Jacqueline Warwick is just one example of a pioneering
musicologist from UCLA. She obtained her Ph.D. in 2002 after
writing a dissertation on the connection between popular music in
the 1960s and the female identity. Soon after, she was hired to
teach the first popular music class at Dalhousie University in
Canada. Other universities looking to revitalize their musicology
departments are recognizing UCLA for its ability to turn out unique
job candidates like Warwick.
“(UCLA’s Department of Musicology) is a very special
department,” Warwick said. “It’s one of the very
few departments in the world where people like me can study and be
taken seriously.”
Despite the fact that studies in popular music, gender and race
did not exist as fields worthy of scholarly study for musicologists
only a generation ago, they now make up a majority of the current
job opportunities in the field. And as universities are adding
popular and American music classes to their course listings, both
to encourage the scholarly study of these fields and to increase
enrollment numbers, there is a new demand for professors who are
qualified to teach in these specialties.
“There’s a sense that what people used to hide
““ their passion for popular music ““ used to be
professionally irrelevant,” said Robert Walser, chair of the
UCLA Department of Musicology. “It’s now allowed to
come in and even if you’re not specializing in (popular
music), you may find that it’s a secondary area of
scholarship.”
Walser, whose book “Running with the Devil” is an
academic study on heavy metal, was hired in 1994 to energize a
dwindling musicology department. Since then, UCLA has become of one
of the field’s leading models by actively encouraging
students to get involved in studying the social and cultural
effects of popular music. Many schools across the country are only
just beginning to make the switch from much more classical-focused
programs.
During the nine years Walser has served as chair, the program
has undergone changes and become highly selective. Prior to 1994,
50 percent of applicants were admitted; it is now at 16 percent.
Since the department admits only the number of students it can
fully fund ““ usually through grants, fellowships, and TA
appointments ““ about five or six of its average 60 applicants
are admitted.
Every student admitted as of 1994 has graduated in 4 to 6 years,
as opposed to students who could be in the department for as many
as 12-16 years prior. All graduates admitted since 1994 have gotten
either a tenure-track job or multi-year post doctorate fellowship
within a year of graduation.
Yet these new jobs have also taken away from many of those
available to more traditional musicologists.
“It’s true that popular music courses bring in large
numbers of students,” said Walter Frisch, a Musicology
professor at Columbia University. “But because it’s
something that students want, it’s worth sacrificing
something for.”
After graduating from UCLA, Warwick taught briefly at Occidental
College where, according to her, the traditional musicology
department is facing extinction. Irene Girton, Chair of Music at
Occidental College, disagrees with Warwick’s assertion, but
did reveal that the school’s popular music course last year
was their largest and boosted the department’s overall
enrollment numbers.
Many other schools have been put in the awkward position of
having to make radical changes simply to increase enrollment. The
tactic works ““ even at UCLA; the History of Rock
“˜n’ Roll enrolls about 520 students each time it is
offered.
Some worry, however, that a quick transition away from
traditional music could adversely affect recent graduates and
entering students. The addition of popular music courses seems to
have flipped the departments of smaller schools upside down and
left many of them with unsteady programs. Some argue that schools
have become so focused on popular music that they have become lax
on traditional music.
“Many schools are not working in early music,” UCLA
Musicology professor Susan McClary said. “I am convinced you
can’t learn just one or the other.”
UCLA, on the other hand, has professors who specialize in
traditional fields like Renaissance and classical music, but who
are at the same time actively pursuing work on issues like gender
studies and rock “˜n’ roll.
Additionally, while large universities can better afford to hire
professors specializing in specific areas, small schools often do
not have that luxury and instead must hire a generalist who can
teach in multiple areas.
For this reason, second-year UCLA musicologists must take an
examination on music prior to 1700, music from 1700-1900 and on
music after 1900. And after being exposed to popular music through
these requirements, even the most classically focused musicologists
seem to find themselves warming up to the study of popular
music.
Still, many departments stress that pop music hasn’t
become the sole academic concern.
“I don’t think any musicologist rises to the top
without an entire toolbox of tools,” said Louise Stein,
interim chair of Musicology at University of Michigan.
“Everyone has to be eclectic.”