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Erin E. Bauer is an associate professor of musicology and chair of the music department at Muskingum University. Her new book is Flaco’s Legacy: The Globalization of Conjunto. With its publication, Erin says that she’s “wrapping up a long series of projects on Texas-Mexican conjunto music” and looking forward to new “work on roots-rock musician Ry Cooder and the use of the vocal stutter in popular and other musics in the twentieth century.”
How did you get to where you are today, professionally?
I’ve had a bit of a circuitous route to get where I am today (as with many academics!). I started out as a music (piano) and physics double-major at a liberal arts college in Colorado. Wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to do after, so I joined Teach For America and spent three years teaching middle-school math on the Texas border of Mexico. When I moved to California to pursue my Ph.D. in Musicology, I transferred my Texas teaching credential to California and taught middle-school and high-school math, physics, and music for an additional seven years while simultaneously completing an MA and Ph.D. at Claremont Graduate University.
I next moved to Wyoming (90 miles or so from where I grew up and where my parents still live in Western Nebraska) to take a community-college position as Instructor and Director of Instrumental Music. I spent three years in Wyoming, where I met my husband, enjoyed time with regional family and friends, and went skiing every weekend that we could. I next moved to Madison, Wisconsin, to take a position as Assistant Professor of Musicology at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. I spent four years there, where I also had a baby and weathered the pandemic. I moved to my current position in the fall of 2022, now as Associate Professor and also Chair of the Music Department at Muskingum University, 70 miles east of Columbus, Ohio (my family lives in the Columbus area).
Research-wise, I started out as a historical musicologist, with a dissertation on sixteenth-century Spanish keyboard music. Shortly thereafter, I did a little work on the Texas-Mexican music that I was familiar with from my time in Texas. That topic gained some positive attention, so I’ve stuck with it with a series of book chapters, articles, a monograph that will come out in May of 2023 from the University of Illinois Press, and an additional edited collection in progress. I’m starting to move into new areas of research now, with work on roots-rock musician Ry Cooder and the use of the vocal stutter in popular and other musics in the twentieth century, though the responsibilities of my current position mean I’m a little slower with research and writing than I once was!
Did you have any mentors along the way? What did they teach you?
I’ve been fortunate to have a series of invaluable mentors along the way, some formal, many less so, some in my chosen field, and many throughout other areas of my life. They’ve taught me to focus, to work hard but efficiently, to think critically about what I do, why I do it, and who I want to be. They’ve taught me to choose a path, commit to it, and follow through, wherever that may lead. They’ve taught me to strive for balance in all I do.
Walk me through a typical day-to-day.
I’m in a new position, so my day-to-day looks markedly different from previous positions, and likely different from what it will settle into in the years to come. For now, I am navigating teaching, researching, and leading my department through new recruitment efforts and substantive changes in curriculum. I am gradually consolidating my teaching schedule into just two days/week, to leave time for administrative tasks and at least one day/week set aside for research and writing. For now, these responsibilities necessitate careful allocation of time as I squeeze smaller tasks into spare moments between classes and meetings.
Tell me about your current research interests.
I’m just wrapping up a long series of projects on Texas-Mexican conjunto music. That doesn’t mean I won’t write more about this topic in the future, but for now, I’m starting to look ahead to what’s next, research-wise. In the realm of Texas-Mexican music, I’ve focused on the recent globalization and commercialization of what is often seen as (and is, in many ways) a locally-based folkloric genre.
I’ve used music that functions outside of those stereotypes in style, participation, and audience to explore the nature of globalization, the definition of music as one particular genre or another, and how these ideas tie into self-imposed and also externally-based depictions of identity. For example, I explore how music that is characterized as “conjunto” tends to receive that classification (among audiences, commercial marketing efforts, awards shows, etc.) based on who is performing that music, rather than stylistic traits.
Artists who fall into stereotypical definitions of the typical conjunto practitioner are frequently characterized as quintessentially “conjunto,” even when the music itself challenges the stylistic boundaries of the genre and even when the artists describe their work alternatively. Meanwhile, the music of those whose hometown, cultural heritage, socioeconomic identity, etc. does not align with the most common “conjunto” identity tends to be defined as something other than conjunto. These ideas are not unique to conjunto, so my work helps to understand similar classifications throughout a range of musical styles.
Why do you find this area of research so interesting?
This is music that I learned about while living and working in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. It’s important to friends and students I met while there, and it’s important to me that I do it justice. I was fascinated to learn that groups of people around the world knew about, performed, and loved what I had assumed was a very localized style of music, and my research into this topic started with me trying to understand why people in such disparate locations were attracted to music outside of stylistic expectation.
How has your approach to your work changed over the past few years, if at all?
More and more, I try to do work that matters. As much as I love historical research into European art musics, I found myself saying less and less that seemed new and important. For me, research into “living” musics opens up a wealth of contemporary relevance that helps us to understand marginalized populations and strive to make an actual difference in people’s lives. I find that music can provide a point of entry into difficult conversations; that’s how I teach and more and more, how I do research. As I move further along in my career, I’m also thinking about how best to provide space for marginalized voices, rather than putting myself forward as an “expert” in music that is not part of my own cultural heritage.
What would you like to see more of in music-related scholarship right now?
I think we’re starting to see a blurring of traditional boundaries between art and vernacular musics and an integration of formerly distinct disciplines (musicology, ethnomusicology, and music theory, but also cultural studies, anthropology, history, etc.). I would like to see more such integration. I also think many scholars are starting to reconsider the “canon” of acceptable scholarship and to rectify the exclusions, which is a welcome shift and one I would love to see more of.
What’s your favorite part of the work you do in music?
The people.
What’s one tip that you’d give a student considering a life in music scholarship starting out right now?
Know what you’re getting into. It’s a field that has the potential to be incredibly rewarding (and fun!), but it’s very difficult to break into a stable job that actually pays a living wage. Even if you achieve the elusive academic tenure-track position, these require a lot of work for relatively little pay.
What was the best music / video or film / book you’ve enjoyed in the past 12 months?
Nothing to do with music or higher education, but I really enjoyed reading Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival, and Hope in an American City (2021) by Andrea Elliott. It provides a raw glimpse into the struggles that many families face, and helps me to be a better teacher and researcher.
Anything you want to plug?
My new book! It’s called Flaco’s Legacy: The Globalization of Conjunto and is published by the University of Illinois Press.
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