The 80s and 90s saw the study of ethnomusicology shift from its traditional field towards more contemporary forms of music like rap, rock, salsa, afro-pop, and Hindustani classical music.

Music and its creation come with a larger context of culture, ethnicity, heritage, lifestyles and habits of humans in the particular era. This study is known as Ethnomusicology, a term coined by musicologist Jaap Kunst.

The first musical ethnography was published by the early comparative musicologist Carl Stumpf, which documented the origins and the evolution of the art.