Arnold Shaw Popular Music Research Center
at the UNLV School of Music
Welcome
Arnold Shaw founded UNLV's Popular Music Research Center in 1985, making it one of the world's oldest institutions of its kind. Shaw believed that Las Vegas's cultural identity rested on two pillars: gaming and popular musical entertainment. He therefore envisioned UNLV housing a popular music research center parallel to the university's Gaming Institute.
Today, the Arnold Shaw Center honors Shaw's vision, enabling the study of popular music through two major activities:
1)
Collecting, archiving, and making accessible historical materials related to popular music, including music manuscripts, memorabilia, sheet music, and recordings, with a special emphasis on Las Vegas musical entertainment.
2)
Providing a forum for scholars and practitioners of popular music to share their research and creative work with the UNLV community and the broader public. Our current efforts in this regard center on our annual lecture series, which welcomes prominent figures in popular music studies to share their knowledge with UNLV's community and beyond.
Today, the Arnold Shaw Center honors Shaw's vision, enabling the study of popular music through two major activities:
1)
Collecting, archiving, and making accessible historical materials related to popular music, including music manuscripts, memorabilia, sheet music, and recordings, with a special emphasis on Las Vegas musical entertainment.
2)
Providing a forum for scholars and practitioners of popular music to share their research and creative work with the UNLV community and the broader public. Our current efforts in this regard center on our annual lecture series, which welcomes prominent figures in popular music studies to share their knowledge with UNLV's community and beyond.
Upcoming events:
October 15, 2026, 5:30 p.m.
Lecture by Stephen S. Hudson (Occidental College)
Title: "Metallica Never Sold Out: Style, Progression, and the Politics of Genre"
Location: UNLV, Ham Fine Arts, Room 147 Free!
Click here for more information
October 27, 2026, 5:30 p.m.
Lecture by Emily Lordi (Vanderbilt University)
Title: "Whitney Houston and Black Genius"
Location: UNLV, Ham Fine Arts, Room 147 Free!
Click here for more information
February 11, 2027, 4:30 p.m.
Lecture by Jose "Pepe" Jimenez (UNLV)
Title: "Afro-Puerto Rican Folklore, Jazz, Rock, and Funk"
Location: UNLV, Ham Fine Arts, Room 147 Free!
Click here for more information
April 14, 2027, 5:30 p.m.
Lecture by Karen M. Cook (Hartt School, University of Hartford)
Title: "The Sonic Past(s) in Video Games"
Location: UNLV, Ham Fine Arts, Room 147 Free!
Click here for more information
New collections available
• Carl Fontana Music Manuscripts
• Larry Fotine Music Library
• Si Zentner Memorabilia
Links
• News
• Events
• Collections
• About Arnold Shaw
• Contact
October 15, 2026, 5:30 p.m.
Lecture by Stephen S. Hudson (Occidental College)
Title: "Metallica Never Sold Out: Style, Progression, and the Politics of Genre"
Location: UNLV, Ham Fine Arts, Room 147 Free!
Click here for more information
October 27, 2026, 5:30 p.m.
Lecture by Emily Lordi (Vanderbilt University)
Title: "Whitney Houston and Black Genius"
Location: UNLV, Ham Fine Arts, Room 147 Free!
Click here for more information
February 11, 2027, 4:30 p.m.
Lecture by Jose "Pepe" Jimenez (UNLV)
Title: "Afro-Puerto Rican Folklore, Jazz, Rock, and Funk"
Location: UNLV, Ham Fine Arts, Room 147 Free!
Click here for more information
April 14, 2027, 5:30 p.m.
Lecture by Karen M. Cook (Hartt School, University of Hartford)
Title: "The Sonic Past(s) in Video Games"
Location: UNLV, Ham Fine Arts, Room 147 Free!
Click here for more information
New collections available
• Carl Fontana Music Manuscripts
• Larry Fotine Music Library
• Si Zentner Memorabilia
Links
• News
• Events
• Collections
• About Arnold Shaw
• Contact
Courtesy UNLV Special Collections and Archives
Arnold Shaw (1909–1989)
Arnold Shaw was a writer, music publishing executive, songwriter, and member of the UNLV faculty from 1979. Shaw is perhaps best known today for his fifteen influential books on popular music, including Honkers and Shouters: The Golden Years of Rhythm and Blues (Crowell-Collier, 1978), Black Popular Music in America (Schirmer, 1986), and The Jazz Age: Popular Music in the 1920s (Oxford University Press, 1987). At UNLV, he was beloved for his "Rap with the Artist" series, which brought well-known entertainers to interact with the university's students. Shaw's deposit of his tape archive and papers in 1985 founded the Popular Music Research Center, renamed in his honor in 1989.
Click here for more information about Shaw.
