









































Call for Chapters for an Edited Volume  
Published by a US- Based Academic Press (TBD):

Transatlantic Songs and Music

Benjamin Hebblethwaite, University of Florida, hebble@ufl . edu 
Silke Jansen, Friedrich- Alexander- Universität Erlangen- 

Nuremburg, silke . jansen@fau . de  
Kevin Meehan, University of Central Florida,  

kevin . meehan@ucf . edu

This call for chapters invites researchers to prepare submissions for our 
edited book about transatlantic and Atlantic-i ntersecting songs and music. 
These pivotal forms of transoceanic cultural expression, preservation, 
exchange, and innovation reveal creative, inventive, linguistic, historical, 
religious, social, ludic, and emotional aspects of experience. We welcome 
contributions about transatlantic and Atlantic-i ntersecting songs and music 
from authors working in musicology, linguistics, cultural studies, literary 
criticism, ethnology, historiography, religious studies, philosophy, anthropol-
ogy, and sociology, among other disciplines. The following list illustrates 
some of the genres and topics about which we encourage submissions:

• Atlantic sacred music traditions • Rap & Hip- Hop
• Blues, Soul, Swing, Jive, Funk,

and R&B
• Rock, Punk, Thrash, Death,

Technical, Progressive, and Black
Metal

• Classical, Opera, Cabaret, Art
Music

• Latin, Salsa, Cumbia, Bachata,
Merengue, Tango, Mariachi,
Rumba, and Corrido

• Electronic Music, House,
Techno, Trance, Dubstep, Drum
& Bass

• Zamrock, Soukous, Highlife,
Mbaqanga, Chimurenga, Benga,
Ndombolo

• Folk & Country • Traditional songs and Folk Music
• Jazz, Swing, Bebop, Big Band • Psychedelic Music

Delos Vol. 38, No. 2, pp. ix–xiv. Copyright © 2023 University of Florida Press. 



x    Call for Chapters

• Konpa, Twoubadou, Soca, and 
Zouk

• Mento, Calypso, Reggae, Dancehall, 
and Reggaetón

• Pop & Country music • Atlantic-­Pacific­songs­and­music
• Atlantic- Asian songs and music • All Atlantic music, instruments, 

artists
• Mediums of recording and 

distribution, social and live 
spaces

• Instrument building and design; 
Inventions: whammy bar, 
distortion, etc.

We seek chapters that investigate and develop granular as well as macro-
scopic analyses on transatlantic and Atlantic- intersecting songs and music, 
and we welcome diverse methodological approaches. We are interested in 
gathering high- quality studies focused on the past or present that advance our 
understanding of the interconnections, trajectories, and patterns of transatlan-
tic songs and music. Our collection will explore how songs, music, language, 
culture, styles, genres, and instruments were shaped over layers of Atlantic 
time and space, including consideration of sources, manner of creation, medi-
ums of recording and distribution, itineraries across oceans, reception in 
social and live spaces, and the retention and reshaping of ideas and practices 
in new nations and communities (Kummels et al. 2014). Contributions that 
examine the complex interplay between different musical traditions within or 
intersecting with historical and contemporary Atlantic spaces are welcome.

Our volume breaks new ground by welcoming submissions on songs and 
music from all Atlantic regions, ethnicities, groups, and languages— as well 
as those that intersect with them— to gather traditions under a single tent and 
to reveal developments that transcend ethnic groups, languages, regions, and 
musical styles. While narrow or ethnic- centered work characterizes much 
publishing on transatlantic history and culture, such as Budasz (2019), Kubik 
(2017a, 2017b), Oja (2000), or Wynn (2007), our volume is untethered from 
any one part or population of the Atlantic. Instead of restricting our project to 
a closed set, we invite work that examines any transatlantic-  or Atlantic- 
intersecting musical phenomenon with the goal of collecting diverse and rep-
resentative studies on a hemispheric and global scale, thereby revealing the 
role of songs and music in forging various transatlantic cultural, linguistic, 
and historical connections under the dramatically different social conditions 
that still mark this region.

An abstract of 500 words­should­first­be­submitted­to­hebble@ufl­.­edu and 
cc’d to silke . jansen@fau . de and kevin . meehan@ucf . edu before August 15, 
2024. After the abstract is peer- reviewed and accepted, authors will write 



Call for Chapters    xi

book chapters of no more than 5,000 total words (including bibliography) 
before August 15, 2025.

Studies are welcomed on songs and music, including artists, the language 
and linguistics of songs (e.g., lyrics, the vocabulary of songs, linguistic varia-
tion, language choice, etymology), music theory, musical instruments 
(including innovations and design), the (sub)cultures around music, music 
studios, distribution, music and technology, ethnomusicology, sociology of 
music, the history of songs and music, the themes of songs, artistic and genre 
genealogies, music marketing, transatlantic recording and producing prac-
tices, evolution of styles, genre theory, as well as work on ideologies, esthet-
ics, methodologies, social and live venues, touring circuits, and imagination 
and imagery in music genres and marketing practices.

ATLANTIC SONGS AND MUSIC INTERSECTING  
IN THE ATLANTIC:

• Influences­to­and­from­North­America,­the­Caribbean,­Latin­Amer-
ica, Europe, and Africa

• Atlantic folklore, mythology, and stories in songs
• Types and regionalization of Caribbean genres (i.e., reggae, calypso, 

salsa, etc.)
• The transatlantic spread of religious ideas through songs (Rastafari, 

Christianity, Norse Paganism, Vodou, etc.)
• The calypsonian Atlantic
• Cuban­influences­in­Africa­or­African­influences­in­Cuba
• The Cumbia Atlantic of Colombia’s coast
• The Salsa Atlantic
• Eco- consciousness in transatlantic songs and music
• The Kongo Soukous Atlantic
• The British Rock Invasion of the Americas
• Materiality of music: Instrument history, building, design, innova-

tions,­and­influences
• Materiality of music: Mediums of recording, marketing, and 

distribution
• Materiality of music: Tours, social, and live spaces in Atlantic songs 

and music
• Women’s, men’s, and gender studies approaches to transatlantic 

songs and music



xii    Call for Chapters

• Haitian konpa in the circum- Caribbean, internationally, and in the 
Haitian diaspora

• Sacred songs and music across the Atlantic
• The Jazz Atlantic: Accra, Berlin, Cape New York City, Stockholm, 

Buenos Aires, etc.
• The English Atlantic: the English- language lingua franca in Euro-

pean pop and rock lyrics
• Foreign word borrowings and code- switching in Atlantic traditions
• North­ African­ Arabic­ and­ Berber­ lexical­ influences­ in­ European­

hip- hop
• Spanish­and­Portuguese­influences­in­the­Americas­or­Africa
• Transatlantic reggae: Ethiopia and Italy in Rastafari lyrics and 

ideology
• European folk songs and music across the Atlantic
• Transatlantic folk and country music
• Qualitative and quantitative studies on songs and music
• Promoters, fanzines, and music clubs in the fostering of transatlantic 

cultural connections
• Theodor Adorno’s Atlantic
• Lineages, patterns, structure, and transmission of sacred or secular 

Atlantic drum rhythms
• Lexical or grammatical evidence of transatlantic history in songs 

and music
• The creole language continuum (basilect- mesolect- acrolect) and 

songs
• Expressions of linguistic prestige, covert prestige, and insecurity in 

songs and music
• The continuum of imperial languages and creole languages in Carib-

bean songs
• African­influences­in­the­Atlantic­and­globally
• Transatlantic­influences­in­classical,­opera,­and­orchestral­music
• Transoceanic death metal: the US, Brazil, Europe, Africa, Japan, 

and Korea

In addition to the interconnecting Atlantic cultures, we also encourage 
studies that consider the connections to Atlantic cultures on a global level. 
In­this­context,­we­want­to­know­how­Atlantic­and­global­cultures­influence­
one another. Examples of our interests include, but are not limited to these 
items:



Call for Chapters    xiii

ATLANTIC SONGS AND  
MUSIC INTERSECTING GLOBALLY:

• Atlantic­influences­in­Korean,­Japanese,­or­Chinese­songs
• The reception of jazz, rock, ska, and reggae in Asia
• Bengali- Scottish connections in the songs of Tagore- Bur
• Asian uses of Atlantic music
• Cambodian pop and US psychedelic rock
• Asia-­Pacific­diasporas­and­Atlantic­music

References

Adorno, Theodor. Essays on Music. Edited by Richard Leppert. Translated by Susan Gil-
lespie. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002.

Anderson, Crystal S. Soul in Seoul: African American Popular Music and K- pop. Jack-
son: University Press of Mississippi, 2020.

Budasz, Rogério. Opera in the Tropics: Music and Theater in Early Modern Brazil. New 
York: Oxford University Press, 2019.

Gasta, Chad Michael. Transatlantic Arias: Early Opera in Spain and the New World. 
Erlangen: Iberoamericana Vervuert., N.D., 2013.

Gilroy, Paul. The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. Cambridge, 
MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.

Guilbaut, Serge, and Manuel J. Borja- Villel. Be- Bomb: The Transatlantic War of Images and 
All That Jazz, 1946- 1956. Barcelona: Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 2007.

Hebblethwaite, Benjamin, and Silke Jansen, eds. Indigenous and African Diaspora Reli-
gions in the Americas. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2023.

Hebblethwaite, Benjamin. A Transatlantic History of Haitian Vodou: Rasin Figuier, 
Rasin Bwa Kayiman, and the Rada and Gede Rites. Jackson: University Press of Mis-
sissippi, 2021.

Jansen, Silke. “Los sonidos del merengue: variación lingüística e identidad en la música 
nacional dominicana.” Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana (RILI) 
15, no. 2 (2017): 145– 160.

Jansen, Silke, and Katrin Pfadenhauer. “La tumba francesa à Cuba: quelques lumières 
sur les caractéristiques linguistique du créole de Saint- Domingue à l’époque de la 
Révolution”. Archipélies (accepted, forthcoming).

Jansen, Silke. “Le répertoire linguistique de la tumba francesa entre Saint- Domingue, 
Cuba et Haïti”. Submitted to Études Créoles.

Jones, John Miller, Wilfried. Raussert, and Wilfried. Raussert. Traveling Sounds: Music, 
Migration, and Identity in the U.S. and Beyond. Berlin: Lit, 2008.

Kubik, Gerhard. Jazz Transatlantic, volume I. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 
2017a.

Kubik, Gerhard. Jazz Transatlantic, volume II. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 
2017b.

Kummels, Ingrid, Claudia Rauhut, Stefan H. Rinke, and Birte Timm. Transatlantic 
Caribbean: Dialogues of People, Practices, Ideas. Edited by Ingrid Kummels, Clau-
dia Rauhut, Stefan H. Rinke, and Birte Timm. Bielefeld, Germany, 2014.



xiv    Call for Chapters

Kristiansen, Jon. Metalion: The Slayer Mag Diaries. New York: Bazilion Points, 2011.
Meehan, Kevin. People Get Ready: African American and Caribbean Cultural Exchange. 

Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2009.
Ogundiran, Akinwumi. “Spiritual Vibrations of Historic Kormantse and the Search for 

African Diaspora Identity and Freedom.” In Materialities of Ritual in the Black Atlantic, 
edited by Akinwumi Ogundiran and Paula Saunders, 87– 107. Bloomington: Indiana 
University Press, 2014.

Oja, Carol J. Making Music Modern: New York in the 1920s. New York: Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 2000.

Rubio Gómez, Salva. Metal Extremo: 30 años de oscuridad (1981- 2011). Lleida, Spain: 
Editorial Mileno.

Sánchez, M.. Thrash metal: del sonido al contenido: Origen y gestación de una contra-
cultura chilena. Santiago: Ril editores, 2014.

Sierra i Fabra, Jordi, and Xavier Bartomeus. Historia del Rock: La música que cambió el 
mundo. Madrid: Siruela, 2016.

Wynn, Neil A. Cross the Water Blues: African American Music in Europe. Jackson: Uni-
versity Press of Mississippi, 2007.


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