Eric Drott

Eric Drott is a Professor of Music Theory at the University of Texas at Austin’s College of Fine Arts, where he holds a joint appointment in the Department of Music Theory. Previously, he earned his PhD at Yale University (2001) and taught there before joining UT Austin. His research spans contemporary music cultures, streaming platforms, protest music, genre theory, digital music, and political economy. His award-winning work includes the book Music and the Elusive Revolution (2011), exploring post-1968 French music communities, and an upcoming book Streaming Music, Streaming Capital analyzing streaming platforms' economies. He co-edited the Oxford Handbook of Protest Music with Noriko Manabe.

His research has been published in top journals such as the Journal of the American Musicological Society and Cultural Politics, addressing topics like AI music ethics, music surveillance, and fake-stream fraud. He has received prestigious awards including the National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship and the Royal Musical Association’s Dent Medal (2020).

Teaching focuses on 20th-century analysis, current music theory trends, and the intersection of music and social movements. His courses include MUS 321J: 20th-Century Musical Analysis and UGS 303: Music, Protest, and Social Movements.