2010 Annual Section Report

In 2010, the Popular Music Section has experienced continued growth and has advanced both ongoing and new projects. Our membership is now over 600 members. At our 2009 business meeting, Paul Greene announced his decision to step down as Chair of the section. The section decided to reorganize its leadership structure. The Chair position is to be limited to three years, and there is to be not just a single Chair, but an Incoming, Current, and Outgoing Chair. The section held an electronic election, and Jeremy Wallach and Jennifer Milioto Matsue were elected. For 2010-11, the Outgoing Chair is Paul Greene; the Current Chair is Jeremy Wallach, and the Incoming Chair is Jennifer Milioto Matsue.

The PMSSEM Lecture Committee, chaired by Meryl Krieger, considered names brought forward by the membership, met electronically, and invited Maureen Mahon to deliver the 2010 PMSSEM Lecture. Her paper, titled “Searching for Willie Mae ‘Big Mama’ Thornton: Race and Gender in the Rock and Roll Archives,” will be delivered during the SEM conference in Los Angeles.

At the 2009 SEM conference, papers were submitted for the section’s sixth annual Lise Waxer Prize Competition for the best student paper delivered on popular music. The Waxer Prize Committee, chaired by Kevin Fellezs, met electronically and selected a winner from among the submissions. The prize will be awarded in Los Angeles at the 2010 PMSSEM Business Meeting.

This year the Waterman Committee was chaired by Frank Gunderson, and met electronically to select the winner. The third annual Waterman Prize will be awarded at the PMSSEM Business Meeting.

The PMSSEM webpage, managed by Anthony Guest-Scott, serves our section and society as a useful academic resource. It currently contains the section’s Mission Statement, minutes of the most recent business meeting, the chair’s annual section report, information on PMSSEM projects, bibliographies, and an online directory of members reflecting their research interests and projects. A new bibliography of significant ethnomusicological studies of popular music was posted in early November, 2010. The website is accessible via link from the SEM webpage or directly through the following new web address: http://pmssem.tamu.edu/. Anthony also manages PMSSEM-L, a general discussion list for our section. As part of this role, Anthony also maintains the section’s membership list. Anthony is in the process of conducting a survey of the membership to determine how best to organize or reorganize the section’s online materials and resources.

The Popular Music Section continues to welcome new members and new projects. All those interested in joining the section, serving on committees, or initiating new undertakings should contact Jeremy Wallach: his email address is ude.usgb|wymerej#ude.usgb|wymerej.

Respectfully submitted,

Jeremy Wallach, Current Section Chair
Paul D. Greene, Outgoing Section Chair
Popular Music Section of the Society for Ethnomusicology

November 7, 2010