Welcome to the final issue of Ethnomusicology Forum for 2018! This special issue, ‘Ethnomusicologies of Radio’ started life as a British Forum for Ethnomusicology one-day conference, Radio and Ethnomusicology: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, held in Edinburgh in October 2016. Developing ideas presented at this conference, the authors in this volume seek to open up new paradigms for engaging the close relationship between the discipline of ethnomusicology and radio ‘Ethnomusicology is radiophonic, and radio is ethnomusicological’, posits Tom Western in his introduction; the five articles that follow explore radio as an ethnographic site, and as a catalyst for shaping music cultures and their reception. The editorial team would like to thank guest editors Tom Wagner, Tom Western, and Annette Davison for their hard work in bringing this project to fruition.
January 2019 will once again mark changes in the Ethnomusicology Forum editorial team: Abigail Wood steps down after a three-year stint as co-editor at the end of 2018, and we welcome Henry Stobart on board as the new co-editor, together with continuing co-editor Shzr Ee Tan. We would like to thank Abigail for her unstinting dedication and eagle eye in her co-editorship of the publication over the past few years. Henry’s relationship with the journal dates back almost to its inception: his first journal article was published in 1994 in the third issue of the British Journal of Ethnomusicology (later renamed Ethnomusicology Forum). He writes:
The progressive and interdisciplinary approach of the journal is inspiring, and a tradition to which I look forward to contributing. The “ethnomusicology” in its title (despite, or maybe because of, all the problems surrounding this term) continues to challenge us and make this an ongoing project. This is an area of scholarship in which we cannot possibly sit back smugly and feel we have constructed a safe and secure disciplinary citadel, or have the possibility of some kind of analytical closure. Looked at another way, maybe we are just engaging with what goes on in the broader world around us, and inevitably this will continue to keep us on our toes.
Four reviews follow the special issue introduction and articles. The first three books reviewed in this issue share a focus on contemporary popular music. Simone Krüger Bridge’s monograph, Trajectories and Themes in World Popular Music: Globalization, Capitalism, Identity, is reviewed by Mike Alleyne who provides a thorough evaluation, noting a few generalisations and omissions but also praising the book as a valuable critique of popular music’s globalisation. Following this, Lee Brooks, Mark Donnelly and Richard Mills’ edited volume, Mad Dogs and Englishness: Popular Music and English Identities is reviewed by Nick Baxter-Moore, who questions the relevance of some of the chapters to the volume’s theme, but describes the book overall as a well-crafted contribution to the understanding of ‘Englishness’. Completing this trio of reviews, Noel Lobley finds much to admire in Gavin Steingo’s Kwaito's Promise: Music and the Aesthetics of Freedom in South Africa. Finally in this issue, Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco and Susana Moreno Fernández’s Music in Portugal and Spain: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture is reviewed by Matthew Machin-Autenrieth, who highlights the challenges posed in crafting an introductory book on a broad topic.