M.A. Student Bryan Terry, was just awarded the Schulich Scholarship to the McGill Schulich School of Music to pursue his PhD. Here is what he had to say about his research plan for his fellowship at the McGill Schulich School of Music:
“My MA thesis centers on American singer-songwriter Isaac Hayes’ second album, Hot Buttered Soul. The album is widely considered a groundbreaking work that opened many artistic avenues for African American popular music artists in the late 1960s and 1970s. Despite this, the album’s artistic complexity and pioneering nature have generally been overlooked in popular music scholarship. Working with Dr. Spicer as my adviser (with contributions by Dr. Ewell also), my thesis research has focused on analyzing Hot Buttered Soul through historical, musical, and cultural lenses and arguing for its place alongside other pioneering concept albums of that era.
Research such as this, which focuses on issues at the intersection of musical genre, culture, and societal change, is of great interest to me and I hope to continue looking into these areas of popular music history in my PhD studies. While I plan to further the ideas that I have explored during my time at Hunter, one of my favorite aspects of musicological research is coming across new information that may lead down an unanticipated path of discovery. In fact, my current work comes in large part from inspired moments of conversation with Hunter faculty and classmates, and I look forward to taking that spirit with me as I pursue by PhD at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music.”
