Call for Articles: Music Means Call for Submissions

The American Musicological Society (AMS) invites proposals for story articles in Music Means, an online magazine of the Many Musics of America initiative.

Exploring the variety and complexity of music in America, Music Means illustrates the many ways music has been used as a means to an end in the United States: mobilized to serve national identity, community reinvention, commerce, war, ideology, protest, unity, religion, morality, and more. Recent stories have delved into music therapy in New York; Indigenous music in the film Killers of the Flower Moon; early jazz in New Orleans; the music of Super Mario Bros.; music in late-1800s Montana; aerobics music; and Norwegian fiddle tunes in the US.

To learn more, consult the Music Means’ About page and Author Guidelines.

The target audience of Music Means is the general public. All proposed articles must be written for a 6th-to 10th-grade audience. Unlike most AMS publications, which focus on publishing academic articles and learned commentary, Music Means publishes “story articles”: narrative-driven tales with a clearly defined plot, characters, setting, and an inciting problem or conflict that inform the reader about a meaningful moment in music history. Music Means authors should be interested in writing for the general public and should expect their article, if accepted, to undergo an intensive developmental editing process. This process is intended to ensure that the article meets the target reading level and effectively tells a compelling story. All “story articles” are one thousand (1,000) words or less.

Submissions

Have an idea? Interested in writing for a broad public audience? Great! We’d love to hear from you! Send us your idea in a 200-word paragraph (max.) via this proposal submission form. If we like your article idea, a member of our editorial team will reach out to workshop your idea and discuss how it might be shaped into a compelling story article. When submitting your idea, please indicate your story’s setting, hook, narrative arc, characters, and other story elements.

Deadline

Story ideas are accepted on a rolling basis. However, we are planning our fall publishing calendar now and looking for stories that resonate with the United States’ 250th anniversary. So, if you have a story idea that resonates with the semiquincentennial, please submit your idea no later than 31 July 2026.

Compensation

All Music Means authors receive a $150 author’s honorarium. If your story article is accepted for publication, you will receive a check upon acceptance of your final, approved manuscript.

Questions

Have questions? Feel free to reach out to the Music Means editorial team at managingeditor [at] amsmusicology.org.