Anna Morcom
Anna Morcom works on music and dance in India and Tibet from diverse perspectives that seek to understand the contemporary world and processes of change in and through musical culture. Her research is ethnographically-based and interdisciplinary and encompasses traditional as well as popular musics. Her publications include Unity and discord: Music and politics in contemporary Tibet (2004, Tibet Information Network); Hindi film songs and the cinema (2007, Ashgate); Illicit worlds of Indian dance: Cultures of exclusion (2013, Hurst and OUP); and articles in a range of peer-reviewed journals - Ethnomusicology, Popular Music, Yearbook for Traditional Music, Ethnomusicology Forum, Consumption, Markets and Culture, South Asian Film and Media, Cultural and Social History, and HIMALAYA. She made a VCD album of Tibetan songs with the singer Tanzin Gyatso in Tibet in 2006, entitled sPrin Gyi Metok (‘Cloud flowers).
In 2014, Illicit worlds of Indian dance was awarded the Society of Ethnomusicology's Allan Merriam prize and the Marcia Herndon prize of SEM's Gender and Sexualities section. Her research has been supported by a number of grants from the Leverhulme Trust and the British Academy. She is the founder of SEM's Special Interest Group on Economic Ethnomusicology. Anna Morcom has been interviewed on Illicit worlds of Indian dance by various UK media including BBC Radio 4’s Thinking Allowed (link), and by India-based media including the national newspaper, The Hindu (link), the leading social justice magazine, Tehelka, and the independent news, information and entertainment organisation Scroll (link)
In 2014, Illicit worlds of Indian dance was awarded the Society of Ethnomusicology's Allan Merriam prize and the Marcia Herndon prize of SEM's Gender and Sexualities section. Her research has been supported by a number of grants from the Leverhulme Trust and the British Academy. She is the founder of SEM's Special Interest Group on Economic Ethnomusicology. Anna Morcom has been interviewed on Illicit worlds of Indian dance by various UK media including BBC Radio 4’s Thinking Allowed (link), and by India-based media including the national newspaper, The Hindu (link), the leading social justice magazine, Tehelka, and the independent news, information and entertainment organisation Scroll (link)
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Books by Anna Morcom
between Tibet and exile concerning Tibet’s political status and cultural identity. Whilst religion and political prisoners have become the focus of the most violent and overt political confrontations in and about Tibet, music has become profoundly involved with the various political standpoints, and has been used by all parties to express ideology and denounce opposing ideology.
This book examines the ways in which non-monastic music has been and is being used to serve politics, or has been changed due to political ideology in Tibet since the 1950s, and some of the consequences of this politicisation on the musical traditions themselves and Tibetan cultural identity. It draws on over 30 formal interviews with Tibetans brought up in Tibet, as well as a range of published material. This study discusses musical style and performance as well as song lyrics. Although lyrics are the most apparent vehicle for political agenda in music, musical and performance style carry just as potent messages, and have been restricted, controlled and mobilised to serve political ends as much as lyrics.
Papers by Anna Morcom
between Tibet and exile concerning Tibet’s political status and cultural identity. Whilst religion and political prisoners have become the focus of the most violent and overt political confrontations in and about Tibet, music has become profoundly involved with the various political standpoints, and has been used by all parties to express ideology and denounce opposing ideology.
This book examines the ways in which non-monastic music has been and is being used to serve politics, or has been changed due to political ideology in Tibet since the 1950s, and some of the consequences of this politicisation on the musical traditions themselves and Tibetan cultural identity. It draws on over 30 formal interviews with Tibetans brought up in Tibet, as well as a range of published material. This study discusses musical style and performance as well as song lyrics. Although lyrics are the most apparent vehicle for political agenda in music, musical and performance style carry just as potent messages, and have been restricted, controlled and mobilised to serve political ends as much as lyrics.