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Topic · Music

Music History and Culture

Music History and Culture is a research topic within Music. Science Explorer counts 17k research works in it since 1950. 23.1% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers delves into the intersection of music and culture, examining the influence of music on youth, identity formation, subcultures, and authenticity. It explores the sociological impact of various music genres, particularly rap, and investigates the role of technology and globalization in shaping the music industry and its cultural implications.

  • Music
  • Culture
  • Youth
  • Identity
  • Subcultures
  • Authenticity
  • Rap
  • Sociology
  • Globalization
  • Technology
Research works
17k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
3.8k
per year above
Top-10% rate
23.1%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
+15%
the tick is no change

Which countries lead Music History and Culture research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (1k and 431 works in 2022–2025).

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 United States 1k works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 431 works
  3. 3 Australia 158 works
  4. 4 France 142 works
  5. 5 Germany 138 works
  6. 6 Canada 135 works
  7. 7 Brazil 124 works
  8. 8 China 81 works
  9. 9 South Africa 72 works
  10. 10 India 65 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 43.1%United Kingdom: 18.2%Australia: 6.7%France: 6.0%6 others listed: 26.0%43%largest
United States1,021 · 43.1%United Kingdom431 · 18.2%Australia158 · 6.7%France142 · 6.0%6 others listed614 · 26.0%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Music History and Culture research?

By volume in 2022–2025, Film Independent publishes the most Music History and Culture research, followed by University of Huddersfield and Goldsmiths University of London.

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Film IndependentUnited States 30 works
  2. 2 University of HuddersfieldUnited Kingdom 21 works
  3. 3 Goldsmiths University of LondonUnited Kingdom 20 works
  4. 4 University of LeedsUnited Kingdom 20 works
  5. 5 The University of SydneyAustralia 18 works
  6. 6 Griffith UniversityAustralia 15 works
  7. 7 The University of MelbourneAustralia 15 works
  8. 8 University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 15 works
  9. 9 University of TorontoCanada 15 works
  10. 10 King's College LondonUnited Kingdom 13 works

Who are the leading researchers in Music History and Culture?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Music History and Culture include Morris B. Holbrook.

  1. 1 Morris B. Holbrook United States 2.2k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

Where is Music History and Culture research done?

The largest centres of Music History and Culture research in 2022–2025 are London (United Kingdom), Paris (France), New York (United States) and Los Angeles (United States). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Huddersfield and Leeds.

Largest cities, 2022–2025

  1. 1 London United Kingdom 93 works
  2. 2 Paris France 57 works
  3. 3 New York United States 54 works
  4. 4 Los Angeles United States 51 works
  5. 5 Sydney Australia 38 works
  6. 6 Melbourne Australia 37 works
  7. 7 Brisbane Australia 32 works
  8. 8 Toronto Canada 30 works
  9. 9 Leeds United Kingdom 24 works
  10. 10 Montreal Canada 23 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. HuddersfieldGB · 20.7 works54×
  2. LeedsGB · 23.7 works9.3×
← less than its size predictsmore →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Music History and Culture than the world average.

See Music History and Culture on the map

Where is the best place to study Music History and Culture?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Huddersfield, Griffith University and University of Leeds score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 27.14%fractional works in this node (log) →share in the world top 10% →University of Huddersfield: 21, 39.7%Griffith University: 15, 34.9%University of Leeds: 20, 27.7%Friedrich Schiller University Jena: 9, 37.0%The University of Melbourne: 15, 26.7%University of Helsinki: 9, 40.2%University of Cape Town: 9, 29.7%Goldsmiths University of London: 20, 8.2%RMIT University: 10, 10.8%University College Cork: 10, 16.5%University of Hudder…Friedrich Schiller U…Griffith UniversityUniversity of Leeds
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the table below. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1 University of HuddersfieldUnited Kingdom 81.339.7%62.2×21 +40.1%
2 Griffith UniversityAustralia 72.034.9%12.7×15 +44.1%
3 University of LeedsUnited Kingdom 71.427.7%12.4×20 +40.4%
4 Friedrich Schiller University JenaGermany 65.037.0%14.0×9
5 The University of MelbourneAustralia 60.726.7%5.1×15 +218.7%
6 University of HelsinkiFinland 58.340.2%5.0×9 +131.8%
7 University of Cape TownSouth Africa 56.929.7%8.7×9 +42.4%
8 Goldsmiths University of LondonUnited Kingdom 56.58.2%106.6×20 +97.3%
9 RMIT UniversityAustralia 56.410.8%8.9×10 +172.5%
10 University College CorkIreland 53.516.5%12.7×10 +76.7%

Universities only. Score blends excellence (30%), specialisation (25%), size (20%), growth (15%) and international reach (10%), 2015–2022; growth compares 2010–14 with 2015–19.

Is Music History and Culture research growing?

Output in 2018–2022 was 15% higher than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Music History and Culture.

19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon — one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.