Archival Research Methods and Music Industry Pedagogy

Abstract

In this article, I discuss the value of archival research and primary document sources to pedagogy in music industry education. I describe the archival methods I have employed in a research project documenting contemporaneous discourse about the corporate consolidation of Christian record labels within (secular) major record labels in the early 1990s. What challenges face music industry scholars conducting archival research? What is the importance of historical documents to music industry educators today? I suggest that historical case studies, including those substantiated by archival research and primary documents, can be used to model and teach strategic decision making to music industry students.