Shonekan

By Sala Levin ’10 

Feb 15, 2023

Which version was better: the original “Nothing Compares 2 U” by Prince, or the cover by Sinéad O’Connor, who turned his funky number into a haunting breakup lament? How about “I Will Always Love You”? Was it more successful as Dolly Parton’s plaintive tune or as Whitney Houston’s power ballad?

For pop music diehards, bickering over the merits of cover songs and their original versions is as much fun as debating whether the art on the “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album is meant to tell listeners that Paul is dead. Stephanie Shonekan, an ethnomusicologist and new dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, has turned these amiable arguments into fodder for her podcast, “Cover Story.”

Shonekan’s podcasting career began in 2015, when she was chair of Black studies at the University of Missouri-Columbia. It was a tense time on campus, as students protested racism at the university, ultimately leading to the resignations of the chancellor and the system president. She decided to launch a show called “#Black,” where members of the campus community could come together weekly to talk about the struggles Black people faced at the university and around the country.

In 2020, Shonekan returned to Mizzou after a few years at the University of Massachusetts. KBIA, the local NPR affiliate that had produced “#Black,” asked her to come back. “I definitely wanted to continue podcasting, but I wanted something a little more joyful, a little bit more uplifting, a little bit more reflective of all the ways Black people live, not just at the brunt of white supremacy,” she said.

So she turned to her work in ethnomusicology. The daughter of a Trinidadian mother and a Nigerian father, Shonekan had grown up with the sounds of calypso music and West African highlife, full of jazzy horns and guitar plucking. She learned that she could tell “who people are by the music that they create, the music that they disseminate, the music that they consume, the stories that are told in that music,” she said.

In each episode, Shonekan and a guest—music fans from different walks of life—discuss two versions of a song, analyzing their differences and merits. In all cases, either the song’s initial artist or the cover artist (or both) are people of color.

In the show’s first season, which debuted last spring, Shonekan and her guests mulled over “Yesterday,” “Piece of My Heart” and “Before I Let Go.” They take up songs like “Respect” and “Ghost of Tom Joad” in the second season that began in October.

Some “Cover Story” episodes delve into the personal memories associated with specific songs. In season two, Shonekan invited her husband as a guest to talk about “their” song, “I Believe in You and Me,” originally recorded by the Four Tops and covered by Whitney Houston. “It was great to have a conversation around love and life and how it started and how it’s going, and how that song remains true to our relationship.”

But some marital disputes can’t be fixed with a song. Shonekan insists that the Houston version is better, but her husband remains solidly Team Four Tops.

Cover Story is a podcast that uncovers the covers — that is, the stories, meanings, and histories behind our most classic songs. Each episode features host and musicologist Stephanie Shonekan and one guest. Together they take one classic song, two popular renditions, and discuss: Who did it better, and why?

This season’s episodes feature The Four Tops vs. Whitney Houston, Bruce Springsteen vs. Rage Against the Machine, Ken Boothe vs. Bread, Otis Redding vs. Aretha Franklin, and Fantasia Barrino vs. Cynthia Erivo.

This is a show about the music we love. But the conversations uncover intimate stories about our own personal connections with the songs. Cover Story with Stephanie Shonekan reconnects us with great music and the diverse perspectives, histories, and identities of the artists and the fans who enjoy that music.

Cover Story with Stephanie Shonekan is produced by Janet Saidi, Ryan Famuliner, Aaron Hay, and Stephanie Shonekan. This season was edited by Aaron Hay and Ryan Famuliner.

This podcast is a collaboration between KBIA and Vox Magazine, with funding from the University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities, MU’s College of Arts & Science, and the Missouri School of Journalism.  

You can follow the podcast and other special projects on Twitter at @VoxMag, and @KBIA, and on Instagram at @voxmagazine and @kbianews. 

“Cover Story with Stephanie Shonekan” Season 1 was produced by Janet Saidi, Kristofor Husted, Fernando Narro, Rehman Tungekar, and Ryan Famuliner, with host and producer Stephanie Shonekan. Season One was edited by Rehman Tungekar and Ryan Famuliner.

By: Ashawnta Jackson

In a recently released interactive project—the Timeline of African American Music—Carnegie Hall, in collaboration with ethnomusicologist Portia K. Maultsby, has charted the histories, traditions, sounds, and communities that have made Black music such a vital part of American culture. Charting movements from Afrofuturism to ragtime, funk to work songs, the project doesn’t just represent the history of the music, it also represents a coming together of some of nearly thirty notable scholars in music and cultural studies.

The timeline, according to the project’s website, “​​reveals the unique characteristics of each genre and style, while also offering in-depth studies of pioneering musicians who created some of America’s most timeless artistic expressions.” Those unique characteristics can be as familiar as the sounds of rock or blues or come from genres that reveal Black artists thriving and creating in spaces that, as musicologist Tammy Kernodle writes, “expand the palette for what has come to define sonic Blackness.”

In this series, we explore the work of some of the scholars involved in the project, highlighting their scholarship that can be found in the JSTOR archives.

Tammy Kernodle is a music professor at Miami University in Ohio, where she primarily focuses on African American music, American music, and gender studies. In an essay she contributed to the Timeline, Kernodle explores a genre of music that is often excluded from discussions of Black music—concert or classical music. Though the names of Black classical composers are not always part of the conversation, Kernodle argues that not only should they be, but that Black concert or Afro-classical music has a long tradition spanning from the Colonial Era (1619–1775) to the present day. Composers such as the formerly enslaved Newport Gardner or singer Matilda Sissieretta Jones weren’t just part of the genre; their work was an essential “form of resistance culture to notions of racial inferiority, and the marginalization of Black America,” Kernodle explains.

Continuing the theme of music as resistance is Stephanie Shonekan in an essay that charts the sounds of protest. An ethnomusicologist and Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Maryland, Shonekan explores the intersections of music, culture, and identity. Music has shaped Black life from slavery to the Civil Rights movements of the 1960s, Shonekan writes, and “has served as the inspirational soundtrack of these movements, evolving from one era to another, and reflecting their revolutionary response to each new challenge for justice, progress, and equality.” Music, she argues, is a vital part of protest and “it is only when the world truly listens, commits to the work of change, that sustainable resolution is possible.”

Explore the work of both Tammy Kernodle and Stephanie Shonekan:

Tammy Kernodle

• Arias, Communists, and Conspiracies: The History of Still’s “Troubled Island”
• This Is My Story, This Is My Song: The Historiography of Vatican II, Black Catholic Identity, Jazz, and the Religious Compositions of Mary Lou Williams
• Diggin’ You Like Those Ol’ Soul Records: Meshell Ndegeocello and the Expanding Definition of Funk in Postsoul America
• Black Women Working Together: Jazz, Gender, and the Politics of Validation

Stephanie Shonekan

• Fela’s Foundation: Examining the Revolutionary Songs of Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti and the Abeokuta Market Women’s Movement in 1940s Western Nigeria
• Epilogue: “We People Who Are Darker than Blue”: Black Studies and the Mizzou Movement

Resources

JSTOR is a digital library for scholars, researchers, and students. JSTOR Daily readers can access the original research behind our articles for free on JSTOR.

Arias, Communists, and Conspiracies: The History of Still’s “Troubled Island”By: Tammy L. KernodleThe Musical Quarterly, Vol. 83, No. 4 (Winter 1999), pp. 487–508Oxford University Press

 This Is My Story, This Is My Song: The Historiography of Vatican II, Black Catholic Identity, Jazz, and the Religious Compositions of Mary Lou WilliamsBy: Tammy Lynn KernodleU.S. Catholic Historian, Vol. 19, No. 2, African American Spirituality and Liturgical Renewal (Spring 2001), pp. 83–94Catholic University of America Press

 Diggin’ You Like Those Ol’ Soul Records: Meshell Ndegeocello and the Expanding Definition of Funk in Postsoul AmericaBy: Tammy L. KernodleAmerican Studies, Vol. 52, No. 4, THE FUNK ISSUE (2013), pp. 181–204Mid-America American Studies Association

 Black Women Working Together: Jazz, Gender, and the Politics of ValidationBy: Tammy L. KernodleBlack Music Research Journal, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Spring), pp. 27–55Center for Black Music Research - Columbia College Chicago and University of Illinois Press

 Fela’s Foundation: Examining the Revolutionary Songs of Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti and the Abeokuta Market Women’s Movement in 1940s Western NigeriaBy: Stephanie ShonekanBlack Music Research Journal, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Spring 2009), pp. 127–144Center for Black Music Research - Columbia College Chicago and University of Illinois Press

 Epilogue: “We People Who Are Darker than Blue”: Black Studies and the Mizzou MovementBy: Stephanie ShonekanThe Journal of Negro Education, Vol. 86, No. 3, Special Issue—When Voices Rise: Race, Resistance, and Campus Uprisings in the Information Age (Summer 2017), pp. 399–404Journal of Negro Education

By Maryland Today Staff 

The University of Maryland has named Stephanie Shonekan dean of the College of Arts and Humanities (ARHU), effective July 1.

As dean, Shonekan will provide strong and visionary leadership for ARHU, supporting an environment of diversity and inclusive excellence in teaching and learning; promoting a culture of impactful research, scholarship and creative activities; and encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration and partnerships.

“I am excited by this opportunity to lead the effort to drive and support an environment of interdisciplinary curricular, pedagogical innovation and research for the faculty and students of the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Maryland,” said Shonekan. “As a professor of music and Black studies, I am a constant champion for the humanities and the fine arts, and am energized to lead collaborative work to help all of us understand the critical importance of these areas, and their potential to enrich all disciplines.”

Shonekan joins UMD from the University of Missouri, where she serves as senior associate dean of the College of Arts and Science. In this role, her work focuses on guiding the college to meet the mission of a public institution, providing a well-rounded education to its students, promoting research productivity, and serving the college, campus and all the various fields of the College of Arts and Science. She leads and manages the college’s budget and administration, faculty affairs, hiring and facilities.

“Dr. Shonekan brings a wealth of experience advocating for the representation of arts and humanities, driving innovation in teaching and learning, and advancing work to create an inclusive culture,” says Senior Vice President and Provost Jennifer King Rice. “Her scholarship and leadership align with the vision outlined in our strategic plan, and I am thrilled by the knowledge and perspective she brings to the University of Maryland.”

As senior associate dean at the University of Missouri, she has led initiatives to develop guidelines regarding faculty workloads; review and revise the staff support structure throughout the college; and find ways to uplift and highlight the value of the college’s departments and colleagues in the humanities, arts and social sciences.

Prior to her current position, she served as associate dean for graduate studies and inclusive culture, where she created a faculty mentorship initiative focused on meeting the intricate needs of graduate students and led cross-departmental work to make the college and campus a more inclusive space.

Shonekan previously served for five years as a department chair, first at the University of Missouri and then at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and held several roles at Columbia College Chicago for eight years.

Shonekan’s work focuses on race, culture, identity and history. A prolific ethnomusicologist, she is the author of “Black Resistance in the Americas: Slavery and Its Aftermath, Black Lives Matter and Music,” and “Soul, Country and the USA: Race and Identity in American Music Culture.”  She is also co-founder of the national “Race and the American Story” project, dedicated to “cultivating conversation, fostering understanding, broadening knowledge, and building community among people of different backgrounds and walks of life in the U.S.”

Shonekan is the recipient of various awards, including the Commitment to Diversity Faculty award at the University of Massachusetts, and the Marian O'Fallon Oldham Distinguished Educator Award, the Excellence in Education Award and the Black Girls Rock Award, and was a Teaching Excellence finalist at the University of Missouri.

She holds a B.A. in English from the ​​University of Jos, Nigeria, an M.A. in English from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and a Ph.D. in folklore and ethnomusicology from Indiana University.

Photo by Jackie Byas.