A Cover Story: Music Educators Journal and Historical-Political Narrativity

This article reports results of a comprehensive content analysis of the 644 Music Educators Journal (MEJ) covers published between September 1914 and December 2015. For more than a century, MEJ’s covers conveyed carefully selected visual and textual imagery to all members of the growing association. The results of the content analysis were secondarily analyzed for elements of historical narrativity and political narrativity in music education. Results indicate that imagery related to nationalism and patriotism increased during times of conflict, the representation of people diversified as time progressed, and there is evidence that the first images of Black people on MEJ covers were intentionally placed for maximum impact. The article includes related historical information about MEJ and its evolving editorial processes.