eliot bates: ethnomusicology, popular music

 

research overview

My research subjects include oud, the performance practice of Turkish makam, Karadeniz regional and local ethnic musics, Alevism, contemporary Turkish music, Turkish-American communities, recording studios, audio engineering, aesthetic issues in electronic music, underground electronic dance music cultures, and Javanese gamelan.

I am also more broadly interested in theories of mediation, the use of organizational sociology in ethnomusicological analysis, critically examining field methods employed in ethnographic practices, and developing collaborative bibliography projects that empower academic micro-communities.

Currently I am finishing my dissertation based on 2+ years of field research in Istanbul, Turkey, entitled Interactions, Networks, and the Production of Digital Audio in an Istanbul Recording Studio. My research was funded by a Fulbright IIE grant, as well as an ARIT State Department Fellowship.

I am also an elected member of the SEM Council, an advisory council to the board of directors of the Society of Ethnomusicology.

Click here for a downloadable resume including teaching and research experience.


publications

2005   Review of You Better Work: Underground Dance Music in New York City by Kai Fikentscher. Ethnomusicology 49(2).
2004   "Glitches, bugs, and hisses: the degeneration of musical recordings and the contemporary musical work," in Bad Music: Music you Love to Hate, edited by Chris Washburne and Maiken Derno. New York: Routledge.
1997   Ambient Music. MA Thesis, Wesleyan University, 233 pages. Download it now:

conference papers

2008   NCCSEM: "Comfort and tea: institutional culture and aesthetic decision-making in the Turkish recording industry" [Winner of the Marnie Dilling Prize]
2007   SEM: "The arrangement and engineering of individual musicianship and group interaction in contemporary Turkish recordings"
2006   Orta Dogu Teknik Üniversitesi Halkbilim Toplulugu 45th conference: "Karadeniz Müzigi ve Karadeniz Yöresel Müziklerinin Karsilastirmali Teknik Analizi"
2006   The Art of Record Production (Edinburgh): "Studios, arrangement, and the distributed production system of contemporary Turkish music"
2003   IASPM-US: "Hisses, hums, and pops: Low Fidelity Aesthetics in Contemporary Popular Music"
2003   SEM/CMS: "Bi-musicality and Middle Eastern Musemes in Electronica Music"
2003   NCCSEM: "The Electric Orient: Bi-musicality and Middle Eastern Inflections in British Electronica"
1997   NECSEM: "Turkish Makams in Rebetika"


invited colloquia/lectures

2008   Academy Village, Tucson: "Folk music of Anatolia," a lecture/performance, with Ladi Dell'aira
2007   UC Berkeley colloquia in the musicologies: "The arrangement and engineering of individual musicianship and group interaction in contemporary Turkish recordings"
2006   Isik Üniversitesi (Sile): "Digital Audio Workstations and Changes to Turkish Music Performance Practice"
2006   American Research Institute of Turkey (Istanbul): "Ethnic and musical aspects and consequences of pan-Karadeniz popular music"
2004   Stanford University: "What can we know about Ancient Music?" An interactive multimedia presentation on ancient Egyptian, Sumerian, and Hurrian music.
2004   St. Mary's College, Moraga: "Sufism and Music in Turkish Islamic Society"
2003   UC Berkeley colloquia in the musicologies: "Hisses, Hums, and Pops: Low-Fidelity Aesthetics in Contemporary Popular Music"
1997   Wesleyan University colloquia series: "The Ambient Belief System: an Introduction"



Updated April 14, 2008

©2002-2008  eliot bates