In spite of its myriad methodologies and definitions of terms, ethnomusicology always examines music in a cross-cultural framework, identifying the social functions of music in addition to its formal structures. Three relatively old ethnomusicology studies published in the Ethnomusicology journal illustrate differences in methodology and area of interest as well as similarities regarding the basic purpose of studying ethnomusicology in the first place. Victor Graver's "Some Song-Style Clusters-A Preliminary Study" is the most technical of the three essays and leans more toward musicology than ethnography; Graver's work is pan-cultural. On the other hand, both Alan P. Merriam's "The Importance of Song in the Flathead Indian Vision Quest" and Mervyn McLean's "Song Loss and Social Context Among the New Zealand Maori" examine music as one facet of a more comprehensive ethnography of a specific cultural group. These three scholastic sources illuminate the various paths an ethnomusicologist can take to contribute to a growing body of literature.

             Moreover, the differences between the three sources parallel their methodologies. All three authors are scholars sponsored through grant monies or collegiate funding, and therefore each of them is a credentialed investigator. Graver's study relies little on fieldwork and much on computer-assisted analyses of song structures. As Graver's instrument became more sophisticated, so too did his database of songs, which are culled from disparate cultures around the globe. Unfortunately, the reader of "Some Song-Style Clusters" remains unaware of the sources for the songs: be they recordings or first-hand listening encounters. The author and his colleagues themselves developed the "Cantometrics" system used to classify and analyze songs and their bibliographic references are consequentially few.

             Because McLean and Merriam's studies are more ethnographic in nature than Graver's, their research methods include field work in addition to an appropriate literature review.