Research Project - working backwards to find the music

Christopher Small's 1977 book Music, Society, Education takes as a premise that music in non-western societies tends to have an omnipresent social role. He cites several cultures as not having a word for "music" as a whole (though they may have words for specific types of music), and uses this as a negative with which to compare western society in which music is separated from life: through both commodification of music, and institutionalising music into a professional class.

The separation of producer from consumer is confirmed by the ever greater and greater technical skill of performers. [...] in setting standards of technical proficiency that non-professionals cannot even begin to approach, they are removing the practice of music even further from the ordinary citizen and confirming him even more in the role of consumer. [p.94]

The producer-consumer polarity in art, reflecting the polarity that pervades our society, means that ever more value is assigned to the products of the art process and even less to that process itself [...] and we ignore the creative abilities of ordinary people. [p.92]

The abstract quality of post-Renaissance music is linked with another characteristic - its self-containedness. [...] The music of this tradition is essentially without function. It is true that music is used on occasion in the great rituals of state and church - royal weddings [etc.] - and the smaller rituals of private men - a wedding, a graduation, a funeral - but its association is a loose one. It adorns, but is not an essential part of, the ceremony, which can take place perfectly well without it. A couple do not feel any less married if no-one plays The Wedding March. [p.28]

While I am very sympathetic to Small's overall thesis, it makes me wonder about the way we perceive music in our Western society. If asked to describe music here presumably we would begin with the institutions of broadcasting, production, training, etc., or make a distinction between "high"/"low" musics, or talk about the industry. The assumption being that music comes from these places.

I'd like to do a research project, and start the other way around, start with the premise that in western society, music plays the same omnipresent role as it does in the societies described by Small. Where then are the equivalents and how are they manifested? Can we avoid describing western music in terms of it's institutions and begin with first principles of how the music relates to people's lives? What are the social functions of music in western society?

If there truly is no ritual music in our society, or no place where music means something and cannot exist without music (socially speaking, not counting the personal and individual listener)? Is "our" music just an aspect of tribalism? developed in our teen years as part of our identity and doggedly carried along through our lives?

I'm sure there are some contemporary ethnographical studies that approach this, if any one knows of them then please pass them on in the comments.