[CMNS 321] - Midterm Exam Guide - Ultimate 37 pages long Study Guide!

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Towards an aesthetic of popular music (simon frith) Critics draw between serious" and popular" music is an assumption about the source of musical value. Serious music matters because it transcends social forces; popular music is aesthetically worthless because it is determined by them. In analyzing serious music, we have to uncover the social forces concealed in the talk of transcendent" values; in analyzing pop, we have to take seriously the values scoffed at in the talk of social function. The sociologist of contemporary popular music is faced with a bod of songs, records, stars and styles which exists because of a series of decisions, made by both producers and consumers, about what is a successful sound. The result of all these apparently individual decisions is a pattern of success, taste and style which can be explained sociologically. There are answers in terms of technique and technology: people produce and consume the music they are capable of producing and consuming.