Assistant Professor of Musicology and Ethnomusicology
James Gabrillo’s work explores culture industries, pop music, sound art, and digital multimedia. He was previously a lecturer at The New School and postdoctoral fellow at Princeton. He earned his PhD at the University of Cambridge.
His new book Pop Convergence (Oxford University Press) examines the aesthetics and networks of musical multimedia in contemporary Manila. Gabrillo’s research has been published in the Journal of Popular Music Studies, Musical Quarterly, Rock Music Studies, American Music Perspectives, Oxford Handbook of Arrangement Studies, Hip-Hop Archives: The Politics and Poetics of Knowledge Production, and International Journal of Creative Media Research.
Gabrillo teaches courses on digital musicology, multimedia ethnography, global pop, and performance cultures of the Philippines. He’s also faculty fellow at UT’s Humanities Institute Seminar on Digital Futures and Social Justice, leading the creative initiative Sound Space Art Lab. He’s also an associate at Cambridge Digital Humanities.
As former journalist and editor, he produced multimedia work for various publications including The National, Al Jazeera English, Wired, Philippine Daily Inquirer, and The Japan Times.
UGS 303
Global Pop
MUS 342
Music Journalism
MUS 342
Music of the Philippines
MUS 379K
Pop Multimedia
MUS 381J
Analytical & Ethnographic Methods
MUS 385J
Digital Musicology
Pop Convergence: Musical Multimedia in Manila, Oxford University Press, 2024.
‘Turn to Kitsch: Eat Bulaga! and the Arrangement of Musical Humor in Philippine Television,’ chapter for Oxford Handbook of Arrangement Studies, ed. Ryan Bañagale, Oxford University Press, 2024.
‘The Ballad of Grandmaster PH: Contesting Narratives and Lost Archives in Philippine Hip-Hop,’ chapter for Hip-Hop Archives: The Politics and Poetics of Knowledge Production, eds. Mark V. Campbell & Murray Forman, Intellect Books, 2023.
‘Unsensing MTV,’ International Journal of Creative Media Research, special issue on Digital Nostalgia and Creative Technology, ed. Bethany Rose Lamont, 10, 2023.
Articulating Media: Genealogy, Interface, Situation, volume co-ed. with Nathaniel Zetter, for Technographies series of Open Humanities Press, 2023.
Review of Deep Mediations: Thinking Space in Cinema and Digital Cultures (eds. Karen Redrobe & Jeff Scheible) for International Journal of Communication, 17, 2023.
‘Radyo Tanudan: Sonic Collectivities in a Philippine Village,’ chapter for Routledge Companion to Radio and Podcast Studies, eds. Mia Lindgren & Jason Loviglio, Routledge, 2022.
‘Stepping onto the Pop Dance Floor,’ American Music Perspectives, 1/2, 2021.
‘Rak en Rol: The Influence of Psychedelic Culture in Philippine Music,’ Rock Music Studies, special issue on Global Psychedelia and Counterculture, ed. Kevin Moist, 5/3, 2018.
‘The Sound and Spectacle of Philippine Presidential Elections, 1953-1998,’ Musical Quarterly, 100/3-4, 2018.
‘The Rapper Is Present: Sound Art, Liveness, and the Negotiation of Identity in Jay Z’s Picasso Baby,’ Journal of Popular Music Studies, 29/1, 2017.
Contact Information
Email address
james.
Website
jamesgabrillo.com
Campus location
MRH 3.746
Teaching Areas
Musicology & Ethnomusicology
Research Areas
Popular Music
Digital Cultures
Multimedia Technologies
Sound Studies
Education
Doctor of Philosophy
University of Cambridge
Master of Philosophy
University of Cambridge
Bachelor of Arts
University of the Philippines Diliman