Music History Blog Series

Explore how artists like Dungi Sapor, Chieh Huang, and Aljenljeng Tjaluvie use electronic music to breathe new life into Taiwan's indigenous tradition. By blending traditional elements with modern...

Can heavy metal, a genre known for its sonic aggression, teach its listeners about ancient cultures, lesser-known history, and musical traditions of pre-modern times? This blog post delves into...

Video games have shaped several aspects of culture in the last few decades, and music is no exception. This blog post highlights the emergence of the chiptune, a genre that originated...

The mass migration of Black Americans spurred a massive cultural boom in Northern cities. In this blog, this phenomenon is explored by examining the lives of the "Dean of African American...

 In this blog, Dzekunov unpacks aspects of Kantian Aesthetics and applies them to a contemporaneous sonata written by Frederick II of Prussia. To read the full blog post, click here.

 In this blog, Malone explores the connections between New World Music and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, discussing Afro-Latin instruments, rhythmic ideas, and the diffusion of African music...

Thomas Wiggins was a phenomenal musician and composer in the 19th century who had many extraordinary talents.  These talents however were often used to exploit the musician from early childhood in...

In this post Rollins explores Black English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's life and career through a web of cultural, racial, and socioeconomic factors. To read the full blog post, click here.

Latin-American dance music has been deeply foundational in establishing the identity of South American popular music, however its importance within the compositions of 19th-century composers is...

Music will sometimes serve as a representation of a musician's psyche.  Matthew King explores Clara Schumann's composition "Die Lorelei" and how it displays the thoughts of a composer potentially...