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Thomas Solomon

Professor, Musicology
  • E-mailThomas.Solomon@uib.no
  • Phone+47 55 58 69 82
  • Visitor Address
    Lars Hilles gate 3
    5015 Bergen
  • Postal Address
    Postboks 7800
    5020 Bergen

 

History and theory of ethnomusicology

Popular Music Studies

Turkish popular musics

Rap music and hip-hop youth culture

Music and place

Music and diaspora

Postcolonialism

Indigenous music of the Bolivian Andes

 

 

Courses in the MA program in ethnomusicology and musicology

BA course "Music in World Cultures"

BA course "Popular Music Studies"

BA course "Musikk, kultur og samfunn"

Program coordinator for MA in ethnomusicology and musicology

 

Academic article
  • Show author(s) (2017). Who are the Laz? Cultural identity and the musical public sphere on the Turkish Black Sea coast. The world of music (Wilhelmshaven). 83-113.
  • Show author(s) (2016). The Play of Colors: Staging Multiculturalism in Norway. Dansk Musikforskning Online. 187-201.
  • Show author(s) (2016). "The land of our origin": Music and history in the Norway-Azerbaijan Connection. Yearbook for Traditional Music. 115-135.
  • Show author(s) (2015). Theorizing diaspora and music. Lidé města. 201-219.
  • Show author(s) (2015). Self-censorship as Critique: The Case of Turkish Rapper Sagopa Kajmer. Dansk Musikforskning Online. 37-53.
  • Show author(s) (2012). Theory and Method in Popular Music Analysis: Text and Meaning. Studia Musicologica Norvegica. 86-108.
  • Show author(s) (2011). "Türkçe Rapın Kız Sesi": Ayben'in Müziğinde Toplumsal Cinsiyet ve Vokal Nitelik. Porte akademik. 413-423.
  • Show author(s) (2009). Berlin-Frankfurt-Istanbul: Turkish Hip-Hop in Motion. European Journal of Cultural Studies. 305-327.
  • Show author(s) (2008). Music as Culture? Reflections on an Ethnomusicological Moment. Studia Musicologica Norvegica. 68-90.
  • Show author(s) (2006). Hardcore Muslims: Islamic themes in Turkish rap in diaspora and in the homeland. Yearbook for Traditional Music. 59-78.
  • Show author(s) (2005). 'Living underground is tough': authenticity and locality in the hip-hop community in Istanbul, Turkey. Popular Music. 1-20.
  • Show author(s) (2005). "Listening to Istanbul": Imagining Place in Turkish Rap Music. Studia Musicologica Norvegica. 46-67.
  • Show author(s) (2004). Musikalske konstruktioner af sted og identitet i Bolivias højland. Jordens Folk. 48-53.
  • Show author(s) (2000). Dueling landscapes: Singing places and identities in highland Bolivia. Ethnomusicology. 257-280.
  • Show author(s) (1994). Coplas de Todos Santos in Cochabamba: Language, music, and performance in Bolivian Quechua song dueling. Journal of American Folklore. 378-414.
Academic lecture
  • Show author(s) (2022). Postcolonialism and Music Studies: Issues, Challenges, Prospects .
  • Show author(s) (2022). Music and Displacement: Making Sense of a Terminological "Mess".
  • Show author(s) (2019). The musical aestheticization of exile: Zaza (Kurdish-Alevi) musicians between Turkey and Germany.
  • Show author(s) (2019). Reflections on music and exile: Experience, aesthetics, and the present-absence.
  • Show author(s) (2019). Music and the body: From cognition to performance.
  • Show author(s) (2018). The Play of Colors: Staging Multiculturalism in Norway .
  • Show author(s) (2018). Reflections on music and exile: Experience, aesthetics, and the present-absence.
  • Show author(s) (2018). Reflections on music and exile.
  • Show author(s) (2018). Postcolonial Discourse and Musical Performance: Mimicry and Ambivalence in the Bolivian Andes .
  • Show author(s) (2017). Who are the Laz? Music and cultural identity on the Turkish Black Sea coast.
  • Show author(s) (2017). Voices from the margins: Minorities and musical activism in Turkey.
  • Show author(s) (2017). Transculturality, Hybridity and Music: From Aesthetics to Politics and Back Again.
  • Show author(s) (2017). The Land of Our Origin: Music and History in the Norway–Azerbaijan Connection.
  • Show author(s) (2017). Reflections on music and exile: Experience, aesthetics, and the present-absence .
  • Show author(s) (2017). Postcolonialism and ethnomusicology: Issues, challenges, and prospects.
  • Show author(s) (2016). Who are the Laz? Ethnicity and the musical public sphere on the Turkish Black Sea coast.
  • Show author(s) (2016). The play of colors: Staging multiculturalism in Norway.
  • Show author(s) (2016). The play of colors: Staging multiculturalism in Norway.
  • Show author(s) (2016). The musical aestheticization of exile: Zaza (Kurdish-Alevi) musicians between Turkey and Germany.
  • Show author(s) (2016). "The land of our origin": Music, time and space in the Norway-Azerbaijan connection.
  • Show author(s) (2015). The play of colors: Staging multiculturalism in Norway.
  • Show author(s) (2015). The play of colors: Staging multiculturalism in Norway.
  • Show author(s) (2015). On playing badly: Non-outstanding performers and the construction of ethnomusicological knowledge.
  • Show author(s) (2015). Music and race in American cartoons: Multimedia, subject position, and the racial imagination.
  • Show author(s) (2014). Theorizing music and diaspora.
  • Show author(s) (2014). The play of colors: Staging multiculturalism in Norway.
  • Show author(s) (2014). The girl's voice in Turkish rap: Gender and vocality in the music of Ayben [invited keynote speech].
  • Show author(s) (2014). Reflections on music and exile.
  • Show author(s) (2014). Music in the Norway-Azerbaijan Connection: Distant Neighbors, Imagined Pasts.
  • Show author(s) (2014). Music and ritual: Ethnomusicological perspectives.
  • Show author(s) (2014). Music and Race in American Cartoons.
  • Show author(s) (2013). “Listening to Istanbul”: Imagining Place in Turkish Rap Music.
  • Show author(s) (2013). Music and Race in American Cartoons.
  • Show author(s) (2013). Dancing the Landscape: Music and Movement in a Highland Bolivia Pilgrimage.
  • Show author(s) (2013). "His Bird Doesn't Stand Up": Gendered Dimensions of Music Censorship in Turkey.
  • Show author(s) (2012). Self-censorship as critique: The case of Turkish rapper Sagopa Kajmer.
  • Show author(s) (2012). Reflections on music and exile.
  • Show author(s) (2012). Music and identity: Text, performance, embodiment.
  • Show author(s) (2012). Ethnic and racial stereotypes in American cartoons.
  • Show author(s) (2012). Competition, performance interaction and society in Highland Bolivia.
  • Show author(s) (2012). Azeri rap music and oral poetry between tradition and modernity.
  • Show author(s) (2012). "The girl's voice in Turkish rap": Gender and vocality in the music of Ayben. [Invited keynote speech.].
  • Show author(s) (2011). “The Girl’s Voice in Turkish Rap”: Vocality and the Patriarchal Bargain in the Life and Music of Ayben.
  • Show author(s) (2011). “His Bird Doesn't Stand Up": Censoring the Female Rapping Voice in Turkey.
  • Show author(s) (2011). When media fail.
  • Show author(s) (2011). Theorizing music and diaspora.
  • Show author(s) (2011). Performing indigeneity: Aesthetics and politics of folkloric festivals in highland Bolivia.
  • Show author(s) (2011). "His bird doesn't stand up": Censorship of the female rapping voice in Turkey.
  • Show author(s) (2010). Turkish hip-hop in motion.
  • Show author(s) (2010). On playing badly and the limits of musical knowledge.
  • Show author(s) (2010). "The girl's voice in Turkish rap": Gender, vocality and subjectivity in the life and music of Ayben.
  • Show author(s) (2010). "The girl's voice in Turkish rap": Gender and subjectivity in the life and music of Ayben.
  • Show author(s) (2009). Where is the postcolonial in ethnomusicology?
  • Show author(s) (2009). The Oriental Body on the European Stage: Producing Turkish Cultural Identity on the Margins of Europe.
  • Show author(s) (2009). Performing indigeneity: Aesthetics and politics of folkloric festivals in highland Bolivia.
  • Show author(s) (2009). Hardcore Muslims: Islamic Themes in Turkish Rap between Diaspora and Homeland.
  • Show author(s) (2009). Ethnomusicological Perspectives on Improvisation.
  • Show author(s) (2009). Berlin-Frankfurt-Istanbul: Turkish Hip-Hop in Motion.
  • Show author(s) (2009). Berlin-Frankfurt-Istanbul: Turkish Hip-Hop in Motion.
  • Show author(s) (2009). "The girl's voice in Turkish rap": Gender and vocality in the music of Ayben.
  • Show author(s) (2008). Who are the Laz? Music and cultural Identity on the Turkish Black Sea Coast.
  • Show author(s) (2008). Hardcore Muslims: Islamic themes in Turkish rap between diaspora and homeland.
  • Show author(s) (2008). "The girl's voice in Turkish rap": Gender, poetics & difference.
  • Show author(s) (2007). Whose diaspora? Lessons from "Turkish Rap" in Germany.
  • Show author(s) (2007). Whose diaspora? Hybrid identities in "Turkish Rap" in Germany.
  • Show author(s) (2007). Whose diaspora? Hybrid identities in "Turkish Rap" in Germany.
  • Show author(s) (2007). Hardcore Muslims: Islamic themes in Turkish rap in diaspora and in the homeland.
  • Show author(s) (2007). Every way that I can? Turkey and the Eurovision Song Contest.
  • Show author(s) (2007). Diverse diasporas: Multiple identities in "Turkish Rap" in Germany.
  • Show author(s) (2006). Whose hybridity? Whose diaspora? Agency and identity in transnational musics.
  • Show author(s) (2006). Transformations of Turkish hip-hop nationalism, from diaspora to the homeland.
  • Show author(s) (2006). Berlin-Frankfurt-Istanbul: Local, trans-local, and global imaginaries in Turkish hip-hop.
Short communication
  • Show author(s) (2016). Conference report: XXXII European Seminar in Ethnomusicology. Musikk og tradisjon. 127-129.
  • Show author(s) (2014). Conference report: 8th International Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Music and Minorities, 19-23 July, 2014, Osaka, Japan. Musikk og tradisjon. 137-138.
  • Show author(s) (2013). Conference report: 29th meeting of the European Seminar in Ethnomusicology (ESEM), 4-8 September 2013. Musikk og tradisjon. 121-122.
  • Show author(s) (2012). Conference report: Seventh Meeting of the ICTM Study Group Music and Minorities, 7–12 August 2012, Zefat, Israel. Musikk og tradisjon. 160-161.
Book review
  • Show author(s) (2019). Review of War, Exile and the Music of Afghanistan: The Ethnographer's Tale, by John Baily. Journal of Folklore Research.
  • Show author(s) (2019). Review of The Oxford Handbook of Popular Music in the Nordic Countries, edited by Fabian Holt and Antti-Ville Kärjä. Studia Musicologica Norvegica. 99-101.
  • Show author(s) (2017). Review of "The African Imagination in Music" by Kofi Agawu. The world of music (Wilhelmshaven). 125-129.
  • Show author(s) (2015). Review of Philip V. Bohlman (ed.), The Cambridge History of World Music. The world of music (Wilhelmshaven). 110-115.
  • Show author(s) (2015). Review of "Gentleman Troubadours and Andean Pop Stars: Huayno Music, Media Work, and Ethnic Imaginaries in Urban Peru," by Joshua Tucker. Ethnomusicology. 158-161.
  • Show author(s) (2014). Review of Creating Global Music in Turkey, by Koray Değirmenci. Popular Music. 365-367.
  • Show author(s) (2013). Review of Turkish Metal: Music, Meaning, and Morality in a Muslim Society, by Pierre Hecker. International Journal of Turkish Studies. 225-228.
  • Show author(s) (2012). Review of "Youth, Music and Creative Cultures: Playing for Life" by Geraldine Bloustien and Margaret Peters. Social Analysis: The International Journal of Anthropology. 148-149.
  • Show author(s) (2012). Review of "The Republic of Love: Cultural Intimacy in Turkish Popular Music" by Martin Stokes. Popular Music. 190-192.
  • Show author(s) (2012). Review of "Songs from the Thrice-Blooded Land: Ritual Music of the Toraja (Sulawesi, Indonesia)" by Dana Rappoport. Social Analysis: The International Journal of Anthropology. 146-148.
  • Show author(s) (2012). Review of "Opera Indigene: Re/presenting First Nations and Indigenous Cultures," edited by Pamela Karantonis and Dylan Robinson. Journal of Folklore Research.
  • Show author(s) (2012). Review of "Musicological Identities: Essays in Honor of Susan McClary," edited by Baur, Knapp and Warwick. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008. 264 pp. ISBN: 9780754663027. Popular Music. 510-514.
  • Show author(s) (2011). Review of "Sailing on the Sea of Love: The Music of the Bauls of Bengal," by Charles Capwell. Journal of Folklore Research.
  • Show author(s) (2009). Among the Jasmine Trees: Music and Modernity in Contemporary Syria, by Jonathan Holt Shannon. Popular Music. 437-438.
  • Show author(s) (2008). Music and the Poetics of Production in The Bolivian Andes, by Henry Stobart. Journal of Latin American Studies. 376-378.
Academic anthology/Conference proceedings
  • Show author(s) (2015). African Musics in Context: Institutions, Culture, Identity. Fountain Publishers.
  • Show author(s) (2012). Ethnomusicology in East Africa: Perspectives from Uganda and Beyond. Fountain Publishers.
  • Show author(s) (2011). Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond. Essays Commemorating Edvard Grieg the Humanist. Fagbokforlaget.
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
  • Show author(s) (2021). Made in Almanya: The Birth of Turkish Rap. 11 pages.
  • Show author(s) (2020). Dancing the Landscape: Music, Place, Collective Memory, and Identity in a Highland Bolivia Pilgrimage. 22 pages.
  • Show author(s) (2018). Azerbaijani Rap Music and Oral Poetry Between "the Folk" and "the Popular". 23 pages.
  • Show author(s) (2017). 'His Bird Doesn't Stand Up': Gendered Dimensions of Music Censorship in Turkey. 22 pages.
  • Show author(s) (2015). Theorising Diaspora, Hybridity and Music. 42 pages.
  • Show author(s) (2015). Introduction. 1 pages.
  • Show author(s) (2014). Performing Indigeneity: Poetics and Politics of Music Festivals in Highland Bolivia. 21 pages.
  • Show author(s) (2014). Music and Race in American Cartoons: Multimedia, Subject Position, and the Racial Imagination. 25 pages.
  • Show author(s) (2013). The oriental body on the European stage: producing Turkish cultural identity on the margins of Europe. 29 pages.
  • Show author(s) (2013). Ayben: "The girl's voice in Turkish rap". 19 pages.
  • Show author(s) (2012). Where is the Postcolonial in Ethnomusicology? 36 pages.
  • Show author(s) (2011). Whose Diaspora? Hybrid Identities in "Turkish Rap" in Germany. 15 pages.
  • Show author(s) (2011). Introduction. 26 pages.
  • Show author(s) (2011). Hardcore Muslims: Islamic Themes in Turkish Rap between Diaspora and Homeland. 27 pages.
  • Show author(s) (2009). "Türkçe Rapin Kız Sesi": Ayben'in Müziğinde Toplumsal Cinsiyet ve Vokal Nitelik. 13 pages.
  • Show author(s) (2008). Diverse Diasporas: Multiple identities in 'Turkish Rap' in Germany. 12 pages.
  • Show author(s) (2008). 'Bu Vatan Bizim' ['This Land is Ours']: Nationalist Discourse in Turkish Rap Music. 19 pages.
  • Show author(s) (2007). Articulating the Historical Moment: Turkey, Europe, and Eurovision 2003. 11 pages.
  • Show author(s) (2006). Dueling landscapes: Singing places and identities in highland Bolivia. 17 pages.
Encyclopedia article
  • Show author(s) (2006). Quechua. 208-216. In:
    • Show author(s) (2006). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of World Folklore and Folklife, volume 4: North and South America.
Academic literature review
  • Show author(s) (2018). Review of Digital tradition: arrangement and labor in Istanbul's recording studio culture, by Eliot Bates. Ethnomusicology Forum. 111-113.
Introduction
  • Show author(s) (2012). Introduction. xiv-xvi.

More information in national current research information system (CRIStin)

Books edited:

2011. Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond: Essays Commemorating Edvard Grieg the Humanist. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget. 

2012. (co-edited with Sylvia Nannyonga-Tamusuza). Ethnomusicology in East Africa: Perspectives from Uganda and Beyond. Kampala: Fountain Publishers. 

Journal articles and book chapters (reverse chronological order):

2021. "Made in Almanya: The Birth of Turkish Rap." In Made in Germany: Studies in Popular Music, ed. Oliver Seibt, Martin Ringsmut, and David-Emil Wickstršm, 111-121. New York: Routledge. 

2020. "Dancing the Landscape: Music, Place, Collective Memory, and Identity in a Highland Bolivia Pilgrimage." In Cultural Mapping and Musical Diversity, ed. Britta Sweers and Sarah M. Ross, 123-144. Sheffield: Equinox. 

2018. "Azerbaijani Rap Music and Oral Poetry Between 'the Folk' and 'the Popular.'" In Turkic Soundscapes: From Shamanic Voices to Hip-Hop, ed. Razia Sultanova and Megan Rancier, 77-99. London: Routledge. 

2017. "'His Bird Doesn't Stand Up': Gendered Dimensions of Music Censorship in Turkey." In Researching Music Censorship, ed. Annemette Kirkegaard, Helmi Järviluoma, Jan Sverre Knudsen and Jonas Otterbeck, 138-159. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 

2017. "Who Are the Laz? Cultural Identity and the Musical Public Sphere on the Turkish Black Sea Coast." The World of Music (new series) 6(2):83-113. 

2016. "'The Land of our Origin': Music and History in the Norway-Azerbaijan Connection." Yearbook for Traditional Music 48:115-135. (Link will only work from computers inside the network of an institution that subscribes to JSTOR.) 

2016. "The Play of Colors: Staging Multiculturalism in Norway." Danish Musicology Online, Special Edition - 17th Nordic Musicological Congress, pp. 187-201.

2015. "Theorizing Diaspora and Music." Urban People 17(2):201-219.

2015. "Self-censorship as Critique: The Case of Turkish Rapper Sagopa Kajmer." Danish Musicology Online, special issue "Researching Music Censorship," pp. 37-53.

2015. "Theorising Diaspora, Hybridity and Music." In African Musics in Context: Institutions, Culture, Identity, ed. Thomas Solomon, 319-360. Kampala: Fountain Publishers.

2014. "Music and Race in American Cartoons: Multimedia, Subject Position, and the Racial Imagination." In Music and Minorities from Around the World: Research, Documentation and Interdisciplinary Study, ed. Ursula Hemetek, Essica Marks and Adelaida Reyes, 142-166. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

2014. "Performing Indigeneity: Poetics and Politics of Music Festivals in Highland Bolivia." In Soundscapes from the Americas: Ethnomusicological Essays on the Power, Poetics, and Ontology of Performance, ed. Donna A. Buchanan, 143-163. Farnham: Ashgate. 

2013. "The Oriental Body on the European Stage: Producing Turkish Cultural Identity on the Margins of Europe." In Empire of Song: Europe and Nation in the Eurovision Song Contest, ed. Dafni Tragaki, 173-201. Lanham: Scarecrow Press. 

2013. "Ayben: 'The Girl's Voice in Turkish Rap.'" In Women Singers in Global Contexts: Music, Biography, and Identity, ed. Ruth Hellier, 73-91. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

2012. "Theory and Method in Popular Music Analysis: Text and Meaning." Studia Musicologica Norvegica 38:86-108. 

2012. "Where is the Postcolonial in Ethnomusicology?" In Ethnomusicology in East Africa: Perspectives from Uganda and Beyond, ed. Sylvia Nannyonga-Tamusuza and Thomas Solomon, 216-251. Kampala: Fountain Publishers. 

2011."Whose Diaspora?: Hybrid Identities in 'Turkish Rap' in Germany." In Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond: Essays Commemorating Edvard Grieg the Humanist, ed. Thomas Solomon, 253-267. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget. 

2011. "Hardcore Muslims: Islamic Themes in Turkish Rap between Diaspora and Homeland." In Muslim Rap, Halal Soaps, and Revolutionary Theater: Artistic Developments in the Muslim World, ed. Karin van Nieuwkerk, 27-54. Austin: University of Texas Press. [Revised version of 2006 article below.]

2010. "The Local and the Global in Turkish Rap Music: A View from Istanbul." Porte Akademik 1(1):242-252. 

2009. "Berlin-Frankfurt-Istanbul: Turkish Hip-Hop in Motion." European Journal of Cultural Studies 12(3):305-327. 

2008. "Music as Culture? Reflections on an Ethnomusicological Moment." Studia Musicologica Norvegica 34:68-90.

2008. "Diverse Diasporas: Multiple identities in 'Turkish Rap' in Germany." In Music from Turkey in the Diaspora, ed. Ursula Hemetek and Hande Sağlam, 77-88. Vienna: Institut für Volksmusikforschung und Ethnomusikologie.

2008. "'Bu Vatan Bizim' ['This Land is Ours']: Nationalist Discourse in Turkish Rap Music." In Freedom and Prejudice: Approaches to Media and Culture, ed. Süheyla Kırca Schroeder and LuEtt Hanson, 204-222. Istanbul: Bahçeşehir University Press.

2007. "Articulating the Historical Moment: Turkey, Europe, and Eurovision 2003." In A Song for Europe: Popular Music and Politics in the Eurovision Song Contest,ed. Ivan Raykoff and Robert Tobin, 135-145. Aldershot: Ashgate.

2006. "Hardcore Muslims: Islamic Themes in Turkish Rap in Diaspora and in the Homeland." Yearbook for Traditional Music 38:59-78.

2006. "Quechua." In The Greenwood Encyclopedia of World Folklore and Folklife. Volume 4: North and South America, ed. William M. Clements, 208-216. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

2006. "Dueling Landscapes: Singing Places and Identities in Highland Bolivia." In Ethnomusicology: A Contemporary Reader, ed. Jennifer Post, 311-327. London: Routledge. [Revised version of 2000 article below.]

2005. "'Listening to Istanbul': Imagining Place in Turkish Rap Music." Studia Musicologica Norvegica 31:46-67.

2005. "'Living Underground is Tough': Authenticity and Locality in the Hip-hop Community in Istanbul, Turkey." Popular Music 24(1):1-20. University Press.

2004. "Musikalske Konstruktioner af Sted og Identitet i Bolivias Højland" ["Musical Constructions of Place and Identity in Highland Bolivia"]. Jordens Folk 39(3):48-53.

2000. "Dueling Landscapes: Singing Places and Identities in Highland Bolivia." Ethnomusicology 44(2):257-280.

1995. "Creando Etnicidad por Medio de la Música en el Norte de Potosí." Anales de la Reunión Anual de Etnología 1993, Tomo II. La Paz, Bolivia: Museo Nacional de Etnología y Folklore, pp.47-76.

1994. "Coplas de Todos Santos in Cochabamba: Language, Music, and Performance in Bolivian Quechua Song Dueling." Journal of American Folklore 107(425):378-414.

 

Ethnomusicology

Popular Music Studies

Critical musicology

 

Research groups