A recent collaborative article by Dr. Dadang Sugiana from the Faculty of Communication Sciences, Universitas Padjadjaran, alongside Hanny Hafiar (Unpad), Kholidil Amin (Universitas Diponegoro), Pandu Watu Alam (Unpad), and Augustine Uzoma Madu (University of Maiduguri, Nigeria), has been officially published in Cogent Social Sciences (Taylor & Francis). Titled “Music in Communication: A Bibliometric Review”, the paper offers a comprehensive mapping of scholarly trends on how music intersects with the field of communication.

Using data from the Web of Science Core Collection and analytical tools such as Biblioshiny and VoSviewer, the team analyzed 742 academic documents published between 1999 and 2023. Their findings reveal a growing global interest in the communicative power of music—whether in education, media, advertising, or identity politics.

According to Dr. Sugiana, “Music is not just a cultural artifact—it’s a communicative force that shapes how people express identity, emotion, and social belonging across platforms and generations.”

The study highlights popular music, film music, and music videos as persistent themes, while newer interests such as music streaming, digital platforms, and music education have surged in the last decade. Six thematic clusters emerged from keyword analyses, including intersections with feminism, branding, globalization, copyright, and cultural identity.

Importantly, this research marks the first full-scale bibliometric study mapping the use of music in communication scholarship—filling a critical knowledge gap and offering future researchers a roadmap for interdisciplinary exploration. It also situates Universitas Padjadjaran at the forefront of international research in communication, media studies, and cultural analysis.

The paper is open access and available at:
👉 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2025.2450292