Ricerc@Sapienza

This research moves from the experience of Music Making History Research Unit, of Sapienza University of Rome in occasion of the upcoming Affiliation with the GRAMMY Museum (June 2017). It focuses on two separate perspectives. One anchored to the current debate among historians about music and international relations. Starting from the political context of the Cold War - with the Eisenhower's People to People programme - blues, jazz, soul and rock and roll became strategic instrument of US public diplomacy. African-American music was used by the US Department of State like a sort of "sonic weapon" to combat the perception of the United States as a racist society, as well as an "influential unofficial ambassador" of "peace, stability and goodwill". Recent research emphasizes how, paradoxically, the military use of the sound like a cultural weapon, let African-American music outside US to overcome filters and censorship of the local political and cultural institutions (governments, political parties, record industries).
The second perspective is interdisciplinary and focuses on the Grammy Museum as a non-profit organization created in Los Angeles USA, in 2008 and recently expanding with cultural program inside and outside the United States: starting from the upcoming Affiliation with Sapienza University of Rome. In fact, the GRAMMY Museum's Mission is to highlight the United States music's rich cultural and record production history, as well as to explore the enduring legacies of the history of the GRAMMY Awards. Trough an interdisciplinary approach this research aims, on this point of view, to investigate the GRAMMY Museum like an innovative Museum with a significant role for the preserving of the cultural heritage of sound history in the XX century. Moreover, under the Obama White House Administration, the GRAMMY Museum - co-producing education programs with the White House - played an institutional role like an American "sound ambassador" inside and outside US.