I received a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from Columbia University, New York, with a dissertation on New York indie rock bands (Commitment, Cohesion, and Creative Process: A Study of New York City Rock Bands, 1991). Since then I have taught at Texas A&M University and at the University of Tennessee.

I am currently a member of the School of Music’s Musicology Faculty, where we’ve developed a strong, innovative program that integrates historical and ethnographic approaches to music scholarship. Im particularly proud of our B.A. degree concentration in Music & Culture.

I’ve published articles and reviews, mostly on American music and culture, in the journals Ethnomusicology, American Music, and World of Music. Through my work with indie rock bands, I came to see the importance of music technologies in shaping aspects of musicians' lives and identities.

1. See “Acting Up, Talking Tech: New York Rock Musicians and their Metaphors of Technology”; in Ethnomusicology 42(1):81-98; reprinted in Ethnomusicology: A Contemporary Reader (2005).
   

With my coeditor Rene T.A. Lysloff, I continued to explore music, culture, and technology in the book, Music and Technoculture (2003) from Wesleyan University Press. While most research on music and technology focuses on electronic technologies, early technologies of music also catch my interests, especially song sheets and publishing technologies of the late 19th century.

1. See my article “Before the Deluge: The Technoculture of Song Sheet Publishing Viewed from Late 19th-Century Galveston” in American Music 17(4): 396-421; reprinted in Music and Technoculture.
   

My most recent work is an historical and ethnographic investigation of the reception of African American music in Denmark, with a focus on the development and usage of the concept of rytmisk musik (“rhythmic music”). I began this research with a Fulbright Scholar award in 2002. I haven’t published any of this work as of yet, but a book is on the way.