Robert Walser (musicologist)

For the Swiss author, see Robert Walser (writer).

Robert Walser is an American musicologist associated with the "new musicology". He is author of the book Running With the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music, concerning heavy metal music. Walser currently is a member of the faculty and director of the Center for Popular Music Studies at Case Western Reserve University.

Walser has also served as an expert witness for over 250 music copyright infringement cases, generally reserved to the Ninth Circuit. His big success came from a broad statement of support from Circuit Judge William C. Canby, Jr., who fully supported Dr. Walser's methodology, despite the less-than-appropriate credibility that Dr. Walser received via District Judge Christina A. Snyder {see Swirsky v. Carey, 226 F. Supp. 2d 1224 (C.D. Cal. 2002).

Walser is married to musicologist Susan McClary.

Publications

• Running With the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music (1993, ISBN 0-8195-6260-2).
• (ed.) Keeping Time. Readings in Jazz History (OUP, 1999) ².

External links

• Walser's Bio, from the CWRU Department of Music
• Robert Walser: "Review Essay: Polka Happiness, by Charles Keil, Angeliki Keil, and Dick Blau, and A Passion for Polka: Old-Time Ethnic Music in America, by Victor Greene," American Music 12:3 (Fall 1994), pp. 322–27.