Postmodernism and Globalization in Ethnomusicology: An Epistemological Problem

This work challenges the sovereignty of the emic perspective in ethnomusicology. What about the ability to enjoy music of a culture unfamiliar to us? How can this be explained if music and its meaning is only considered from an etic perspective? The author turns to a Derridean conception of art as capable of producing infinite meaning. A theory is outlined which distinguishes between the meanings of a music and some deeper culture-insensitive element that interacts with context to produce the effect cultural relativists and postmodern ethnomusicologist cannot adequately explicate through their notion of an insider-outsider dichotomy.