Date of Submission
Spring 2023
Academic Program
Music; Sociology
Project Advisor 1
Karen Barkey
Project Advisor 2
Christopher Gibbs
Abstract/Artist's Statement
This paper is an ethnographic and interview-based study of popular music museums in the United States. I observed that curatorial practices in pop music museums aligned with two major goals -- education and entertainment. These curatorial practices worked within the goals of the social field of museums as well as responded to the legacy of cultural hierarchy. I ultimately find that popular music museums are sites for legitimizing Americans' memories of and taste for popular music, rather than merely sites of music history education or entertainment.
Open Access Agreement
Open Access
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Zinn, Olivia Paige, ""I Want to Take You Higher": Popular Music Museums as Social Fields for Legitimizing Popular Music Memories" (2023). Senior Projects Spring 2023. 133.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2023/133
This work is protected by a Creative Commons license. Any use not permitted under that license is prohibited.
Included in
American Popular Culture Commons, Ethnomusicology Commons, Museum Studies Commons, Sociology of Culture Commons