Biography
Erik Broess (he/him) is a scholar of popular music, specializing in rock, metal, and jazz from the perspectives of music technology studies and sound studies. He earned his Ph.D. in Music History from the University of Pennsylvania, where his thesis, “Unobtainable: Electric Guitar Gear & The Mythology of Tone,” explored the cultural significance of tone for electric guitarists. Currently, he is engaged in a wide-ranging book project that situates analog electric guitar gear within the global electronics industry since the 1950s. This ambitious project explores the underlying ideologies that shape guitarists’ discourse on sound, examining various instruments, building materials, and manufacturing practices that contribute to the elusive concept of “good tone.”
His scholarly contributions include research on Fender’s “Tweed” era (1948-1960), published in the Journal of the Society for American Music, and a chapter on guitar pedals and tone in the forthcoming Cambridge Companion to the Electric Guitar. In 2021, he earned the “Lise Waxer Student Paper Prize” from the Society for Ethnomusicology’s Popular Music Section and was recognized as a runner-up for the “Wong Tolbert Prize” by the Society for Ethnomusicology’s Section on the Status of Women.
Beyond his research achievements, Dr. Broess is a highly regarded educator, having received numerous teaching honors, including Tufts University’s “Marshall Hochhauser Prize” and the University of Pennsylvania’s “Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Graduate Student.” He served as an inaugural fellow for “Equitable and Inclusive Teaching” at the University of Pennsylvania, during which he developed seminars aimed at fostering equity and inclusion in higher education. He brings to the Shepherd School of Music courses on popular music, world music, and music technology.