Anna Morcom
Biographic Data
| ID | 84951 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Anna Morcom |
| GIVEN NAMES | Anna |
| FAMILY NAME | Morcom |
| SIGNATURE | MORCOM A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Los Angeles |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4763-9034 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 21 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Tibet, Music, and the Not-Postcolonial World
This article describes Chinese settler colonialism in Tibet through the lens of Tibetan music and performing arts. It offers glimpses of indigenous Tibetan musical lifeworlds and how these were transformed into minority ones through the cultural as well as military annexation of the Tibetan lands from the 1950s. Focusing on pop music, it then explores how Tibetans negotiate and counter the colonial thinning and diminution of their culture in both…
Economic Ethnomusicology
The Sound of Vultures’ Wings: The Tibetan Buddhist Chöd Ritual Practice of the Female Buddha Machik Labdrön , By Jeffrey W. Cupchik
Journal Article The Sound of Vultures' Wings: The Tibetan Buddhist Chöd Ritual Practice of the Female Buddha Machik Labdrön, By Jeffrey W. Cupchik Get access The Sound of Vultures' Wings: The Tibetan Buddhist Chöd Ritual Practice of the Female Buddha Machik Labdrön By Jeffrey W. Cupchik State University of New York Press, 2024. 460 pages. $99 (hardcover), $36.95 (Paperback). Anna Morcom Anna Morcom University of California, Los Angeles afmorcom@s…
Spaces to be and Flourish
Performing in public or in front of men was once seen as incompatible with domestic respectability and marriage in south Asia, and traditional professional female performers consisted overwhelmingly of courtesans or dancing girls of various kinds, or cross-dressed boys and men. These included those who identified as female, and who might therefore be understood in modern-day terms as men who have sex with men, transgender or queer. In this chapte…
Following the People, Refracting Hindustani Music, and Critiquing Genre-Based Research
Ethnomusicologists and Indian musicologists have overwhelmingly studied Hindustani music as classical music, focusing on khyal, dhrupad, and instrumental solo, and its transmission in lineages. In my research, rather than following genre, I followed people, a ground-up method that equates to basic principles of practice theory. Focusing on the extended family of the Rampur-Sahaswan gharana, known for khyal, I looked for musicians regardless of th…
Tawaifnama (The courtesan chronicles)
The Oxford Handbook of Economic Ethnomusicology
This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title w…
Phursang Kelak Lama: Tibetan Buddhist Religious Music from the Kagyu School. 2017. Pan Records 2064. Recorded by Michael Monhart (tracks 1–4) and Bernard Kleikamp (tracks 5–15). Annotated by Michael M…
Phursang Kelak Lama: Tibetan Buddhist Religious Music from the Kagyu School. 2017. Pan Records 2064. Recorded by Michael Monhart (tracks 1–4) and Bernard Kleikamp (tracks 5–15). Annotated by Michael Monhart (tracks 1–13) and Bernard Kleikamp (tracks 14–15). Produced by Bernard Kleikamp. 12-page booklet with notes by Michael Monhart. Colour photographs by Bernard Kleikamp. CD, 15 tracks (77:33). Tracks 1–4 recorded in Seattle; tracks 5–15 recorded…
Brahma Prakash, Cultural Labour: Conceptualizing 'Folk Performance' in India
The Cure is Worse than the Disease’: Mumbai Dance Bars, and New Forms of Justice in the History of Female Public Performers in India
In 2005, a ban on dancing in beer bars was brought by the State of Maharashtra targeting the exploitation of bar dancers and the damage to society and public morality that dance bars were seen to engender. In 2006, the ban was successfully contested in the Bombay High Court, and in July 2013, this judgement was upheld in the Supreme Court. In this article, I explore the historical context to the bar girls, the ban and the court cases, and examine…
Landscape, Urbanization, and Capitalist Modernity: Exploring the "Great Transformation" of Tibet Through Its Songs
A myriad of ethnomusicological studies have explored change and modernization in musical cultures across the world. However, few have explored transformational changes with capitalism as the main analytical frame. This is despite the fact that capitalism, in its various forms and phases, has arguably been the key driving force of the modem world for centuries, underpinning or shaping industrialization, nation-state formation, colonialism, rapid o…
Locating music in capitalism: A view from exile Tibet
Since the late 1990s, a thriving scene of pop music has developed among the numerically very small and globally highly dispersed Tibetan exile community. This clearly connects it with globalisation and the spread of what is termed the neoliberal phase of capitalism to India and Nepal where most Tibetan exiles live, and the related spread of digital recording technology and facilities - commodities produced by often large, multinational corporatio…
Terrains of Bollywood Dance: (Neoliberal) Capitalism and the Transformation of Cultural Economies
This article explores ways of theorizing cultural change in contexts of liberalization and rapid economic growth. I focus on post-1990s India, looking on the one hand at the emergence of a Bollywood dance craze within middle class (transnational) India, and, on the other hand, at the rise of dance bars, where girls danced seductively for a male audience, a phenomenon that was subject to a vigorous moral campaign and a ban. I explore capitalism in…
Basgo Castle: Songs and Dances of Ladakh. 2013. Pan Records Pan 2118. Recorded by Stephen Dydo. Annotated and with lyrics translated by Noé Dinnerstein. 6-page booklet with notes in English. Colour ph…
Karjam Saeji: Tibet in My Heart. 2011. Published by Karjam Saeji. Recorded by Oh Younghoon. Gatefold package and 8-page booklet with notes in Tibetan and English. Colour and b/w photographs. CD, 11 tr…
Karjam Saeji: Tibet in My Heart. 2011. Published by Karjam Saeji. Recorded by Oh Younghoon. Gatefold package and 8-page booklet with notes in Tibetan and English. Colour and b/w photographs. CD, 11 tracks (60:57). Recorded at E-um Studio, Seoul. - Volume 46
Erotic Triangles: Sundanese Dance and Masculinity in West Java
Book Review| September 01 2013 Erotic Triangles: Sundanese Dance and Masculinity in West Java Erotic Triangles: Sundanese Dance and Masculinity in West Java. Henry Spiller. 2010. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. xvii, 251 pp., black and white photographs, illustrations, music and choreographic examples, notes, bibliography, index. Cloth, $91.00, paper, $27.50. Anna Morcom Anna Morcom Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google…
Getting heard in Tibet: Music, media and markets
This article is an ethnographic study of the production of recorded music and popular music culture in Tibet, examining who gets their voice heard and how, and the roles played by the state, the independent realm that has emerged since the late 1980s, and the illegal/pirate sphere that has also resulted from economic liberalisation. While the question of IPR violations in China has become a global issue, it is largely discussed in the context of …
An understanding between Bollywood and Hollywood? The meaning of Hollywood-style music in Hindi films
The symphonic style of Hollywood film music has become a standard part of the background music, and some of the instrumental sections of songs, in Hindi films since around 1950. Music is used in both songs and backing scores to express aspects of drama and narrative, and Hollywood‐style symphonic music and some of its distinctive techniques have become an important part of that expression. This paper examines some examples of the use of Hollywood…
Getting heard in Tibet: Music, media and markets
This article is an ethnographic study of the production of recorded music and popular music culture in Tibet, examining who gets their voice heard and how, and the roles played by the state, the independent realm that has emerged since the late 1980s, and the illegal/pirate sphere that has also resulted from economic liberalisation. While the question of IPR violations in China has become a global issue, it is largely discussed in the context of …
Terrains of Bollywood Dance: (Neoliberal) Capitalism and the Transformation of Cultural Economies
This article explores ways of theorizing cultural change in contexts of liberalization and rapid economic growth. I focus on post-1990s India, looking on the one hand at the emergence of a Bollywood dance craze within middle class (transnational) India, and, on the other hand, at the rise of dance bars, where girls danced seductively for a male audience, a phenomenon that was subject to a vigorous moral campaign and a ban. I explore capitalism in…
Locating music in capitalism: A view from exile Tibet
Since the late 1990s, a thriving scene of pop music has developed among the numerically very small and globally highly dispersed Tibetan exile community. This clearly connects it with globalisation and the spread of what is termed the neoliberal phase of capitalism to India and Nepal where most Tibetan exiles live, and the related spread of digital recording technology and facilities - commodities produced by often large, multinational corporatio…
Landscape, Urbanization, and Capitalist Modernity: Exploring the "Great Transformation" of Tibet Through Its Songs
A myriad of ethnomusicological studies have explored change and modernization in musical cultures across the world. However, few have explored transformational changes with capitalism as the main analytical frame. This is despite the fact that capitalism, in its various forms and phases, has arguably been the key driving force of the modem world for centuries, underpinning or shaping industrialization, nation-state formation, colonialism, rapid o…
Following the People, Refracting Hindustani Music, and Critiquing Genre-Based Research
Ethnomusicologists and Indian musicologists have overwhelmingly studied Hindustani music as classical music, focusing on khyal, dhrupad, and instrumental solo, and its transmission in lineages. In my research, rather than following genre, I followed people, a ground-up method that equates to basic principles of practice theory. Focusing on the extended family of the Rampur-Sahaswan gharana, known for khyal, I looked for musicians regardless of th…
The Cure is Worse than the Disease’: Mumbai Dance Bars, and New Forms of Justice in the History of Female Public Performers in India
In 2005, a ban on dancing in beer bars was brought by the State of Maharashtra targeting the exploitation of bar dancers and the damage to society and public morality that dance bars were seen to engender. In 2006, the ban was successfully contested in the Bombay High Court, and in July 2013, this judgement was upheld in the Supreme Court. In this article, I explore the historical context to the bar girls, the ban and the court cases, and examine…
An understanding between Bollywood and Hollywood? The meaning of Hollywood-style music in Hindi films
The symphonic style of Hollywood film music has become a standard part of the background music, and some of the instrumental sections of songs, in Hindi films since around 1950. Music is used in both songs and backing scores to express aspects of drama and narrative, and Hollywood‐style symphonic music and some of its distinctive techniques have become an important part of that expression. This paper examines some examples of the use of Hollywood…
Getting heard in Tibet: Music, media and markets
This article is an ethnographic study of the production of recorded music and popular music culture in Tibet, examining who gets their voice heard and how, and the roles played by the state, the independent realm that has emerged since the late 1980s, and the illegal/pirate sphere that has also resulted from economic liberalisation. While the question of IPR violations in China has become a global issue, it is largely discussed in the context of …
Erotic Triangles: Sundanese Dance and Masculinity in West Java
Book Review| September 01 2013 Erotic Triangles: Sundanese Dance and Masculinity in West Java Erotic Triangles: Sundanese Dance and Masculinity in West Java. Henry Spiller. 2010. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. xvii, 251 pp., black and white photographs, illustrations, music and choreographic examples, notes, bibliography, index. Cloth, $91.00, paper, $27.50. Anna Morcom Anna Morcom Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google…
Basgo Castle: Songs and Dances of Ladakh. 2013. Pan Records Pan 2118. Recorded by Stephen Dydo. Annotated and with lyrics translated by Noé Dinnerstein. 6-page booklet with notes in English. Colour ph…
Karjam Saeji: Tibet in My Heart. 2011. Published by Karjam Saeji. Recorded by Oh Younghoon. Gatefold package and 8-page booklet with notes in Tibetan and English. Colour and b/w photographs. CD, 11 tr…
Karjam Saeji: Tibet in My Heart. 2011. Published by Karjam Saeji. Recorded by Oh Younghoon. Gatefold package and 8-page booklet with notes in Tibetan and English. Colour and b/w photographs. CD, 11 tracks (60:57). Recorded at E-um Studio, Seoul. - Volume 46
Landscape, Urbanization, and Capitalist Modernity: Exploring the "Great Transformation" of Tibet Through Its Songs
A myriad of ethnomusicological studies have explored change and modernization in musical cultures across the world. However, few have explored transformational changes with capitalism as the main analytical frame. This is despite the fact that capitalism, in its various forms and phases, has arguably been the key driving force of the modem world for centuries, underpinning or shaping industrialization, nation-state formation, colonialism, rapid o…
Locating music in capitalism: A view from exile Tibet
Since the late 1990s, a thriving scene of pop music has developed among the numerically very small and globally highly dispersed Tibetan exile community. This clearly connects it with globalisation and the spread of what is termed the neoliberal phase of capitalism to India and Nepal where most Tibetan exiles live, and the related spread of digital recording technology and facilities - commodities produced by often large, multinational corporatio…
Terrains of Bollywood Dance: (Neoliberal) Capitalism and the Transformation of Cultural Economies
This article explores ways of theorizing cultural change in contexts of liberalization and rapid economic growth. I focus on post-1990s India, looking on the one hand at the emergence of a Bollywood dance craze within middle class (transnational) India, and, on the other hand, at the rise of dance bars, where girls danced seductively for a male audience, a phenomenon that was subject to a vigorous moral campaign and a ban. I explore capitalism in…
The Cure is Worse than the Disease’: Mumbai Dance Bars, and New Forms of Justice in the History of Female Public Performers in India
In 2005, a ban on dancing in beer bars was brought by the State of Maharashtra targeting the exploitation of bar dancers and the damage to society and public morality that dance bars were seen to engender. In 2006, the ban was successfully contested in the Bombay High Court, and in July 2013, this judgement was upheld in the Supreme Court. In this article, I explore the historical context to the bar girls, the ban and the court cases, and examine…
The Oxford Handbook of Economic Ethnomusicology
This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title w…
Phursang Kelak Lama: Tibetan Buddhist Religious Music from the Kagyu School. 2017. Pan Records 2064. Recorded by Michael Monhart (tracks 1–4) and Bernard Kleikamp (tracks 5–15). Annotated by Michael M…
Phursang Kelak Lama: Tibetan Buddhist Religious Music from the Kagyu School. 2017. Pan Records 2064. Recorded by Michael Monhart (tracks 1–4) and Bernard Kleikamp (tracks 5–15). Annotated by Michael Monhart (tracks 1–13) and Bernard Kleikamp (tracks 14–15). Produced by Bernard Kleikamp. 12-page booklet with notes by Michael Monhart. Colour photographs by Bernard Kleikamp. CD, 15 tracks (77:33). Tracks 1–4 recorded in Seattle; tracks 5–15 recorded…
Brahma Prakash, Cultural Labour: Conceptualizing 'Folk Performance' in India
Tawaifnama (The courtesan chronicles)
Following the People, Refracting Hindustani Music, and Critiquing Genre-Based Research
Ethnomusicologists and Indian musicologists have overwhelmingly studied Hindustani music as classical music, focusing on khyal, dhrupad, and instrumental solo, and its transmission in lineages. In my research, rather than following genre, I followed people, a ground-up method that equates to basic principles of practice theory. Focusing on the extended family of the Rampur-Sahaswan gharana, known for khyal, I looked for musicians regardless of th…
Spaces to be and Flourish
Performing in public or in front of men was once seen as incompatible with domestic respectability and marriage in south Asia, and traditional professional female performers consisted overwhelmingly of courtesans or dancing girls of various kinds, or cross-dressed boys and men. These included those who identified as female, and who might therefore be understood in modern-day terms as men who have sex with men, transgender or queer. In this chapte…
The Sound of Vultures’ Wings: The Tibetan Buddhist Chöd Ritual Practice of the Female Buddha Machik Labdrön , By Jeffrey W. Cupchik
Journal Article The Sound of Vultures' Wings: The Tibetan Buddhist Chöd Ritual Practice of the Female Buddha Machik Labdrön, By Jeffrey W. Cupchik Get access The Sound of Vultures' Wings: The Tibetan Buddhist Chöd Ritual Practice of the Female Buddha Machik Labdrön By Jeffrey W. Cupchik State University of New York Press, 2024. 460 pages. $99 (hardcover), $36.95 (Paperback). Anna Morcom Anna Morcom University of California, Los Angeles afmorcom@s…
Economic Ethnomusicology
Tibet, Music, and the Not-Postcolonial World
This article describes Chinese settler colonialism in Tibet through the lens of Tibetan music and performing arts. It offers glimpses of indigenous Tibetan musical lifeworlds and how these were transformed into minority ones through the cultural as well as military annexation of the Tibetan lands from the 1950s. Focusing on pop music, it then explores how Tibetans negotiate and counter the colonial thinning and diminution of their culture in both…
Art (13 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Political science (7 works) · Aesthetics (6 works) · Diversity and Impact of Dance (6 works) · History (6 works) · Visual arts (6 works) · Law (5 works) · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies (5 works) · Literature (4 works)