Wilton Schereka

Current Fellows: History Department, MA

During the course of my Masters project I will seek to focus on an alternative genealogy of black musicology that does not rely on what has become the normative narrative. My project will include three sets of musicians from the USA, Nigeria and South Africa. As this is not only a historical account of these moments in music, I would like to view them as events, not merely as anthropological ethnomusicologies. This normative trajectory of black musicology, especially in the USA, tracks black music from ‘negro’ spirituals, to the blues, through jazz, funk, soul, r and b, to hip hop. I fear this genealogy misses the importance of electronic music in the 80s that reshaped the future of popular music both in and outside of Nigeria, South Africa and the USA (specifically Detroit). These musical genres include afro-funk, electro-funk, disco, techno and bubblegum pop.