Society for Music Research
I am contributing a chapter to the upcoming book Coming of Age: Teaching and Learning Popular Music in America, edited by Carlos Xavier Rodriguez and published by Maize Books. My chapter investigates the locations songwriters Bruce Springsteen and Tom Waits choose to write about, and how they endeavor to set these places musically. I was inspired to research this idea when a map illustrating the locations used in Bob Dylan's songs was published on his 70th birthday. So, as someone who is interested in the relationship between music and text in popular music, mapping song lyrics and investigating their musical settings seemed like an exciting avenue to pursue. The book is scheduled to be published in February, 2017.
—Jacob Arthur
Jacob Arthur is a first-year PhD student in Music Theory at the University of Michigan and received his M.A. in Music Theory from the University of Minnesota in 2016. His current research includes music/text relationships in popular music and irony in popular music.