Berger Critical Review #2

Berger's perspective and tone start off unsettling, in what feels almost like a grad school personal statement, name dropping all of his professors and mentors and describing his personal journey through ethnomusicology. At least he is admitting that this is his path and his line of thought and stumbling blocks, and not trying to generalize it to all ethnomusicologists, and it eventually settles down to a place where serious ideas can be brought up.

He makes good points about ethnomusicologists exoticizing their subjects, and arrives at a good conclusion that ethnomusicology studies experience, which is not always accurate/consistent, but still is a separate entity from imagination. He is well aware of many of the slippery slopes of ethnomusicology, and how to maintain a balance between extremes.