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About
American Music is an independent, peer-reviewed journal published quarterly by the University of Illinois Press. Its articles, reviews, and special issues are devoted to American music in the broadest sense, including musical practices of North, South, and Central America as well as American musics performed anywhere in the world.
History
American Music is the first journal that was devoted exclusively to American music and the wide-ranging scope implied by its title. Articles cover a rich array of composers, performers, publishers, institutions, performing traditions, and events. Recent essay topics have included: disability in Carlisle Floyd’s Of Mice and Men; hip hop sampling of jazz; harpsichord kits; music in the Appalachian mountaintop removal mining debate; Mychael Danna’s score for The Sweet Hereafter; funeral music in the South; David Tudor and the bandoneon; and music in stagings of Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire. The journal also includes reviews of books, recordings, films, websites, and concerts.
Indexes
Academic Search Premier, American Bibliography of Slavic & East European Studies, American Humanities Index, Book Review Index, Current Contents: Art and Humanities, Expanded Academic ASAP, Gale Biography Resource Center, Humanities Abstracts, Humanities Index, International Bibliography of Book Reviews of Scholarly Literature on the Humanities & Social Sciences, International Bibliography of Periodical Literature on the Humanities & Social Sciences, International Index to Music Periodicals, ISI Alerting Services, JSTOR Arts and Sciences III, MLA International Bibliography, Music Article Guide, Music Index, Periodicals Contents Index, Research Alert, RILM Abstracts, Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliographies, Sage Race Relations Abstracts, Scopus
Journal information
Current Volume: 44 (2026)
Publication Frequency: Quarterly