Liz Przybylski
University of California, Riverside, Music, Faculty Member
- As an interdisciplinary scholar of popular music, Liz Przybylski specializes in hip hop practices in Canada and the U... moreAs an interdisciplinary scholar of popular music, Liz Przybylski specializes in hip hop practices in Canada and the United States, with a focus on Indigenous popular music. Her recent book, Hybrid Ethnography: Online, Offline, and In Between (SAGE Publications, 2020) develops an innovative model hybrid on- and off-line ethnography for the analysis of expressive culture. An Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of California-Riverside, she earned her MA and PhD from Northwestern University and her BA from Bard College. Liz has presented her work at national and international conferences and hosted general audience global music programming on radio stations WNUR in Chicago and CJUM in Winnipeg. Current and forthcoming publications appear in popular music-focused edited volumes, academic journals, and hip hop reference materials.
https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/hybrid-ethnography/book260684
https://music.ucr.edu/faculty/przybylski/edit
Education research often examines popular music as a tool for achieving classroom learning outcomes. Approaching pedagogical uses of music through applied ethnomusicology reveals even more useful conclusions about the social context and... more
Education research often examines popular music as a tool for achieving classroom learning outcomes. Approaching pedagogical uses of music through applied ethnomusicology reveals even more useful conclusions about the social context and pedagogical applications of bilingual popular music. Research with musicians and teachers in Minnesota and Manitoba indicates that Anishinaabemowin/English popular music encourages revernacularization by extending language use and cultural knowledge beyond the classroom. Rather than working solely through the English language, this educational approach strategically uses bilingual hip hop music in Indigenous languages and offers opportunities for students to form their own critical decolonial consciousness.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Przybylski, Liz. “Listening as Decolonial Practice.” SEM Student News, Special Issue: Decolonizing Ethnomusicology Vol. 12 No. 2 (2016): 14-15.
Research Interests:
The production of Indigenous hip hop on both sides of the 49th parallel reveals a cultural complexity far beyond a stereotypical melting pot to the south and mosaic to the north. This article demonstrates multiple similarities in Canadian... more
The production of Indigenous hip hop on both sides of the 49th parallel reveals a cultural complexity far beyond a stereotypical melting pot to the south and mosaic to the north. This article demonstrates multiple similarities in Canadian and USAmerican Indigenous hip hop through a parallel analysis of recent music videos by Canadian Cree and Saulteaux rapper Drezus and USAmerican Lakota rapper Frank Waln. Like earlier hip hop that inspires it, Indigenous hip hop on both sides of the border uses place as a central part of its messaging. These videos, with parallel visual narratives, demonstrate how place-based meanings are expressed around the borderlands through the fusion of traditional music into rap music. Building from hip hop scholarship on racially-coded evocations of place, this article argues that referencing place entails more than naming geographies. I analyze three overlapping functions of place: establishing a sense of connection between artist and land, conveying a specific type of authenticity, and forging intergenerational connections. Together, these underline the ongoing relevance of transnational exchange, particularly as relevant to Indigenous popular music. Place in these two contexts offers an anchoring function, yet continues to demonstrate a fluidity upon which artists draw for their music videos. Disparate political possibilities and social realities affect the ways that artists mark connections to land, community, and culture. The way place functions across the border explains how music videos are shaping public discourses around land rights, environmentalism, and global Indigeneity within and across the borders of the US and Canada.
Przybylski, Liz. “Customs and Duty: Indigenous Hip Hop and the US-Canada Border.” Journal of Borderlands Studies vol 33 no 3 (2018): 487-506.
Przybylski, Liz. “Customs and Duty: Indigenous Hip Hop and the US-Canada Border.” Journal of Borderlands Studies vol 33 no 3 (2018): 487-506.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Rapper Frank Waln and the DJs of A Tribe Called Red are gaining international attention for the way they mix Indigenous musical gestures with contemporary genres. While this creative practice is just gaining mainstream recognition, I... more
Rapper Frank Waln and the DJs of A Tribe Called Red are gaining international attention for the way they mix Indigenous musical gestures with contemporary genres. While this creative practice is just gaining mainstream recognition, I argue that this music is actually a contemporary iteration of a longstanding tradition of urban Indigenous survivance through musical practice. This article employs close readings and interviews to analyze contemporary forms of bicultural musical expression by these two musical groups. Contextualizing these performances within a history of Indigenous expressive culture in the North American musical mainstream, connections emerge between contemporary popular music practices and earlier musical performances of the boarding school era. Reading these as iterations of Indigenous survivance, the article investigates not only how the cultural forms shape other kinds of American music, but also how the artists have acted as agents to shape cultural expressions and challenge stereotypes of Native music and musicians. The music Waln and A Tribe Called Red bring to audiences from stage extends from the voices of musicians from generations past who tell their own stories and, at the same time, co-construct an American story from venues small and large.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
ABSTRACT The production of Indigenous hip hop on both sides of the 49th parallel reveals a cultural complexity far beyond a stereotypical melting pot to the south and mosaic to the north. This article demonstrates multiple similarities in... more
ABSTRACT The production of Indigenous hip hop on both sides of the 49th parallel reveals a cultural complexity far beyond a stereotypical melting pot to the south and mosaic to the north. This article demonstrates multiple similarities in Canadian and USAmerican Indigenous hip hop through a parallel analysis of recent music videos by Canadian Cree and Saulteaux rapper Drezus and USAmerican Lakota rapper Frank Waln. Like earlier hip hop that inspires it, Indigenous hip hop on both sides of the border uses place as a central part of its messaging. These videos, with parallel visual narratives, demonstrate how place-based meanings are expressed around the borderlands through the fusion of traditional music into rap music. Building from hip hop scholarship on racially-coded evocations of place, this article argues that referencing place entails more than naming geographies. I analyze three overlapping functions of place: establishing a sense of connection between artist and land, conveying a specific type of authenticity, and forging intergenerational connections. Together, these underline the ongoing relevance of transnational exchange, particularly as relevant to Indigenous popular music. Place in these two contexts offers an anchoring function, yet continues to demonstrate a fluidity upon which artists draw for their music videos. Disparate political possibilities and social realities affect the ways that artists mark connections to land, community, and culture. The way place functions across the border explains how music videos are shaping public discourses around land rights, environmentalism, and global Indigeneity within and across the borders of the US and Canada.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Popular Music, Politics, Music Industry, Dance, Singing, and 3 moreMainstream, IASPM, and Indigenous
Research Interests:
Anna Hoefnagels and Beverley Diamond, eds. Aboriginal Music in Contemporary Canada: Echoes and Exchanges. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2012. 518 pp., bibliography, interviews cited, internet sites, discography, videography, contributors, index. ISBN 978-0-7735-3951-8, ISBN 978-0-773...more
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Education research often examines popular music as a tool for achieving classroom learning outcomes. Approaching pedagogical uses of music through applied ethnomusicology reveals even more useful conclusions about the social context and... more
Education research often examines popular music as a tool for achieving classroom learning outcomes. Approaching pedagogical uses of music through applied ethnomusicology reveals even more useful conclusions about the social context and pedagogical applications of bilingual popular music. Research with musicians and teachers in Minnesota and Manitoba indicates that Anishinaabemowin/English popular music encourages revernacularization by extending language use and cultural knowledge beyond the classroom. Rather than working solely through the English language, this educational approach strategically uses bilingual hip hop music in Indigenous languages and offers opportunities for students to form their own critical decolonial consciousness.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Education research often examines popular music as a tool for achieving classroom learning outcomes. Approaching pedagogical uses of music through applied ethnomusicology reveals even more useful conclusions about the social context and... more
Education research often examines popular music as a tool for achieving classroom learning outcomes. Approaching pedagogical uses of music through applied ethnomusicology reveals even more useful conclusions about the social context and pedagogical applications of bilingual popular music. Research with musicians and teachers in Minnesota and Manitoba indicates that Anishinaabemowin/English popular music encourages revernacularization by extending language use and cultural knowledge beyond the classroom. Rather than working solely through the English language, this educational approach strategically uses bilingual hip hop music in Indigenous languages and offers opportunities for students to form their own critical decolonial consciousness.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Urbanization has long influenced Indigenous music. While this is often characterized as cultural loss, Indigenous hip hop in the United States and Canada instead demonstrates a vibrant urban musical practice. Developing the framework of... more
Urbanization has long influenced Indigenous music. While this is often characterized as cultural loss, Indigenous hip hop in the United States and Canada instead demonstrates a vibrant urban musical practice. Developing the framework of "relocated Indigeneity," this dissertation analyzes hip hop as a form of musical messaging that actively renews heritage culture, marking the city as an Indigenous space. Grounded in Winnipeg, with attention to connections in Chicago, Minneapolis, and other areas, it proposes a move in Indigenous hip hop that parallels a rapprochement between conscious and commercial subgenres in U.S.-based rap. This allows the music to extend beyond existing subgenre conventions of race and gender presentation and to present urban Indigenous communities as spaces of possibility. Finally, it develops a methodology for online ethnography specific to ethnomusicological research that responds to this scene in which musicians and listeners increasingly move bet...
Rapper Frank Waln and the DJs of A Tribe Called Red are gaining international attention for the way they mix Indigenous musical gestures with contemporary genres. While this creative practice is just gaining mainstream recognition, I... more
Rapper Frank Waln and the DJs of A Tribe Called Red are gaining international attention for the way they mix Indigenous musical gestures with contemporary genres. While this creative practice is just gaining mainstream recognition, I argue that this music is actually a contemporary iteration of a longstanding tradition of urban Indigenous survivance through musical practice. This article employs close readings and interviews to analyze contemporary forms of bicultural musical expression by these two musical groups. Contextualizing these performances within a history of Indigenous expressive culture in the North American musical mainstream, connections emerge between contemporary popular music practices and earlier musical performances of the boarding school era. Reading these as iterations of Indigenous survivance, the article investigates not only how the cultural forms shape other kinds of American music, but also how the artists have acted as agents to shape cultural expressions ...
Research Interests:
Anna Hoefnagels and Beverley Diamond, eds. Aboriginal Music in Contemporary Canada: Echoes and Exchanges. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2012. 518 pp., bibliography, interviews cited, internet sites, discography, videography, contributors, index. ISBN 978-0-7735-3951-8, ISBN 978-0-773...more
The production of Indigenous hip hop on both sides of the 49th parallel reveals a cultural complexity far beyond a stereotypical melting pot to the south and mosaic to the north. This article demonstrates multiple similarities in Canadian... more
The production of Indigenous hip hop on both sides of the 49th parallel reveals a cultural complexity far beyond a stereotypical melting pot to the south and mosaic to the north. This article demonstrates multiple similarities in Canadian and USAmerican Indigenous hip hop through a parallel analysis of recent music videos by Canadian Cree and Saulteaux rapper Drezus and USAmerican Lakota rapper Frank Waln. Like earlier hip hop that inspires it, Indigenous hip hop on both sides of the border uses place as a central part of its messaging. These videos, with parallel visual narratives, demonstrate how place-based meanings are expressed around the borderlands through the fusion of traditional music into rap music. Building from hip hop scholarship on racially-coded evocations of place, this article argues that referencing place entails more than naming geographies. I analyze three overlapping functions of place: establishing a sense of connection between artist and land, conveying a specific type of authenticity, and forging intergenerational connections. Together, these underline the ongoing relevance of transnational exchange, particularly as relevant to Indigenous popular music. Place in these two contexts offers an anchoring function, yet continues to demonstrate a fluidity upon which artists draw for their music videos. Disparate political possibilities and social realities affect the ways that artists mark connections to land, community, and culture. The way place functions across the border explains how music videos are shaping public discourses around land rights, environmentalism, and global Indigeneity within and across the borders of the US and Canada. Przybylski, Liz. “Customs and Duty: Indigenous Hip Hop and the US-Canada Border.” Journal of Borderlands Studies vol 33 no 3 (2018): 487-506.