Conversation

What individual comes to mind when someone starts talking about silence in music?
Who do you think about on the topic of clapping rhythms?
About chance operations?
About phasing patterns?
About gamelan?

If it's a single old white man in all cases then we have a problem. Music discussions ossify as soon as the work of a single individual stands for huge topics, or appropriated music traditions. If you just avoid talking about those individuals completely, then the discussion becomes much wider.

Referencing prior art is great, but standardised referencing that gets in the way of a far wider history of work are incredibly limiting. Imagine a book on one of these topics that didn't mention the person you had in mind once.