When Performers Have Led the Way: Research, Collaboration, Performance, and Ethics

Some musicians were acting as applied ethnomusicologists long before the words “Ethnomusicology” and “Musicology” existed. Some musicians without university training or degrees have done excellent field research and collaborated with local musicians to introduce their music to new audiences in ways that would be familiar to 21s-century applied ethnomusicologists. Some performers have arranged and performed local musical forms with the intention of reducing social marginalization and acting for political change. Applied ethnomusicologists seek to apply their skills outside of academia, and also to contribute to changes in the field of ethnomusicology itself. There are, however, a few serious ethical issues associated with some musical performances that include musical and cultural appropriation and stereotyping. This chapter gives a short examination of musician-“ethnomusicologists” and then focuses on some strategies that Pete Seeger, Mike Seeger, and Peggy Seeger used in their performance-based applied ethnomusicology projects in the United States and England during the second half of the 20th century. Some of their actions may still be relevant to applied ethnomusicology and musical performance in the 21st.