Steven Garabedian, Assistant Professor of History, Marist College
Proposal Type: Structured Conversation
Abstract: Music lives at the edge of personal memory and collective history. Popular music is a key site of common public interest, curiosity, and energy. But, is this rich resource of wide general currency being utilized for all it is worth in the field of public history? This topic proposal seeks all parties interested in exploring the possibilities of music in public history.
Seeking: Popular music is a key site of common public interest, curiosity, and energy. Ordinary Americans care about music. They like to talk about music. They like to share, and argue about music, particularly music in its most popular commercial varieties (rock, country, jazz, blues, folk, dance). For many ordinary listeners, music can take one back to a time and place in the past with an immediacy and power that is unique.
Music lives at the edge of personal memory and collective history. It is an emotive access point to the past. But aside from centers devoted expressly to the subject such as The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, where is music in the practice, secondary literature, and mainstream institutions of public history? Is this rich resource of wide public interest and passion being utilized for all it is worth in the field of public history? How might popular music convey the drama of history to a popular audience? Can non-musician historians effectively use music as a tool of engagement? Are musicians themselves, particularly musicians in popular genres of tradition and mass currency, a special brand of historians who blur the lines between the professional and the lay person in productive ways that might reinforce the essential contribution of public history as a sector of popular historical outreach?
This topic proposal seeks responses from all parties interested in exploring the possibilities of music in public history. Those with direct experience using music as an historical tool are most welcome. But, all of those with a passion for music to match their passion for history are encouraged to inquire.
Related Topics: Museums/Exhibits, Civic Engagement, Theory
If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to share contact information for other people the proposer should reach out to, please get in contact directly: Steven Garabedian, Steven.Garabedian[at]marist.edu
If you have general ideas or feedback to share please feel free to use the comments feature below.
I run a facebook site which is now the largest historical community page in Ottawa, the capital of Canada. We do more than music, but music is one of our continuing themes. If I could say it this way, it is one of the subjects that best illustrates the different view of history held by our participants, who are not really interested in mayor’s, prime ministers, wars and the like. Rather, they believe the city as it exists now is the sum total of all the buildings, but more importantly all the experiences of all the people living in it. Thus by going to a musical event, for an example, they helped shape that experience, thus they helped to make the city what it is. Thus we get a good response to our music posts, because our members’ lives a re validated by the memory of their participation. Nevertheless, there are difficulties in telling the story of music in our city in such a way that it gets the participants to contribute their stories. I would be interested in a discussion about how that contribution could be encouraged.
Have you seen the Smithsonian Institution’s traveling Museum on Main Street exhibit called New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music? http://www.museumonmainstreet.org/newharmonies/
It’s traveled throughout the country to small venues which have created their own local exhibits, run programs, and so on. In New Jersey, for example, the city of Asbury Park used the exhibit to start thinking of the city’s music history as a major part of its cultural heritage (beyond just Springsteen!).
One issue I see with writing public history with music is tackling divergent perspective and interpretation from the public audience and the musicians themselves. The issue is more urgent when the musicians may have different conclusions from what is written about their music. One example can involve the discussion of Smells like Teen Spirit. While it is one of the most popular songs by Nirvana, Kurt Cobain held it in low regards compared to his bands’s other work. At the same time I fully believe writing public history about music has the benefit introducing to people different styles of music. (After all people should know that the song “I Put a Spell on You” was not by CCR, but was written in the 50s by Screamin Jay Hawkins.)
Aloha Steve,
You may want to connect with Ed Salo’s project on TCP’s and Robert Johnson’s Crossroads. Great topic idea, nonetheless.
Mahalo,
Justin Mattli
I think this could be a really interesting topic. I live in a small town in northern California that was founded around gold mining. I have been wondering lately about the role music played in the mines and camps–as a way to pass the time in the tunnels, as a connection to home for those who came from other parts of the world, or even as a way to communicate about labor issues. I think music is a great way to engage people to think about larger issues (in this case immigration, labor struggles, and the everyday life of the miners). I am interested to learn how public historians use music in their work.