 Issues that Merriam has weighed on in heavily in his opinion pieces are the way the field had been and should be defined and the directions it was taking during his lifetime.On defining ethnomusicology, Merriam draws on his background as an anthropologist to surmise that as a field ethnomusicology should aim to study “music in culture.” Merriam emphasizes that

to further his argument that ethnomusicology must continue its transition into the study of broader issues by removing focus from the study of musical objects.He continued his efforts to arrive at a more accurate definition of ethnomusicology by later suggesting that music was the study of “music as culture.” The distinction between these two approaches to define ethnomusicology lie in how culture is treated relative to the study of music.