Musicology in the World
Styled by the Streets: Black Women in Hip-Hop Fashion (9/19/2026)
Co-curated by Dr. Sharon Kong-Perring and Dr. Adeerya Johnson, MOPOP’s latest exhibition celebrates Black women as visionaries in hip-hop fashion. Read more.
Protip on Editing: Lyrics (9/29/2026)
A-R Editions offers a “protip” on the handling of sung text when preparing a musical edition. Read more.
Nina Simone, Langston Hughes, and Their Forgotten Creative Collaboration (10/1/2026)
Fans know that Nina Simone’s “I Put a Spell on You” helped establish her as the “High Priestess of Soul.” Few know that Langston Hughes encouraged her to record it. Read more.
Training the Compleat Musician (10/12/2026)
The NEC’s Pratt Early Music Program aims to teach historical performance practice to “modern” instrumentalists and to populate symphony orchestras with them. Read more.
Bad Bunny Is Transforming the Spanish Language (10/14/2026)
Bad Bunny has put Spanish on more global stages than any other artist in recent history. Criticisms of his speaking say much about the confines of “proper Spanish.” Read more.
Martina Arroyo, Luminous Soprano Who Broke Barriers, Dies at 90 (10/14/2026)
A leading star at the Metropolitan Opera in the 1960s and ’70s, she was one of the first Black singers to have a major stage career. Read more.
Repertoire Is a Labor Issue (10/19/2026)
Risk-adverse programming in classical music organizations reinforces a narrow employment pipeline, argues Early Music America. Read more.
What Is Keeping Music Librarians up at Night? (Spoiler Alert: It’s AI!) (10/20/2026)
Music librarians report that the specter of AI causes justifiable anxiety about the future of the profession. Read more.
Listening to Musical Modernism in the Princeton School (10/20/2026)
Scott Gleason discusses his new book, Composing Modernism: Musical Formalism and the Experimental Turn in the Princeton School, recently published by UC Press. Read more.
Gospel Horror and Creepy Bluegrass: Behind the Music of Get Out (10/26/2026)
Ahead of the New York Philharmonic’s live soundtrack performances of the film, the composer Michael Abels discusses pivotal moments from his score. Read more.
Why Does Everything in Music Feel Fake Right Now (10/27/2026)
From manufactured fans to AI artists and “industry plants,” 2026 is one wild year for figuring out what’s authentic and what’s not in the music industry. Read more.
Building Bridges, Preserving India’s Musical Heritage (10/28/2026)
In 2019, RILM began a partnership with the Archives and Research Center for Ethnomusicology in Gurugram, India, to help preserve India’s musical heritage. Read more.
Conference Report: Women and Musical Histories, 1789–1914 (10/28/2026)
From September 2 to 4, 2026, the Royal Academy of Music hosted the international conference Women and Musical Histories, 1789–1914. Read more.
New Books in Music Podcast (10/31/2026)
Listen to the latest from the New Books in Music podcast, featuring books about Christmas carols, brass bands, and more.
Higher Ed News
Are Libraries Prepared for the Second Digital Transformation of Distinctive Collections? (9/29/2026)
The Scholarly Kitchen contends that a “second” digital transformation of archival and manuscript collections is underway. Read more.
Publishers to Share 20 Million Research Papers with AI Start-Up (10/6/2026)
“Pay-per-use” model hailed as “game-changer,” giving AI agents access to primary literature. Read more.
University of Nottingham Confirms Closure of Music Department (10/7/2026)
560 jobs will be lost across the music and languages departments, with the university stating that a “societal shift” has altered demand for music degrees. Read more.
Three Takeaways From the Harvard v. Trump Appeal Hearings (10/8/2026)
At issue is whether the administration can lawfully strip Harvard of federal funding and its ability to enroll international students. Read more.
ACLS Advocacy Update (10/14/2026)
The ACLS reports on several new challenges facing member societies in its October 2026 advocacy update. Read more.
Universities Are on an AI Philosopher Hiring Spree (10/15/2026)
AI is raising existential questions about knowledge and humanity—and creating exploding demand for philosophy professors equipped to investigate them. Read more.
Humanities Dissertations Have Declined by Nearly Half Over the Past Decade (10/21/2026)
The number of dissertations in the humanities and social sciences has fallen 28% since its peak in 2015. Humanities dissertations constitute the vast majority of this drop. Read more.
The Price of Closing a University Museum (10/26/2026)
Fort Hays State University is closing its natural history museum to help absorb a $2.4 million state budget cut. Critics say it’s a short-term solution with big consequences. Read more.
Google DeepMind and Springer Nature to Create AI Peer Review Tool (10/26/2026)
Bot currently in development will “relieve strain of growing submission volumes” while “upholding editorial standards,” companies say. Read more.
AMS News
Listening for Foremothers in Rosalía’s Lux from Musicology Now (9/28/2026)
Rosalía Vila Tobella knows how to make a splash, from polemical reworkings of flamenco idioms to musical arrangements by Caroline Shaw, and more. Read more.
Our Musical Commons Project Launched (10/14/2026)
Our Musical Commons: Musicologies for Social, Civic, and Moral Repair explores how music and sound build, renew, and repair social, civic, and ethical cultures. Read more.
New Issue of Journal of Musicology Pedagogy Published (16.1) (10/15/2026)
The Journal of Musicology Pedagogy’s latest issue includes articles on teaching soundwalks, “collaborative timelines,” AI, and undergraduate research. Read more.
New JAMS Supplement Published (79 Supplement 2) (10/15/2026)
Titled “Campfires in the Field: A Then-and-Now Story of American Music and Us,” the supplemental colloquy features scholars responding to past JAMS articles. Read more.
