American Music

American Music seeks submissions that employ interdisciplinary and innovative methodologies in the study of music in the Americas, especially when addressing underrepresented topics and perspectives. We welcome works by musicologists, ethnomusicologists, theorists, cultural studies scholars, anthropologists, sound studies scholars, and other scholars whose work intersects with the themes and topics outlined below. We are particularly interested in articles that engage with current debates and theoretical issues in these fields, as well as those that offer fresh perspectives on familiar topics. We also welcome submissions that include analysis of primary source materials, such as recordings, sheet music, or archival documents. 

Guidelines

Articles should be submitted electronically to the American Music online manuscript submission system. This secure, personalized resource will allow you to track your manuscript through each step of the review and acceptance process. Your transmitted material will be reviewed as soon as possible.  

Article files should be uploaded in Microsoft Word or rich text format. Please use endnotes instead of footnotes or parenthetical citations. Submitted articles should normally be between 8,000 and 10,000 words in length. 

The author's full name, mailing address, and e-mail address should appear only in the cover letter, as submissions are reviewed anonymously. Please ensure that your identity does not appear in running heads, references, or notes. Page numbers should appear at the top right of all pages after page 1. All parts of the article, including endnotes, quotations, song texts, bibliographies and discographies, appendices, and captions for illustrations, must be double spaced, with 1" margins. (Bibliographies are generally only included if they are historical; they should not duplicate bibliographical information in the notes.) Music examples, figures, tables, and illustrations should be combined with the text in a single document. Illustrations and music examples need not be camera-ready. Once an article is accepted, the editor will request that figures and illustrations be sent as separate TIFF image files with image quality of at least 300 dpi.   

Submissions not conforming with these instructions may be returned to the author for correction prior to consideration. American Music follows the guidelines in the 17th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. 

Themes and Topics

Though not exhaustive, the following list sketches themes and topics of interest for potential submissions: 

1. Music genres and performance traditions in the Americas
   • Concert music and jazz, encompassing their historical development and contemporary trends
   • Popular music, including rock, hip-hop, country, R&B, EDM, etc.
   • Folk and traditional music, including regional and ethnic musical traditions
   • Analysis and interpretation of musical works
   • Performance and reception analyses
2. Music and social change in the Americas
   • Construction of political and ideological identities through music
   • Immigration and cultural exchange, and their impact on music
   • Technology and its role in shaping music
   • Music as a form of protest and resistance
   • Careers and vocations in American music-making and scholarship
3. American music’s global resonances
   • Historical, cultural, and social contexts of music in the Americas
   • Technology and globalization, and their impacts on music during different historical periods
   • Impact of American musics on global culture
   • Role of music in the formation of American identities during different historical periods
4. Pedagogies of American music
   • Role of American musics in education
   • Intersections of methodology and vocation for American musicians and researchers
   • Approaches to teaching and studying American musics (of different historical periods)
   • Teaching and learning American music inter- and transnationally
5. Relationship between music and other art forms in the Americas
   • Interdisciplinary or comparative analyses
   • Examinations of music in relation to a broader  historical moment, locale, artistic movement, etc.
   • Film, TV, radio, social media, etc.
   • Sports, games, public festivities, etc.
6. Race, class, gender, and sexuality, as they intersect with American musics 
   • Race and music, including the representation of various, marginalized, or underrepresented racial and ethnic groups
   • Music and gender, including the representation of women and gender non-conforming individuals in American music
   • Music’s role in shaping regional identities
   • Intersections of music and immigrant identities
7. Theorizing American music
   • Reconceptualizing taxonomies and genealogies of music and sound
   • Analyzing vocality
   • Problematizing geographical modifiers (i.e., ‘American’)

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