David B. Pruett is Instructor for Ethnomusicology at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where he has taught courses in popular music, music history, world music, music appreciation, and applied music since January 2004. Before joining the faculty at MTSU, he received his M.A. in German and M. M. in Musicology (Ethnomusicology) at the Florida State University where he recently completed his Ph.D. in ethnomusicology. He pursued his B.M. in music performance (percussion) and a B.A. (equivalent) in German at Appalachian State University. He has participated in five study abroad programs, totaling over three years in Germany.

While at FSU, he taught courses in world music, folk and popular musics in North America, namely those with cultural ties to the American South, and courses in beginning, intermediate, and advanced German language. His master's thesis is entitled "Preserving Cultural Identity: WPAQ and the Dissemination of Bluegrass and Old-Time Music." For his doctoral dissertation, Pruett spent three years researching the Nashville underground collective known as MuzikMafia.

Pruett’s areas of specialization are American folk and popular musics, Carl Orff and the Güntherschule, and German language and literature. Secondary areas of interest include global popular music, music of the Middle-East, India (Hindustan), and study abroad. His publications include articles in the Country Music Annual 2002, The Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World (2005), four entries in the Encyclopedia of Appalachia (2005) Discourses in Music 4:1 (Fall 2002), and an article on Carl Orff in the Journal of Historical Research in Music Education 24:3 (April 2003). He has presented papers at meetings for the Society for Ethnomusicology, the American Musicological Society, the Society for American Music, the International Bluegrass Symposium, and the International Country Music Conference. Pruett is currently on the Board of Advisors to the Southern Music Hall of Fame and is a member of the national music honor society Pi Kappa Lambda. .