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The study of music and identity has become one of the key themes of contemporary musicology and ethnomusicology, reflecting the continuing relevance of the concept within contemporary societies and cultures. This module will ask you to consider many issues and questions concerning a range of musics and identities, including but not limited to: Why is music so commonly used to construct and articulate different forms of identity and alterity? How does music work in this way? How has the study of music and identity progressed from considerations of the folk and the nation to those of the individual and the fragmented self? How has the postmodern blurring of class and the categories of high and low culture complicated notions of taste, cultural capital and identity, leading to conceptualizations such as the omnivore? How does identity relate to concepts such as subcultures, cultural formations and cultural cohorts, scenes, and other sociological groupings? Using the tools of ethnography, how can we help understand the relevance, meaning, and significance of music for different individuals and groups?
The area of music and identity opens up a vast range of possible case studies, spanning topics as diverse as the function of music within the Black Lives Matter movement; how queer musicology can work against repressive forces in musicology and more broadly in contemporary society; the emergence of nationalist music in nineteenth century Europe; how music is a crucial locus for the construction, negotiation, and encoding of gender and sexuality; the complexity of musical scenes and subcultures such as punk and metal; issues of music and agency in relation to ethnic groups and minorities; how music is used in othering, in conflict situations, and as a means of manipulation and control.
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