A Glimpse into Mainstream American Music through MuzikMafia Part 2

An ethnomusicologist’s data collection can become an indispensable and valuable archive which may be accessed by other popular media outlets and other researchers in the future. Academic researchers have the responsibility of conducting proper fieldwork and analyses of the broader sociocultural background of music and musicians. Ethnomusicologists possess the tools for delving deep into the world of mainstream music, something music journalism fails to do. Music journalism brings out more of the glitz and glamour, whereas ethnomusicology brings out the human-culture dynamic that lies beneath. Some have dubbed that the general public understand what journalism has to say better than what an academic research has to say, and that is where the main difference lies.

Pruett wonderfully summarizes that disciplines such as ethnomusicology “have much to contribute to popular music scholarship because of their emphasis on fieldwork conducted among those who create and experience music. Ethnography and micro-analysis contribute a much needed viewpoint—that of the individual artist or artists—that is frequently manipulated or even omitted by the mass media. In addition, an emic perspective provides particular insight into various domains within the commercial music industry including polity, structure, geography, hegemony, identity, history, and the role of individual agency.” In conclusion, he mentions that bridging the gap between popular music and ethnomusicology is vital. The present paper is not meant to provide an all-inclusive framework or model of research into popular, mainstream music, but it is meant to explore the possibilities of research into aforesaid music.