Issues and Debates in Ethnomusicology

Any discipline has its fair share of debates and controversies relating to its methods, methodologies, and various other aspects. Ethnomusicology is no different. From an academic perspective, ethnomusicology has existed since the beginning of the 20th century, although research into music of “other” communities goes back to earlier periods of European colonialism and was regarded as a part of folk research. However, numerous issues have arisen over time. Here I have highlighted some of the important ones.

One of the first problems in ethnomusicology lies in the lack of uniform and universal research methods. Researchers have always pondered over the universality of music and characteristics of music. But research does not seem to indicate such. Thus, there has not been any possibility of ending up with research methods that will fit into studying every community or every circumstance throughout the world. That is why ethnomusicologists depend on borrowing methods from various other disciplines, especially musicology and anthropology, based on their research aims and objectives. This has resulted in many researchers to regard ethnomusicology as the love-child of anthropology and musicology, and being more of an area of intersection of these disciplines, rather than being a unique discipline in its own right. On the theoretical front, ethnomusicology also borrows heavily from musicology and anthropology with the former discipline helping a researcher understand the culture by putting the music at the forefront, whereas the latter discipline helps understand the music by using the culture as a tool.

Ethnomusicology owes its inception to Western academics rooted in Europe. Thus, in many cases, ethnomusicology has been accused of ethnocentrism and eurocentrism. Earlier, ethnomusicologists followed the footsteps of European folklorists and aimed at discovering the music of “other” “exotic” peoples and communities. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, cultural researchers, for eg. Anthropologists, held a lot of biases and prejudices against non-European cultures, beliefs which trickled into all disciplines including ethnomusicology. Many researchers have made discriminatory remarks in their research work which were overlooked during their time and were considered normal at that point of time. However, the rise of awareness against discriminatory perceptions have made people realize why it is necessary not to have a condescending approach. Instead, researchers are encouraged to perceive a culture from an “emic” perspective, and not through an “etic” perspective. Decolonization of ethnomusicology is also a part of this. Many cultures have undergone a decolonization since the end of colonialism and have sought to preserve their musical heritage in their own way, for eg. the Hawaiian musical Renaissance from the 1960s. Ethnomusicology needs to acknowledge that and move forward. Similarly, Western mainstream music was left out from ethnomusicology for a long time because it lacked the sense of “otherness”, and have become a part of ethnomusicology only in the recent decades.

There are also a long list of ethics involved in ethnomusicological fieldwork. American ethnomusicologist Mark Slobin pointed out several such issues which need to be carefully dealt with, such as the preservation of rare musical instruments, conduct around specific musical performances and musicians, filming and recording of musical phenomena within a community, publication of research in as accurate and truthful manner as possible. During fieldwork, an ethnomusicologist is certainly faced with numerous dilemmas and situations which they are required to deal with tactfully. A cultural clash may occur in the mind of an external researcher which they must dissociate from.

Other issues are also still prevalent in ethnomusicology which are being dealt by ethnomusicologists, such as gender, globalization, politics, etc. Discourse and further research is very important to sustain ethnomusicology. Amidst everything, ethnomusicologist has flourished and shall continue to do so.