Jada Watson’s research explores the potential of using discographic and biographic metadata to learn more about how popular music genres form, develop, and evolve throughout history. The principal investigator of the SongData project (www.SongData.ca), she is developing approaches for using information about songs and artists to explore the connections between musicians and the broader socio-cultural and institutional frameworks that govern genres.

The database and dataset in development for this project will serve as the foundation of a long-term research program that seeks to use computational techniques to frame musicological inquiries about country music’s geo-cultural history, as well as issues regarding gender representation and changes in musical style.