About

Shannon Dudley is a Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Washington's School of Music. Her research focuses on ethnomusicology, with particular interest in world music and ethnomusicological studies. Dudley's work involves exploring diverse musical traditions and their cultural contexts, contributing to the understanding of global musical practices. Her academic background and key contributions include engaging with ethnomusicological research and promoting the study of world music within the academic community.

Research topics

• Art
• Aesthetics
• History
• Art history

Selected publications

• Frankie McIntosh and the Art of the Soca Arranger, by Frankie McIntosh & Ray Allen

  New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids · 2026-04-14

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Rhythm and Blues Goes Calypso, by Timothy Dodge

  New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids · 2021

  1st authorCorresponding
  • History
  • Art history
  • Art
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• What She Go Do: Women in Afro-Trinidadian Music, by Hope Munro

  New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids · 2018-05-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Musical ambition and community-building in Trinidad and Tobago’s steel orchestras

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2018-01-18

  book1st authorCorresponding

  The steelband emerged in Trinidad in the 1940s as a musical expression of disadvantaged urban youths who made ingenious use of discarded metal containers to accompany carnival dancing and singing. Within a few short years, however, steelpans moved from the social margins to a privileged placed in Trinidad and Tobago’s national culture, and from road to stage. Today, the government of Trinidad and Tobago funds a professional National Steel Symphony Orchestra, and steelpans are also incorporated into Trinidad and Tobago’s National Sinfonia. In this chapter, I reflect on this transformation through the lens of ethnographic research, published scholarship, and my own experience playing in both steelbands and symphony orchestras. I examine some ways in which steelbands have adopted, and adapted, the model of the symphony orchestra, and consider the implications of these changes for community building, focusing especially on the repertoire and procedures of the annual Panorama steelband competition.

  PublisherDOI

• A University Commitment to Collaborations with Local Musical Communities

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2018-02-05 · 1 citations

  bookSenior author

  Working from the premise that the study of music in a hermetic academic environment is no longer a viable model, and that university music programmes must connect to the vibrant musical communities in the very neighbourhoods that surround them, we examine how the presence of a community music ‘weave’ within university programmes of music benefits students, faculty, and community members in myriad ways. We offer examples of university–community partnerships initiated by the ethnomusicology and music education programmes at the University of Washington that prepare music students for the diverse and complex society into which they will graduate. The Visiting Artists in Ethnomusicology programme will be highlighted for the extent to which world-renowned and locally residing artist-musicians have been invited to the faculty for extended periods to perform, teach, and interact with students on instruments, vocally, and in dance forms associated with traditional musical practices. The intent of the chapter is to underscore the critical need for university–community exchanges, to suggest some ways that such exchanges can be accommodated within university programmes of music, and to affirm the benefits that flow from connecting the dots of musicians and aspiring musicians in the workaday world beyond the fortress of the university.

  PublisherDOI

• American Sabor

  University of Washington Press eBooks · 2017-12-31 · 1 citations

  book

  Evoking the pleasures of music as well as food, the word sabor signifies a rich essence that makes our mouths water or makes our bodies want to move. American Sabor traces the substantial musical contributions of Latinas and Latinos in American popular music between World War II and the present in five vibrant centers of Latin@ musical production: New York, Los Angeles, San Antonio, San Francisco, and Miami. From Tito Puente’s mambo dance rhythms to the Spanglish rap of Mellow Man Ace, American Sabor focuses on musical styles that have developed largely in the United States—including jazz, rhythm and blues, rock, punk, hip hop, country, Tejano, and salsa—but also shows the many ways in which Latin@ musicians and styles connect US culture to the culture of the broader Americas. With side-by-side Spanish and English text, authors Marisol Berríos-Miranda, Shannon Dudley, and Michelle Habell-Pallán challenge the white and black racial framework that structures most narratives of popular music in the United States. They present the regional histories of Latin@ communities—including Chicanos, Tejanos, and Puerto Ricans—in distinctive detail, and highlight the shared experiences of immigration/migration, racial boundary crossing, contesting gender roles, youth innovation, and articulating an American experience through music. In celebrating the musical contributions of Latinos and Latinas, American Sabor illuminates a cultural legacy that enriches us all.

  PublisherDOI

• UW Percussion Ensemble and UW Steelband May 23, 2017

  ResearchWorks at the University of Washington (University of Washington) · 2017-05-23

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Concert Program

  Publisher

• EL GRAN COMBO, CORTLJO, AND THE MUSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF CANGREJOS/SANTURCE,

  2016-01-01

  articleSenior author

  Drawing on oral histories, examples, newspapers accounts, and scholarship, this article draws connections between El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico's transnational audiences, and the transnational history of Cangrejos, which is known today as Santurce. El Gran Combo's parent band, Cortijo y su Combo (which drew most of its members from the Santurce neighborhood of la Parada 21) helped forge diasporic connec tions between diverse black communities in the Caribbean and Latin America in the 1950s. El Gran Combo has continued and expanded that legacy over almost five decades, through a strong community ethic. We argue that the transnational reach of these musicians is due in part to: 1) centuries of immigration from other islands that created a hybrid and inclusive culture in Cangrejos; and 2) 20th century economic developments that positioned Santurce at the crossroads of international entertainment, media, and labor migration. These flows of people and music constitute a musical geography that connects local neighborhoods and musicians in Santurce to transnational net works, and that locates Puerto Rico in Latin America as much as in the United States. In the last section we analyze how Santurce's trans national culture contributed to the international reach of salsa music in the 1960s and 70s, and make some concluding observations about music's role in building community across national boundaries.

  Publisher

• Roy Cape: A Life on the Calypso and Soca Bandstand, written by Jocelyne Guilbault & Roy Cape

  New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids · 2016-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This book is interesting on several levels.It is an exercise in collaborative writing, a document of an artist's career, and an analysis of the relationships and work that shape that career.As joint authors,

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Funky Nassau: Roots, Routes, and Representation in Bahamian Popular Music

  Ethnomusicology · 2016-09-28

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Book Review| October 01 2016 Funky Nassau: Roots, Routes, and Representation in Bahamian Popular Music Funky Nassau: Roots, Routes, and Representation in Bahamian Popular Music. Timothy Rommen. 2011. Berkeley: University of California Press and Chicago: Center for Black Music Research. xviii, 310 pp., figures, tables, musical examples, bibliography, index. Paper, $34.95. Shannon Dudley Shannon Dudley University of Washington Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Ethnomusicology (2016) 60 (3): 508–510. https://doi.org/10.5406/ethnomusicology.60.3.0508 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Shannon Dudley; Funky Nassau: Roots, Routes, and Representation in Bahamian Popular Music. Ethnomusicology 1 October 2016; 60 (3): 508–510. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/ethnomusicology.60.3.0508 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveUniversity of Illinois PressEthnomusicology Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 2016 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois2016 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Larry Starr

  18 shared

• Tom Collier

  17 shared

• Robin McCabe

  Duke University

  16 shared

• Michael Spitzer

  University of Liverpool

  16 shared

• Jacqueline Hatten

  University of British Columbia

  16 shared

• Aine Heneghan

  University of Cambridge

  16 shared

• Berkeley Acquaintances

  Duke University

  16 shared

• Judy Tsou

  University of British Columbia

  16 shared

Labs

• EthnomusicologyPI

Education

• Ph.D.

  University of California at Berkeley

Awards & honors

• American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music (2018), ARSC's…