Department of Musicology, Palacký University Olomouc

The Department of Musicology at Palacký University in Olomouc is the primary body involved in systematic academic research of popular music in the Czech Republic. The Department was founded in 1946 by the musicologist and folklorist Professor Robert Smetana (1904–1988), whose emphasis on various styles and genres of traditional popular music established the basic direction and concept of the new institution. It was later developed by key leaders of the Czechoslovak and Czech versions of “Popular Music Studies”, such as the musicologists Leo Jehne (1930–1999) and Ivan Poledňák (1931–2009). The prolific academic legacy of the latter represents a fundamental pillar of Czech “popular musicology“, as well as an inspirational point of departure for the current generation of young popular music researchers in Olomouc. One of the main objectives of the Department of Musicology in Olomouc at present is to establish an international centre for research into popular music, with a special focus on the cultural context of Central and Eastern Europe.