MUS 505 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Tanya Tagaq, Fugue, Inuit Throat Singing

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Music
• Course: MUS 505
• Professor: Sean Bellaviti

Document Summary

Given the sheer diversity not only in musical sounds, but also conceptualizations of music, defining the phenomenon becomes increasingly challenging. Musical categories: genre, style, idioms, etc: categories exist in relation to others, labels often adjective and metaphorically driven, and created for economic reasons, hybridity, musical mixing, fusion: motivation for change and creativity. In short: we are by no means on solid ground (i. e. , not scientific or falsifiable) therefore we must question the categories and definitions. This course is a social and cultural history of north (and principally) us american popular music. Timeline: 19th to the 21st century: principal historical moments/markers: see course outline. Culture/cultural (cult): learned behaviours that in their totality are particular to a particular group; the process by which behaviours are learned (e. g. , tradition, constant change) Society/societal (soc): focuses on the nature of human (or animal) interaction and frequently takes into consideration aspects of space, culture and survival.