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Theater, Performance, and Music History

Theater, Performance, and Music History is a research topic within Music. Science Explorer counts 7.1k research works in it since 1950. 10.3% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the evolution and cultural significance of American musical theatre, including its intersection with melodrama, operetta, identity, democracy, race, and gender. It delves into the historical, social, and artistic dimensions of Broadway productions and their impact on popular culture.

  • American Musical Theatre
  • Melodrama
  • Broadway
  • The Wire
  • Operetta
  • Identity
  • Cultural Studies
  • Democracy
  • Race
  • Gender
Research works
7.1k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
726
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.3%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+12%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
47% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Theater, Performance, and Music History

Which countries lead Theater, Performance, and Music History research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (487 and 226 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 487 works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 226 works
  3. 3 China 59 works
  4. 4 Canada 52 works
  5. 5 Australia 48 works
  6. 6 India 39 works
  7. 7 France 36 works
  8. 8 Germany 35 works
  9. 9 Spain 33 works
  10. 10 Italy 32 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: 46.5%United Kingdom: 21.6%China: 5.6%Canada: 5.0%6 others listed: 21.2%47%largest
United States487 · 46.5%United Kingdom226 · 21.6%China59 · 5.6%Canada52 · 5.0%6 others listed222 · 21.2%

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

Which institutions lead Theater, Performance, and Music History research?

By volume in 2022-now, Film Independent publishes the most Theater, Performance, and Music History research, followed by University of Oxford and City University of New York.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Film IndependentUnited States 17 works
  2. 2 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 13 works
  3. 3 City University of New YorkUnited States 11 works
  4. 4 University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 10 works
  5. 5 King's College LondonUnited Kingdom 9 works
  6. 6 Oxford Brookes UniversityUnited Kingdom 8 works
  7. 7 Texas Tech UniversityUnited States 7 works
  8. 8 University of BirminghamUnited Kingdom 7 works
  9. 9 University of BristolUnited Kingdom 7 works
  10. 10 University of EdinburghUnited Kingdom 6 works

Who are the leading researchers in Theater, Performance, and Music History?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Theater, Performance, and Music History include Norman K. Denzin, D. G. Charlton and S. L. Lloyd.

  1. 1 Norman K. Denzin United States 130k citations
  2. 2 D. G. Charlton Israel 130k citations
  3. 3 S. L. Lloyd United Kingdom 128k citations

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

What are the most cited papers in Theater, Performance, and Music History?

The most cited paper in Theater, Performance, and Music History is "Theorizing the moving image." (Noël Carroll, 1996), with 522 citations. Next come "Dramaturgy and Social Movements: The Social Construction and Communication of Power*" (443) and "James Douglas of the Pouch" (381).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Theorizing the moving image. Noël Carroll 1996 522
2 Dramaturgy and Social Movements: The Social Construction and Communication of Power* Robert D. Benford, Scott A. Hunt · Sociological Inquiry 1992 443
3 James Douglas of the Pouch Helen Brock · Medical History Open access Apr 1974 381
4 Husbands and wives Scott Johnson · Contemporary Family Therapy Dec 1993 379
5 Music and Identity Simon Frith Book chapter 5 Jul 2017 355
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Theater, Performance, and Music History research done?

The largest centres of Theater, Performance, and Music History research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), New York (United States), Los Angeles (United States) and Oxford (United Kingdom). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Oxford and Los Angeles.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 LondonUnited Kingdom 38 works
  2. 2 New YorkUnited States 36 works
  3. 3 Los AngelesUnited States 27 works
  4. 4 OxfordUnited Kingdom 23 works
  5. 5 Washington D.C.United States 14 works
  6. 6 ParisFrance 13 works
  7. 7 BirminghamUnited Kingdom 12 works
  8. 8 BeijingChina 11 works
  9. 9 MelbourneAustralia 11 works
  10. 10 CambridgeUnited Kingdom 10 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. OxfordGB · 22.8 works9.6×
  2. Los AngelesUS · 27.4 works7.0×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Theater, Performance, and Music History on the map

Where is the best place to study Theater, Performance, and Music History?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Oxford, King's College London and University of Cambridge score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%5%10%mean 7.42%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of OxfordUniversity of Cambri…King's College LondonCity University of N…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 81.59.0%7.9×13 +25.0%
2King's College LondonUnited Kingdom 74.58.0%9.3×9 +39.4%
3University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 70.38.2%7.4×10 +98.3%
4City University of New YorkUnited States 48.26.6%16.4×11 +0.6%
5Oxford Brookes UniversityUnited Kingdom 24.05.3%85.3×8 +250.0%

Universities only. The score blends citation excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Theater, Performance, and Music History, country by country

Is Theater, Performance, and Music History research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 12% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Theater, Performance, and Music History.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

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

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Theater, Performance, and Music History as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0051% in 2024.

still counting0.0050%0.010%0.015%Theater, Performance, and Music History0.0056% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Theater, Performance, and Music History over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Theater, Performance, and Music History9.7% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

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.

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