MUS 505 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Artists And Repertoire, Arrangement, Protestantism
18 Jan 2017
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Chapter 1: Themes and Streams of
American Popular Music
Intro
● Popular Music is difficult to define
○ Defined by differences from other types of music
○ Blurring lines between categories
● Broadly defines as: Music that has been mass produced and disseminated via mass
media, and consumed by a large audience
Music Terms
● Riff - Repeated pattern designed to generate rhythmic momentum
● Hook - Memorable musical phrase or riff
● Groove - Channeled flow of swinging, funky or phat rhythms
● Timbre - Quality of a sound, also called the tone colour
● Lyrics - Words of a song, designed to be the most accessible part
● Dialect - Some genres are closely linked to particular dialects
○ Country w southern white
○ Rap with urban black
○ 1970s punk rock with working-class British
● Composer/Lyricist - First creators of a work
● Arranger - Rework to complement a particular performers strengths and then
choose instruments and key
● A&R - Personnel of record companies sought out talent in nightclubs and rehearsals
● Producer - Get record company to back a particular project, develop new talent
● Engineers - Work in studio balancing voice and instruments
● Ballad - Type of song that uses a series of verses to tell a story (historical or personal
tragedy), sung to a repeating melody
● Gospel Music - A large body of sacred song with texts that reflect aspects of the
personal religious experience of Protestant evangelical groups
Themes
● Listening
○ Critical listening to seek meaning in music drawing on knowledge of how
music is put together, its cultural significance and historical development
○ Formal analysis - Listening for musical structure, basic building blocks and
the way that these blocks are combined
○ Pop music draws on a limited number of basic formal structures
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
○ Analysis of musical process - Interpretations of songs by particular
performers
○ Soundprints allow the listener to identify the artist based on the grain of
their voice - there are also recording engineers, record labels, arrangers, etc.
who may have this
● Music and Identity
○ Family members often influence our early musical values
○ Moving into adolescence, music enters our private lives - emotions, needs
○ Pop music provides images of gender identity, and ethnicity/race
○ Pop Music linked to stereotypes
■ Women as sexual objects
■ Men as violent
■ Black men as playboy's/gangsters
○ Through pop music, minority groups have been able to reinterpret
derogatory stereotypes and use it creatively as a form of cultural pride
● Music and Technology
○ Argued that mass media created a gap between musicians and their audience
causing listeners to no longer acknowledge that the music is made by other
human beings
○ Higher percentage of Americans used to be able to perform because you
would either make it yourself or go see a live performance
○ Subcultures made up of collectors of old music technology
○ Sometimes the rejection of electronic technology functions as an emblem of
authenticity - For example: Unplugged series
● The Music Business
○ Nineteenth century - 1920s
■ Sheet music to disseminate pop songs to mass audience
■ Composer wrote the song, publishing company bought the rights,
song pluggers promoted it, and performers worked in shows that
toured a circuit of theatres
○ Rise of Radio
■ Created many more jobs as music production because larger scale and
bigger audiences could be reached
○ Digital Distribution (Today)
■ Traditional lines that divided the artist, publisher, record company,
distributor, and consumer electronics manufacturer have been
blurred
○ Internet
■ Replacement of compact disk by downloadable file
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Defined by differences from other types of music. Blurring lines between categories media, and consumed by a large audience. Broadly defines as: music that has been mass produced and disseminated via mass. Riff - repeated pattern designed to generate rhythmic momentum. Hook - memorable musical phrase or riff. Groove - channeled flow of swinging, funky or phat rhythms. Timbre - quality of a sound, also called the tone colour. Lyrics - words of a song, designed to be the most accessible part. Dialect - some genres are closely linked to particular dialects. 1970s punk rock with working-class british choose instruments and key. Composer/lyricist - first creators of a work. Arranger - rework to complement a particular performer(cid:495)s strengths and then. A&r - personnel of record companies sought out talent in nightclubs and rehearsals. Producer - get record company to back a particular project, develop new talent. Engineers - work in studio balancing voice and instruments.
