TY - JOUR

T1 - Introduction to the special issue:

T2 - Popular music (re)writes history: Popular music and historical narratives

AU - Schoop, Monika E.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2025.

PY - 2025/5/3

Y1 - 2025/5/3

N2 - Popular music constructs, negotiates, and circulates representations of the past, thereby conveying historical knowledge and contributing to our understanding of the past. In short, popular music writes and rewrites history. Building on the notion that history constitutes an interpretation of past events strung together via narrative, the issue examines the critical role of popular music in constructing and negotiating historical narratives. By analyzing musical examples through various disciplinary and interdisciplinary lenses and drawing from a range of geographical contexts, including Italy, the Netherlands, Nigeria, the Philippines, the United States, and Uruguay, this issue contributes to an understanding of how music narrates the past through lyrics, musical motifs, song structure, genre, sound effects, images, intertextual references, musical instruments, as well as performative practices acknowledging the body as a means of ‘acting out’ of or ‘singing history’. Ultimately, the contributions suggest that history is not a chapter that is closed once it has been written. Instead, the articles demonstrate that when writing and rewriting history through popular music, the past is continually (re)negotiated, actively informing our present and taking a vital role in shaping our future.

AB - Popular music constructs, negotiates, and circulates representations of the past, thereby conveying historical knowledge and contributing to our understanding of the past. In short, popular music writes and rewrites history. Building on the notion that history constitutes an interpretation of past events strung together via narrative, the issue examines the critical role of popular music in constructing and negotiating historical narratives. By analyzing musical examples through various disciplinary and interdisciplinary lenses and drawing from a range of geographical contexts, including Italy, the Netherlands, Nigeria, the Philippines, the United States, and Uruguay, this issue contributes to an understanding of how music narrates the past through lyrics, musical motifs, song structure, genre, sound effects, images, intertextual references, musical instruments, as well as performative practices acknowledging the body as a means of ‘acting out’ of or ‘singing history’. Ultimately, the contributions suggest that history is not a chapter that is closed once it has been written. Instead, the articles demonstrate that when writing and rewriting history through popular music, the past is continually (re)negotiated, actively informing our present and taking a vital role in shaping our future.

KW - historical narrative

KW - historiography

KW - narrative

KW - popular music

KW - revisionism

KW - Music education

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=86000314315&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1558/pomh.32884

DO - 10.1558/pomh.32884

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:86000314315

VL - 16

SP - 5

EP - 15

JO - Popular Music History

JF - Popular Music History

SN - 1740-7133

IS - 1-2

ER -