Recent Music Theory grad wins award for analysis of CBS 'Survivor' theme songs
Micah Roberts' paper analysis won the 2024 Patricia Carpenter Emerging Scholar Award from MTSNYS
Recent CCM alum Micah Roberts (MM Music Theory, '24) won the 2024 Patricia Carpenter Emerging Scholar Award from the Music Theory Society of New York State (MTSNYS) for his paper analysis of the theme songs to seasons of CBS' Survivor. The award comes with a cash prize and promise of publication in the Society’s journal, Theory and Practice.
Micah Roberts. Photo provided by MTSNYS.
Titled "Ancient Voices”: A Hypermetrical and Orchestrational Analysis of the Theme Songs to Seasons of CBS’s Survivor, Roberts' paper explores the reality TV show's attempt at authentically replicating the diverse musical traditions of the regions featured in the first 26 seasons:
"In the worst case, some later themes merely imitate a stereotypical 'island' sound, having no connection to the musical styles of the filming area at all. This homogenization, whether intentional or not, based on where each season is filmed, questions the entire 'authenticity' of the music being presented. The American viewership will likely assume the music heard is an authentic cultural representation, so a discrepancy here is particularly harmful. This issue with Survivor’s music also reflects broader issues in media representation, where complex cultural identities are often distilled into simplistic, familiar tropes."
Roberts presented his paper during CCM Music Theory and Musicology Society's Graduate Student Research Conference, held on March 1-2, 2024. Read the full abstract listed in the 2024 conference schedule. Roberts served as the secretary on the Executive Board of MTMS at CCM.
The Music Theory Society of New York State both supports and encourages pre-professionals in their pursuit of a career in music theory with an Emerging Scholar Award for the best student paper at the Annual Meeting. The award, which was renamed the Patricia Carpenter Emerging Scholar Award in 2004, carries a cash prize and promise of publication in the Society’s journal, Theory and Practice. Both the oral and written version of the paper are taken into consideration. Members of the 2024 Patricia Carpenter Emerging Scholar Award committee included Alex Reed, (chair, Ithaca College); Kofi Agawu (CUNY Graduate Center); Tomoko Deguchi (Winthrop University); Kristi Hardman (UNCC); Kyle Hutchinson (Colgate University), Philip Stoecker (ex officio, Hofstra University).
Previous winners of the award are listed on the MTSNYS website: https://mtsnys.org/patricia-carpenter-emerging-scholar-award/.
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