The American Musicological Society, the Society for Ethnomusicology, and the Society for Music Theory are holding their annual joint meeting in New Orleans this weekend. As I did last year, I've picked ten titles that jumped out at me for whatever reason. I'd like to make clear that these selections are of a playful nature and should in no way reflect upon the fundamental seriousness of the scholars in question. I stress this because, as I've been informed, being singled out by a known practitioner of mere journalism may not boost the prospects of young scholars on the job market.
Rastko Jakovljević (Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts), “Familiar yet Uncanny: Negotiating Cultural Identities within Serbian Bagpipe Musical Practice”
Maren Haynes (University of Washington), “Heaven, Hell, and Hipsters: Attracting Young Adults to Megachurches through Hybrid Symbols of Religion and Popular Culture in the Pacific Northwest”
Laina Dawes (Independent Scholar), “‘Black Metal is not for n@#$s, stupid b@#h!’: Black Female Metal Fans’ Inter/External Culture Clash”
Micaela Baranello (Princeton University), “Never Ask the Merry Nibelungs: Wagner in Operetta from Critique to Aspiration”
Bonnie Gordon (University of Virginia), “Mr. Jefferson’s Ears”
Brad Osborn (Ohio University), “Kid Algebra: Radiohead’s Euclidean and Maximally Even Rhythms”
Scott Warfield (University of Central Florida), “‘When all the stupidities and irrelevances of a thousand critics have hardened, it is of no use at all’: Hofmannsthal and Ariadne’s Critics”
Jonathan Waxman (New York University), “I Went to the New York Philharmonic and Came Home with a Cadillac: The Alliance Between Business and the Arts in the Early Twentieth Century”
Delia Casadei (University of Pennsylvania), “Maderna’s Laughter”
Alexandrine Boudreault-Fournier (University of Victoria), “Pirates of the Caribbean: Music Circulation in Late Socialist Cuba”