rush, but I'd much rather listen to almost anything by Laurie Anderson than almost anything by Foo Fighters. The Grammys are meaningless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNfTXQ5BzI4

P.S. As for Adele (what I've heard anyhow, especially her distinctive voice), I actually like her. Apparently, so does Dave Grohl, although I suspect he may have just been sucking up in order to "play nice" among his likely, fellow award-winners.

"The Last Waltz" (the Band, etc.) - Classic Albums Live

I'm looking forward to the Classic Albums Live performance of the Band's 1976 farewell concert "The Last Waltz" at Kitchener, ON's Centre in the Square this evening. I wonder how authentic it will be, though: copious amounts of cocaine, "Joni Mitchell" not quite knowing what to sing in the verses of "Helpless" by "Neil Young" (himself at first unable to remember how the song goes), "Eric Clapton's" guitar strap breaking, "Robbie Robertson" pretending to contribute to the backing vocals (while otherwise MC'ing as though it was "his" band), whether "Garth Hudson" uses a Lowrey organ instead of a Hammond, not being able to see Stratford, ON native "Richard Manuel" (d. 1986) singing lead vocals behind all of the guest artists onstage, "Levon Helm" being relatively pissed off about the whole ordeal, and so on. I can see faking Ronnie Hawkins, Neil Diamond, and Van Morrison (hell, I can fake them!), but who on Earth will be able to fake Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, and Bob Dylan? The Classic Albums Live folks are out of Toronto, though, so the percentage of Canadians could actually be even higher than in the original!