Still an Ethnomusicologist (for Now)

This response defends ethnomusicology against Amico’s call for its end, even as the “ethno-” prefix has already become optional in certain contexts. Addressing Amico’s critiques of gender, repertoire, method, and colonialism, the response argues that ethnomusicologists are thinking creatively about the same set of issues raised by Amico and rejects the claim that abandoning ethnomusicology would repair the inequities of music scholarship and music departments. Rather than welcoming the end of ethnomusicology, the response looks toward a future in which music departments collectively embrace a decolonizing mission and discard the West/non-West binary.