Music is an important part of summer. Each season, children enroll in music lessons and concert-lovers flock to music festival such as Bonnaroo in Nashville, Lollapalooza in Chicago and the Austin City Limits Music Festival.
Scholars and musicologists at The University of Texas at Austin are available to discuss their research on music, ranging from its history and psychology, to teaching and industry practices.
What Your Music Says About You
Sam Gosling
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology
512-471-1628
samg@mail.utexas.edu
Music preferences may reveal personality traits such as political ideology, intelligence and physical attractiveness, according to Gosling’s research with Jason Rentfrow, a university alumnus and faculty member at the University of Cambridge in England. Gosling is the author of “Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You,” which explores how a person’s possessions–and iPod playlist–can provide clues to a person’s character and personality.
Joshua Gunn
Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Studies
512-471-3933
slewfoot@mail.utexas.edu
Gunn examines how people use music to encode memories and express feelings. According to Gunn, musical preferences and practices play an important role in the negotiation of gender norms, sexual orientation, racial identification, class allegiance and construction of identity.
Psychology of Music Lyrics
Jamie Pennebaker
Chair, Department of Psychology
512-232-2781
pennebaker@mail.utexas.edu
Pennebaker has published numerous studies about language and what specific words and patterns reveal about personality. Recently, he analyzed patterns of Beatles lyrics and found that Paul McCartney was a more sophisticated and diverse lyricist than John Lennon.
The Music Industry and the Internet
Sirkka Jarvenpaa
Professor, McCombs School of Business
512-471-1751
sjarvenpaa@mail.utexas.edu
Jarvenpaa, professor in the Department of Information, Risk and Operations Management, organized the recent conference “Music Business and Web 2.0,” which explored the future of music distribution and the impact of the Internet on the music industry. Topics included the relationship between blog buzz and CD sales, and evolving models of co-production and fan remixing.
Popular Music and American History
Karl Miller
Assistant Professor, Department of History
512-475-7257
karlmiller@mail.utexas.edu
Miller uses American popular music to teach 20th century U.S. history and American musicology. Students in his courses listen to songs to explore what they reveal about history. Miller’s book project “Segregating Sound: Folklore, Phonographs, and the Transformation of Southern Music, 1888-1935,” will examine historical struggles of race and culture through the lens of music.
Music and Youth Subcultures
Ben Carrington
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
512-232-6341
bcarrington@soc.utexas.edu
Carrington studies the sociology of popular culture and how the genre of house music has unified youth subcultures around the world. Learn more in the feature “Getting in the Global Groove.”
Hip Hop Music
Craig Watkins
Associate Professor, Department of Radio-Television-Film
512-471-6676
scwatkins@mail.utexas.edu
Watkins’ teaching and research focuses on race, media, hip hop and youth digital media cultures. He is the author of “Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Pop Culture and the Struggle for the Soul of a Movement.” In his forthcoming book, he will examine how new media behaviors are transforming youth culture, identity and everyday life. Learn more in the feature “Studying a Hip Hop Nation.”
Gender and Popular Music
Mary Celeste Kearney
Associate Professor, Department of Radio-Television-Film
512-475-8648
mkearney@mail.utexas.edu
Kearney examines popular music from a feminist perspective, examining how gender relates to musician roles and training, music scenes and fan communities, musical sounds, lyrics and technologies, and musicians’ representations in media. She has written about girls and punk culture and is completing the book “Power Chords and Groupie Chicks: Gender in Rock Culture.”
Music, Race Relations and Nationalism
Robin Moore
Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology, School of Music
512-471-0373
robin.moore@mail.utexas.edu
Moore, an affiliate of the Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies in the College of Liberal Arts, studies music and nationalism, music and race relations and socialist art expressions. He is the author of “Nationalizing Blackness: Afrocubanismo and Artistic Revolution in Havana, 1920-1940.” His latest book “Music and Revolution: Cultural Change in Socialist Cuba,” examines artistic life in Cuba after 1959.
Musicology and Bibliography
David Hunter
Music Librarian, University of Texas Libraries and
Curator, Historical Music Recordings Collection
512-495-4475
david.hunter@mail.utexas.edu
Hunter has published articles on music bibliography, music librarianship, music reference sources, and the pianist, George Frideric Handel. His forthcoming book is “Handel’s Enemies: Biography, Conflict and a National Hero.” Learn more about music collections at the university.
Music Learning and Education
Robert Duke
Professor, School of Music and
Director, Center for Music Learning
512-471-0972
bobduke@mail.utexas.edu
Duke teaches music and educational psychology, directs national research efforts for the National Piano Foundation and the International Suzuki Institute. He also is the editor of Texas Music Education Research. A former studio musician and public school music teacher, he has worked with children at risk throughout the juvenile court system.
Judith Jellison
Professor, School of Music
512-471-0743
jjellison@mail.utexas.edu
Jellison teaches courses in music special education and therapy. She serves as a consultant to school districts on the inclusion of children with disabilities in music education. Jellison is on the editorial board of Journal of Research in Music Education and Journal of Music Therapy.
Teaching Foreign Languages with Music
Thomas Garza
Chair, Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies
512-471-3607
tjgarza@mail.utexas.edu
Garza uses a novel approach to teaching the Russian language. He includes music videos from MTV Russia at his Web site, “Rockin’ Russia,” to help students strengthen their language skills. Several caption options–Russian subtitles, English literal translation, and English colloquial translation–offer a nuanced interpretation of song lyrics.
History of Sacred Music
Lorenzo Candelaria
Assistant Professor, School of Music
512-471-7131
lorenzo.candelaria@mail.utexas.edu
Candelaria, an affiliate of the Center for Mexican American Studies in the College of Liberal Arts, studies Catholic sacred music in Spain, Mexico and the Hispanic Southwestern United States. His recent books include “American Music: A Panorama” and “The Rosary Cantoral.” He is working on a book about music in Mexican Catholicism.
