Music &….Society An Inclusive Interdisciplinary Project
Music is integral to our lives. It gives voice to the feelings and thoughts that cannot be spoken. It has been used on battlefields as well as battles for the heart. It can heal and comfort as well as engender anger and hatred. It has been blamed for mass shootings as well as credited for bringing huge crowds together. It can reinforce cultural mores or break the rules. It fosters connections with the sacred and the profane. It is all around us.
Music speaks volumes where words fail us and can be a conduit for communication between individuals, groups, entire countries, and through time. Musicians, songs and styles of music transcend national boundaries and speak across the generations. Precisely because the meanings and implications of music are not limited to specific professions this project invites inclusive interdisciplinary approaches to making sense of the way music impacts our lives.
We welcome contributions on themes such as, but not limited to music and…
~ Non-humans (animals, plants, etc.)
~ Health and wellness (clinical practices, therapeutic approaches, meditation other self-help approaches, psychological/physiological/neurological effects of music)
~ Education (erasure of music from the curriculum, approaches to teaching music/music appreciation, music as learning tool)
~ Law (copyright, intellectual property, censorship, NGOs and unions supporting musicians’ rights)
~ Social welfare (music in social programs, public support for music-oriented activities, philanthropic support for music)
~ Technologies (innovation supporting the making, distributing, sharing, and experiencing of music)
~ Business (music industry trends, popularity/marketability of certain types of music, experiences of musicians, use of music in advertising, etc.)
~ Indigenous cultures (music and rituals, storytelling, etc.)
~ Protest (anti-war songs, songs about political issues, songs about socio-cultural attitudes/practices)
~ War (songs as propaganda, military songs/marches, music for the homefront, songs about war)
~ Identity (nationalism, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, race, class, etc.)
~ Other arts and media (film, tv, video, gaming, art, dance, theatre, poetry, literature, etc.)
~ Genres (trends, composers, performers)