History and theory of ethnomusicology

Popular Music Studies

Turkish popular musics

Rap music and hip-hop youth culture

Music and place

Music and diaspora

Postcolonialism

Indigenous music of the Bolivian Andes

 

 

Courses in the MA program in ethnomusicology and musicology

BA course "Music in World Cultures"

BA course "Popular Music Studies"

BA course "Musikk, kultur og samfunn"

Program coordinator for MA in ethnomusicology and musicology

 

Conference lecture

• Thomas Solomon (2019). Reflections on music and exile: Experience, aesthetics, and the present-absence. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2017). The Land of Our Origin: Music and History in the Norway–Azerbaijan Connection. (external link)
• Thomas James Solomon (2007). Hardcore Muslims: Islamic themes in Turkish rap in diaspora and in the homeland. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2009). Hardcore Muslims: Islamic Themes in Turkish Rap between Diaspora and Homeland. (external link)
• Thomas James Solomon (2007). Whose diaspora? Hybrid identities in "Turkish Rap" in Germany. (external link)
• Thomas James Solomon (2007). Whose diaspora? Hybrid identities in "Turkish Rap" in Germany. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2009). Where is the postcolonial in ethnomusicology?. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2018). The Play of Colors: Staging Multiculturalism in Norway. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2018). Reflections on music and exile: Experience, aesthetics, and the present-absence. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2014). Music in the Norway-Azerbaijan Connection: Distant Neighbors, Imagined Pasts. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2013). “Listening to Istanbul”: Imagining Place in Turkish Rap Music. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2014). Theorizing music and diaspora. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2022). Music and Displacement: Making Sense of a Terminological "Mess". (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2012). Music and identity: Text, performance, embodiment. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2008). "The girl's voice in Turkish rap": Gender, poetics & difference. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2010). "The girl's voice in Turkish rap": Gender and subjectivity in the life and music of Ayben. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2009). "The girl's voice in Turkish rap": Gender and vocality in the music of Ayben. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2009). Ethnomusicological Perspectives on Improvisation. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2016). The musical aestheticization of exile: Zaza (Kurdish-Alevi) musicians between Turkey and Germany. (external link)
• Thomas James Solomon (2023). Revisiting Heritage. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2009). Berlin-Frankfurt-Istanbul: Turkish Hip-Hop in Motion. (external link)
• Thomas James Solomon (2024). Popular Music as Excluded Music in Ethnomusicology: From Margin to Mainstream. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2014). Reflections on music and exile. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2015). The play of colors: Staging multiculturalism in Norway. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2015). The play of colors: Staging multiculturalism in Norway. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2015). On playing badly: Non-outstanding performers and the construction of ethnomusicological knowledge. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2019). The musical aestheticization of exile: Zaza (Kurdish-Alevi) musicians between Turkey and Germany. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2012). Azeri rap music and oral poetry between tradition and modernity. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2010). Turkish hip-hop in motion. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2011). “The Girl’s Voice in Turkish Rap”: Vocality and the Patriarchal Bargain in the Life and Music of Ayben. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2017). Reflections on music and exile: Experience, aesthetics, and the present-absence. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2013). Dancing the Landscape: Music and Movement in a Highland Bolivia Pilgrimage. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2013). "His Bird Doesn't Stand Up": Gendered Dimensions of Music Censorship in Turkey. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2013). Music and Race in American Cartoons. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2009). Berlin-Frankfurt-Istanbul: Turkish Hip-Hop in Motion. (external link)
• Thomas James Solomon (2023). Music and Displacement: Making Sense of a Terminological “Mess”. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2019). Music and the body: From cognition to performance. (external link)
• Thomas James Solomon (2006). Transformations of Turkish hip-hop nationalism, from diaspora to the homeland. (external link)
• Thomas James Solomon (2006). Berlin-Frankfurt-Istanbul: Local, trans-local, and global imaginaries in Turkish hip-hop. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2012). Ethnic and racial stereotypes in American cartoons. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2008). Hardcore Muslims: Islamic themes in Turkish rap between diaspora and homeland. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2017). Voices from the margins: Minorities and musical activism in Turkey. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2017). Postcolonialism and ethnomusicology: Issues, challenges, and prospects. (external link)
• Thomas James Solomon (2007). Every way that I can? Turkey and the Eurovision Song Contest. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2018). Postcolonial Discourse and Musical Performance: Mimicry and Ambivalence in the Bolivian Andes. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2018). Reflections on music and exile. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2016). Who are the Laz? Ethnicity and the musical public sphere on the Turkish Black Sea coast. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2016). "The land of our origin": Music, time and space in the Norway-Azerbaijan connection. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2016). The play of colors: Staging multiculturalism in Norway. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2014). Music and Race in American Cartoons. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2014). The girl's voice in Turkish rap: Gender and vocality in the music of Ayben [invited keynote speech]. (external link)
• Thomas James Solomon (2023). Music and Displacement: Making Sense of a Terminological “Mess”. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2014). The play of colors: Staging multiculturalism in Norway. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2015). Music and race in American cartoons: Multimedia, subject position, and the racial imagination. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2014). Music and ritual: Ethnomusicological perspectives. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2022). Postcolonialism and Music Studies: Issues, Challenges, Prospects. (external link)
• Thomas James Solomon (2006). Whose hybridity? Whose diaspora? Agency and identity in transnational musics. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2025). Revisiting Heritage. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2012). "The girl's voice in Turkish rap": Gender and vocality in the music of Ayben. [Invited keynote speech.]. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2012). Reflections on music and exile. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2012). Competition, performance interaction and society in Highland Bolivia. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2011). Performing indigeneity: Aesthetics and politics of folkloric festivals in highland Bolivia. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2011). When media fail. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2012). Self-censorship as critique: The case of Turkish rapper Sagopa Kajmer. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2010). "The girl's voice in Turkish rap": Gender, vocality and subjectivity in the life and music of Ayben. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2010). On playing badly and the limits of musical knowledge. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2008). Who are the Laz? Music and cultural Identity on the Turkish Black Sea Coast. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2017). Transculturality, Hybridity and Music: From Aesthetics to Politics and Back Again. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2011). “His Bird Doesn't Stand Up": Censoring the Female Rapping Voice in Turkey. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2017). Who are the Laz? Music and cultural identity on the Turkish Black Sea coast. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2011). "His bird doesn't stand up": Censorship of the female rapping voice in Turkey. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2011). Theorizing music and diaspora. (external link)
• Thomas James Solomon (2007). Whose diaspora? Lessons from "Turkish Rap" in Germany. (external link)
• Thomas James Solomon (2007). Diverse diasporas: Multiple identities in "Turkish Rap" in Germany. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2009). Performing indigeneity: Aesthetics and politics of folkloric festivals in highland Bolivia. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2016). The play of colors: Staging multiculturalism in Norway. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2009). The Oriental Body on the European Stage: Producing Turkish Cultural Identity on the Margins of Europe. (external link)
• Thomas James Solomon (2024). The musical aestheticization of exile: Zaza (Kurdish-Alevi) musicians between Turkey and Germany. (external link)
• Thomas James Solomon (2024). Music and the body: From Cognition to Performance presentation. (external link)

Academic article

• Thomas Solomon (2015). Self-censorship as Critique: The Case of Turkish Rapper Sagopa Kajmer. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2016). "The land of our origin": Music and history in the Norway-Azerbaijan Connection. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2012). Theory and Method in Popular Music Analysis: Text and Meaning. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2008). Music as Culture? Reflections on an Ethnomusicological Moment. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2014). Conference report: 8th International Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Music and Minorities, 19-23 July, 2014, Osaka, Japan. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2012). Conference report: Seventh Meeting of the ICTM Study Group Music and Minorities, 7–12 August 2012, Zefat, Israel. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2017). Who are the Laz? Cultural identity and the musical public sphere on the Turkish Black Sea coast. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2016). Conference report: XXXII European Seminar in Ethnomusicology. (external link)
• Thomas James Solomon (2006). Hardcore Muslims: Islamic themes in Turkish rap in diaspora and in the homeland. (external link)
• Thomas James Solomon (2004). Musikalske konstruktioner af sted og identitet i Bolivias højland. (external link)
• Thomas James Solomon (2005). "Listening to Istanbul": Imagining Place in Turkish Rap Music. (external link)
• Thomas James Solomon (2005). 'Living underground is tough': authenticity and locality in the hip-hop community in Istanbul, Turkey. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2016). The Play of Colors: Staging Multiculturalism in Norway. (external link)
• Thomas James Solomon (1994). Coplas de Todos Santos in Cochabamba: Language, music, and performance in Bolivian Quechua song dueling. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2011). "Türkçe Rapın Kız Sesi": Ayben'in Müziğinde Toplumsal Cinsiyet ve Vokal Nitelik. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2025). Music and the Body: From Cognition to Performance. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2009). Berlin-Frankfurt-Istanbul: Turkish Hip-Hop in Motion. (external link)
• Thomas James Solomon (2000). Dueling landscapes: Singing places and identities in highland Bolivia. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2013). Conference report: 29th meeting of the European Seminar in Ethnomusicology (ESEM), 4-8 September 2013. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2015). Theorizing diaspora and music. (external link)

Book anthology

• Sylvia A. Nannyonga-Tamusuza; Thomas Solomon (2012). Ethnomusicology in East Africa: Perspectives from Uganda and Beyond. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2011). Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond. Essays Commemorating Edvard Grieg the Humanist. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2015). African Musics in Context: Institutions, Culture, Identity. (external link)

Journal review

• Thomas Solomon (2014). Review of Creating Global Music in Turkey, by Koray Değirmenci. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2015). Review of Philip V. Bohlman (ed.), The Cambridge History of World Music.. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2008). Music and the Poetics of Production in The Bolivian Andes, by Henry Stobart. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2019). Review of The Oxford Handbook of Popular Music in the Nordic Countries, edited by Fabian Holt and Antti-Ville Kärjä. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2012). Review of "Opera Indigene: Re/presenting First Nations and Indigenous Cultures," edited by Pamela Karantonis and Dylan Robinson. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2015). Review of "Gentleman Troubadours and Andean Pop Stars: Huayno Music, Media Work, and Ethnic Imaginaries in Urban Peru," by Joshua Tucker. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2012). Review of "Musicological Identities: Essays in Honor of Susan McClary," edited by Baur, Knapp and Warwick. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008. 264 pp. ISBN: 9780754663027. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2012). Review of "The Republic of Love: Cultural Intimacy in Turkish Popular Music" by Martin Stokes. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2013). Review of Turkish Metal: Music, Meaning, and Morality in a Muslim Society, by Pierre Hecker. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2019). Review of War, Exile and the Music of Afghanistan: The Ethnographer's Tale, by John Baily. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2011). Review of "Sailing on the Sea of Love: The Music of the Bauls of Bengal," by Charles Capwell. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2012). Review of "Songs from the Thrice-Blooded Land: Ritual Music of the Toraja (Sulawesi, Indonesia)" by Dana Rappoport. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2012). Review of "Youth, Music and Creative Cultures: Playing for Life" by Geraldine Bloustien and Margaret Peters. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2017). Review of "The African Imagination in Music" by Kofi Agawu.. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2009). Among the Jasmine Trees: Music and Modernity in Contemporary Syria, by Jonathan Holt Shannon. (external link)

Introduction

• Thomas Solomon; Sylvia A. Nannyonga-Tamusuza (2012). Introduction. (external link)

Academic book chapter

• Thomas Solomon (2011). Whose Diaspora? Hybrid Identities in "Turkish Rap" in Germany. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2020). Dancing the Landscape: Music, Place, Collective Memory, and Identity in a Highland Bolivia Pilgrimage. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2012). Where is the Postcolonial in Ethnomusicology?. (external link)
• Thomas James Solomon (2024). Musical Competition as Community in Highland Bolivia. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2013). Ayben: "The girl's voice in Turkish rap". (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2017). 'His Bird Doesn't Stand Up': Gendered Dimensions of Music Censorship in Turkey. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2021). Made in Almanya: The Birth of Turkish Rap. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2015). Introduction. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2011). Introduction. (external link)
• Thomas James Solomon (2007). Articulating the Historical Moment: Turkey, Europe, and Eurovision 2003. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2014). Music and Race in American Cartoons: Multimedia, Subject Position, and the Racial Imagination. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2011). Hardcore Muslims: Islamic Themes in Turkish Rap between Diaspora and Homeland. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2014). Performing Indigeneity: Poetics and Politics of Music Festivals in Highland Bolivia. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2008). 'Bu Vatan Bizim' ['This Land is Ours']: Nationalist Discourse in Turkish Rap Music. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2008). Diverse Diasporas: Multiple identities in 'Turkish Rap' in Germany. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2013). The oriental body on the European stage: producing Turkish cultural identity on the margins of Europe. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2018). Azerbaijani Rap Music and Oral Poetry Between "the Folk" and "the Popular". (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2015). Theorising Diaspora, Hybridity and Music. (external link)
• Thomas Solomon (2009). "Türkçe Rapin Kız Sesi": Ayben'in Müziğinde Toplumsal Cinsiyet ve Vokal Nitelik. (external link)
• Thomas James Solomon (2006). Dueling landscapes: Singing places and identities in highland Bolivia. (external link)

Encyclopedia entry

• Thomas James Solomon (2006). Quechua. (external link)

Academic literature review

• Thomas Solomon (2018). Review of Digital tradition: arrangement and labor in Istanbul's recording studio culture, by Eliot Bates. (external link)

See a complete overview of publications in Cristin.

Books edited:

2011. Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond: Essays Commemorating Edvard Grieg the Humanist. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget. 

2012. (co-edited with Sylvia Nannyonga-Tamusuza). Ethnomusicology in East Africa: Perspectives from Uganda and Beyond. Kampala: Fountain Publishers. 

Journal articles and book chapters (reverse chronological order):

2021. "Made in Almanya: The Birth of Turkish Rap." In Made in Germany: Studies in Popular Music, ed. Oliver Seibt, Martin Ringsmut, and David-Emil Wickstršm, 111-121. New York: Routledge. 

2020. "Dancing the Landscape: Music, Place, Collective Memory, and Identity in a Highland Bolivia Pilgrimage." In Cultural Mapping and Musical Diversity, ed. Britta Sweers and Sarah M. Ross, 123-144. Sheffield: Equinox. 

2018. "Azerbaijani Rap Music and Oral Poetry Between 'the Folk' and 'the Popular.'" In Turkic Soundscapes: From Shamanic Voices to Hip-Hop, ed. Razia Sultanova and Megan Rancier, 77-99. London: Routledge. 

2017. "'His Bird Doesn't Stand Up': Gendered Dimensions of Music Censorship in Turkey." In Researching Music Censorship, ed. Annemette Kirkegaard, Helmi Järviluoma, Jan Sverre Knudsen and Jonas Otterbeck, 138-159. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 

2017. "Who Are the Laz? Cultural Identity and the Musical Public Sphere on the Turkish Black Sea Coast." The World of Music (new series) 6(2):83-113. 

2016. "'The Land of our Origin': Music and History in the Norway-Azerbaijan Connection." Yearbook for Traditional Music 48:115-135. (Link will only work from computers inside the network of an institution that subscribes to JSTOR.) 

2016. "The Play of Colors: Staging Multiculturalism in Norway." Danish Musicology Online, Special Edition - 17th Nordic Musicological Congress, pp. 187-201.

2015. "Theorizing Diaspora and Music." Urban People 17(2):201-219.

2015. "Self-censorship as Critique: The Case of Turkish Rapper Sagopa Kajmer." Danish Musicology Online, special issue "Researching Music Censorship," pp. 37-53.

2015. "Theorising Diaspora, Hybridity and Music." In African Musics in Context: Institutions, Culture, Identity, ed. Thomas Solomon, 319-360. Kampala: Fountain Publishers.

2014. "Music and Race in American Cartoons: Multimedia, Subject Position, and the Racial Imagination." In Music and Minorities from Around the World: Research, Documentation and Interdisciplinary Study, ed. Ursula Hemetek, Essica Marks and Adelaida Reyes, 142-166. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

2014. "Performing Indigeneity: Poetics and Politics of Music Festivals in Highland Bolivia." In Soundscapes from the Americas: Ethnomusicological Essays on the Power, Poetics, and Ontology of Performance, ed. Donna A. Buchanan, 143-163. Farnham: Ashgate. 

2013. "The Oriental Body on the European Stage: Producing Turkish Cultural Identity on the Margins of Europe." In Empire of Song: Europe and Nation in the Eurovision Song Contest, ed. Dafni Tragaki, 173-201. Lanham: Scarecrow Press. 

2013. "Ayben: 'The Girl's Voice in Turkish Rap.'" In Women Singers in Global Contexts: Music, Biography, and Identity, ed. Ruth Hellier, 73-91. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

2012. "Theory and Method in Popular Music Analysis: Text and Meaning." Studia Musicologica Norvegica 38:86-108. 

2012. "Where is the Postcolonial in Ethnomusicology?" In Ethnomusicology in East Africa: Perspectives from Uganda and Beyond, ed. Sylvia Nannyonga-Tamusuza and Thomas Solomon, 216-251. Kampala: Fountain Publishers. 

2011."Whose Diaspora?: Hybrid Identities in 'Turkish Rap' in Germany." In Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond: Essays Commemorating Edvard Grieg the Humanist, ed. Thomas Solomon, 253-267. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget. 

2011. "Hardcore Muslims: Islamic Themes in Turkish Rap between Diaspora and Homeland." In Muslim Rap, Halal Soaps, and Revolutionary Theater: Artistic Developments in the Muslim World, ed. Karin van Nieuwkerk, 27-54. Austin: University of Texas Press. [Revised version of 2006 article below.]

2010. "The Local and the Global in Turkish Rap Music: A View from Istanbul." Porte Akademik 1(1):242-252. 

2009. "Berlin-Frankfurt-Istanbul: Turkish Hip-Hop in Motion." European Journal of Cultural Studies 12(3):305-327. 

2008. "Music as Culture? Reflections on an Ethnomusicological Moment." Studia Musicologica Norvegica 34:68-90.

2008. "Diverse Diasporas: Multiple identities in 'Turkish Rap' in Germany." In Music from Turkey in the Diaspora, ed. Ursula Hemetek and Hande Sağlam, 77-88. Vienna: Institut für Volksmusikforschung und Ethnomusikologie.

2008. "'Bu Vatan Bizim' ['This Land is Ours']: Nationalist Discourse in Turkish Rap Music." In Freedom and Prejudice: Approaches to Media and Culture, ed. Süheyla Kırca Schroeder and LuEtt Hanson, 204-222. Istanbul: Bahçeşehir University Press.

2007. "Articulating the Historical Moment: Turkey, Europe, and Eurovision 2003." In A Song for Europe: Popular Music and Politics in the Eurovision Song Contest,ed. Ivan Raykoff and Robert Tobin, 135-145. Aldershot: Ashgate.

2006. "Hardcore Muslims: Islamic Themes in Turkish Rap in Diaspora and in the Homeland." Yearbook for Traditional Music 38:59-78.

2006. "Quechua." In The Greenwood Encyclopedia of World Folklore and Folklife. Volume 4: North and South America, ed. William M. Clements, 208-216. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

2006. "Dueling Landscapes: Singing Places and Identities in Highland Bolivia." In Ethnomusicology: A Contemporary Reader, ed. Jennifer Post, 311-327. London: Routledge. [Revised version of 2000 article below.]

2005. "'Listening to Istanbul': Imagining Place in Turkish Rap Music." Studia Musicologica Norvegica 31:46-67.

2005. "'Living Underground is Tough': Authenticity and Locality in the Hip-hop Community in Istanbul, Turkey." Popular Music 24(1):1-20. University Press.

2004. "Musikalske Konstruktioner af Sted og Identitet i Bolivias Højland" ["Musical Constructions of Place and Identity in Highland Bolivia"]. Jordens Folk 39(3):48-53.

2000. "Dueling Landscapes: Singing Places and Identities in Highland Bolivia." Ethnomusicology 44(2):257-280.

1995. "Creando Etnicidad por Medio de la Música en el Norte de Potosí." Anales de la Reunión Anual de Etnología 1993, Tomo II. La Paz, Bolivia: Museo Nacional de Etnología y Folklore, pp.47-76.

1994. "Coplas de Todos Santos in Cochabamba: Language, Music, and Performance in Bolivian Quechua Song Dueling." Journal of American Folklore 107(425):378-414.