AustLit

'The day I was finalising this edition of Australian Aboriginal Studies a book about Aboriginal music landed on my desk. Our Place, Our Music (edited by M . Breen, Aboriginal Studies Press 1989) arrived too late to be reviewed here, but no doubt it will receive the attention it deserves in a subsequent edition. Its significance in the context of some of the pages that follow here is that it is a further addition to an area of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies which seems to be under-represented. It had been my intention in editing a volume that had music as a theme to elicit some substantial contributions discussing the new music that Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders are producing today. I was not particularly successful. This is not to denigrate those excellent studies of so called 'traditional' music, of which the first two papers are good examples. However, there is an apparent lack of material available on electronic music (for example) and other popular contemporary genres. Despite requests fired in various directions, I was unable to secure papers on any of these topics. Perhaps those who contemplate research in the arts field generally will be inspired to fill this gap. Having listened on many occasions to the thump and rhythm of electric soul across the tropic twilight of a number of Arnhem Land communities, I wonder how anyone interested in music and modern social movements could resist this as a research topic.' (Editorial introduction)