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Popular music has become not only one of the most lucrative spheres
of human activity, but also one of the most influential on the
identities of individuals and communities. Popular music matters,
and it matters to many people, people we can only partially
understand if we do not understand their music. In the light of
this phenomenon the academic study of popular music has become
universally established as an active discipline at university level
and this timely series brings together the fruits of recent
teaching and research in this field. It makes overt recognition of
the fact that the study of popular music is necessarily
inter-disciplinary and addresses issues as diverse as: the popular
music industry and its institutions; aspects of the history of
genres; issues in the theories and methodologies of study and
practice; questions of the ontologies and hermeneutics of
particular musics; the varying influence of different waves of
technological development; the ways markets and audiences are
constructed, reproduced and reached; and aspects of the repertory
without which there would be no popular music to study. The eight
volumes in this series span the range of the world's popular music
genres from rap, hip hop, soul and jazz, to roots, electronica,
dance and club music. Each volume editor has contributed an
introductory essay which constitutes a broad overview of the
specific group of genres, and made a selection of the most
important and influential published articles, papers and other
relevant material. Taken together, these volumes offer an
invaluable resource for the study of popular music today in all its
forms.
Critical Essays in Popular Musicology is an essential reference
work which reproduces in facsimile form many of the most important
and innovative journal articles and papers in the field, along with
an introductory overview by the editor Allan Moore. The volume is
designed to improve access to the most significant, concise
English-language writing, which articulates and demonstrates some
of the key constituents of a popular musicology. It avoids those
pieces which have been published in other collections. The essays
are divided into two parts - those that articulate the key
questions of popular musicology, which discuss contexts for
addressing texts, and those that demonstrate the discipline in
practice, which actually address those texts. This is a valuable
volume for libraries expanding their collections in musicology and
popular music studies and will provide scholars and graduate
students with a convenient and authoritative reference source.
Existing books on the analysis of popular music focus on theory and
methodology, and normally discuss parts of songs briefly as
examples. The impression often given is that songs are being chosen
simply to illuminate and exemplify a theoretical position. In this
book the obverse is true: songs take centre stage and are given
priority. The authors analyse and interpret them intensively from a
variety of theoretical positions that illuminate the song. Thus,
methods and theories have to prove their use value in the face of a
heterogeneous, contemporary repertoire. The book brings together
researchers from very different cultural backgrounds and encourages
them to compare their different hearings and to discuss the ways in
which they make sense of specific songs. All songs analysed are
from the new millennium, most of them not older than three years.
Because the most widely popular styles are too often ignored by
academics, this book aims to shed light on how million sellers work
musically. Therefore, it encompasses a broad palette, highlighting
mainstream pop (Lady Gaga, Ke$ha, Lucenzo, Amy McDonald), but also
accounting for critically acclaimed 'indie' styles (Fleet Foxes,
Death Cab for Cutie, PJ Harvey), R&B (Destiny's Child, Janelle
Monae), popular hard rock (Kings of Leon, Rammstein), and current
electronic music (Andres, BjArk). By concentrating on 13 well-known
songs, this book offers some model analyses that can very easily be
studied at home or used in seminars and classrooms for students of
popular music at all academic levels.
Existing books on the analysis of popular music focus on theory and
methodology, and normally discuss parts of songs briefly as
examples. The impression often given is that songs are being chosen
simply to illuminate and exemplify a theoretical position. In this
book the obverse is true: songs take centre stage and are given
priority. The authors analyse and interpret them intensively from a
variety of theoretical positions that illuminate the song. Thus,
methods and theories have to prove their use value in the face of a
heterogeneous, contemporary repertoire. The book brings together
researchers from very different cultural backgrounds and encourages
them to compare their different hearings and to discuss the ways in
which they make sense of specific songs. All songs analysed are
from the new millennium, most of them not older than three years.
Because the most widely popular styles are too often ignored by
academics, this book aims to shed light on how million sellers work
musically. Therefore, it encompasses a broad palette, highlighting
mainstream pop (Lady Gaga, Ke$ha, Lucenzo, Amy McDonald), but also
accounting for critically acclaimed 'indie' styles (Fleet Foxes,
Death Cab for Cutie, PJ Harvey), R&B (Destiny's Child, Janelle
Monae), popular hard rock (Kings of Leon, Rammstein), and current
electronic music (Andres, BjArk). By concentrating on 13 well-known
songs, this book offers some model analyses that can very easily be
studied at home or used in seminars and classrooms for students of
popular music at all academic levels.
Ewan MacColl is widely recognized as a key figure in the English
folk revival, who tried to convey traditional music to a mass
audience. Dominant in the movement during the 1950s and much of the
1960s, his position has come under attack in more recent years from
some scholars. While it would be arrogant to claim to 'set the
record straight', this book will contribute significantly to the
debate surrounding MacColl's importance. MacColl gave two extended
interviews with co-editor Giovanni Vacca in 1987 and 1988, not long
before his death, and these provide the impetus for a
re-examination of his methods, his politics and his aesthetic aims.
The book also provides critical overviews of MacColl's activities
in the revival and of his practices, particularly as writer and
singer. The time is ripe for such a contribution, following Peter
Cox's study of the Radio Ballads, and in the context of biographies
by Joan Littlewood and Frankie Armstrong. The contributions locate
MacColl in his own historical context, attempting to understand
some of the characteristic techniques through which he was able to
write and sing such extraordinary songs, which capture so well for
others the detail and flavour of their lives. Great emphasis is
placed on the importance of seeing MacColl as not only a British,
but a European folk activist, through discussion of his hitherto
barely known work in Italy, enabling a re-contextualization of his
work within a broader European context. The interviews themselves
are fluent and fascinating narrations in which MacColl discusses
his life, music, and experiences in the theatre and in the folk
music revival as well as with a series of issues concerning folk
music, politics, history, language, art and other theoretical
issues, offering a complete description of all the repertories of
the British Isles. Peggy Seeger contributes a Foreword to the
collection.
The musicological study of popular music has developed,
particularly over the past twenty years, into an established aspect
of the discipline. The academic community is now well placed to
discuss exactly what is going on in any example of popular music
and the theoretical foundation for such analytical work has also
been laid, although there is as yet no general agreement over all
the details of popular music theory. However, this focus on the
what of musical detail has left largely untouched the larger
question - so what? What are the consequences of such theorization
and analysis? Scholars from outside musicology have often argued
that too close a focus on musicological detail has left untouched
what they consider to be more urgent questions related to reception
and meaning. Scholars from inside musicology have responded by
importing into musicological discussion various aspects of cultural
theory. It is in that tradition that this book lies, although its
focus is slightly different. What is missing from the field, at
present, is a coherent development of the what into the so what of
music theory and analysis into questions of interpretation and
hermeneutics. It is that fundamental gap that this book seeks to
fill. Allan F. Moore presents a study of recorded popular song,
from the recordings of the 1920s through to the present day.
Analysis and interpretation are treated as separable but
interdependent approaches to song. Analytical theory is revisited,
covering conventional domains such as harmony, melody and rhythm,
but does not privilege these at the expense of domains such as
texture, the soundbox, vocal tone, and lyrics. These latter areas
are highly significant in the experience of many listeners, but are
frequently ignored or poorly treated in analytical work. Moore
continues by developing a range of hermeneutic strategies largely
drawn from outside the field (strategies originating, in the most
part, within psychology and philosophy) but still deeply r
Ewan MacColl is widely recognized as a key figure in the English
folk revival, who tried to convey traditional music to a mass
audience. Dominant in the movement during the 1950s and much of the
1960s, his position has come under attack in more recent years from
some scholars. While it would be arrogant to claim to 'set the
record straight', this book will contribute significantly to the
debate surrounding MacColl's importance. MacColl gave two extended
interviews with co-editor Giovanni Vacca in 1987 and 1988, not long
before his death, and these provide the impetus for a
re-examination of his methods, his politics and his aesthetic aims.
The book also provides critical overviews of MacColl's activities
in the revival and of his practices, particularly as writer and
singer. The time is ripe for such a contribution, following Peter
Cox's study of the Radio Ballads, and in the context of biographies
by Joan Littlewood and Frankie Armstrong. The contributions locate
MacColl in his own historical context, attempting to understand
some of the characteristic techniques through which he was able to
write and sing such extraordinary songs, which capture so well for
others the detail and flavour of their lives. Great emphasis is
placed on the importance of seeing MacColl as not only a British,
but a European folk activist, through discussion of his hitherto
barely known work in Italy, enabling a re-contextualization of his
work within a broader European context. The interviews themselves
are fluent and fascinating narrations in which MacColl discusses
his life, music, and experiences in the theatre and in the folk
music revival as well as with a series of issues concerning folk
music, politics, history, language, art and other theoretical
issues, offering a complete description of all the repertories of
the British Isles. Peggy Seeger contributes a Foreword to the
collection.
This thoroughly revised second edition of Allan Moore's
ground-breaking book features new sections on melody, Britpop,
authenticity, intertextuality, and an extended discussion of
texture. Rock's 'primary text' - its sounds - is the focus of
attention here. Allan Moore argues for the development of a
musicology particular to rock within the context of the background
to the genres, the beat and rhythm and blues styles of the early
1960s, 'progressive' rock and subsequent styles. He also explores
the fundamental issue of rock as a medium for self-expression, and
the relationship of this to changing musical styles. Rock: The
Primary Text remains innovative in its exploration of an aesthetics
of rock.
This thoroughly revised second edition of Allan Moore's
ground-breaking book features new sections on melody, Britpop,
authenticity, intertextuality, and an extended discussion of
texture. Rock's 'primary text' - its sounds - is the focus of
attention here. Allan Moore argues for the development of a
musicology particular to rock within the context of the background
to the genres, the beat and rhythm and blues styles of the early
1960s, 'progressive' rock and subsequent styles. He also explores
the fundamental issue of rock as a medium for self-expression, and
the relationship of this to changing musical styles. Rock: The
Primary Text remains innovative in its exploration of an aesthetics
of rock.
The musicological study of popular music has developed,
particularly over the past twenty years, into an established aspect
of the discipline. The academic community is now well placed to
discuss exactly what is going on in any example of popular music
and the theoretical foundation for such analytical work has also
been laid, although there is as yet no general agreement over all
the details of popular music theory. However, this focus on the
what of musical detail has left largely untouched the larger
question - so what? What are the consequences of such theorization
and analysis? Scholars from outside musicology have often argued
that too close a focus on musicological detail has left untouched
what they consider to be more urgent questions related to reception
and meaning. Scholars from inside musicology have responded by
importing into musicological discussion various aspects of cultural
theory. It is in that tradition that this book lies, although its
focus is slightly different. What is missing from the field, at
present, is a coherent development of the what into the so what of
music theory and analysis into questions of interpretation and
hermeneutics. It is that fundamental gap that this book seeks to
fill. Allan F. Moore presents a study of recorded popular song,
from the recordings of the 1920s through to the present day.
Analysis and interpretation are treated as separable but
interdependent approaches to song. Analytical theory is revisited,
covering conventional domains such as harmony, melody and rhythm,
but does not privilege these at the expense of domains such as
texture, the soundbox, vocal tone, and lyrics. These latter areas
are highly significant in the experience of many listeners, but are
frequently ignored or poorly treated in analytical work. Moore
continues by developing a range of hermeneutic strategies largely
drawn from outside the field (strategies originating, in the most
part, within psychology and philosophy) but still deeply r
Critical Essays in Popular Musicology is an essential reference
work which reproduces in facsimile form many of the most important
and innovative journal articles and papers in the field, along with
an introductory overview by the editor Allan Moore. This volume is
designed to improve access to the most significant, concise
English-language writing, which articulates and demonstrates some
of the key constituents of a popular musicology. It avoids those
pieces which have been published in other collections. The essays
are divided into two parts - those that articulate the key
questions of popular musicology, which discuss contexts for
addressing texts, and those that demonstrate the discipline in
practice, which actually address those texts. This is a valuable
volume for libraries expanding their collections in musicology and
popular music studies and will provide scholars and graduate
students with a convenient and authoritative reference source.
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) represents the highpoint of the recording career of the Beatles. This is a detailed study of this album, and it demonstrates how serious discussion of popular music can be undertaken without failing either the approach or the music. Dr. Moore considers each song individually, tying his analysis to the recorded performance on disk, rather than the printed music. He focuses on the musical quality of the songs and the interpretations offered by a range of commentators. He also describes the context in which the album was written--both within the career of the group itself and within the development of popular music globally, both before and since.
How do we "know" music? We perform it, compose it, sing it in the shower; cook, sleep and dance to it. Eventually we think and write about it. This book represents the culmination of such shared processes. Portraying a wide range of genres (rock, dance, TV soundtracks, country, pop, soul, easy listening, Turkish Arabesk), the essays cover methodology, modernism, postmodernism, Marxism and communication.
How do we know music? We perform it, we compose it, we sing it in
the shower, we cook, sleep and dance to it. Eventually we think and
write about it. This book represents the culmination of such shared
processes. Each of these essays, written by leading writers on
popular music, is analytical in some sense, but none of them treats
analysis as an end in itself. The books presents a wide range of
genres (rock, dance, TV soundtracks, country, pop, soul, easy
listening, Turkish Arabesk) and deals with issues as broad as
methodology, modernism, postmodernism, Marxism and communication.
It aims to encourage listeners to think more seriously about the
'social' consequences of the music they spend time with and is the
first collection of such essays to incorporate contextualisation in
this way.
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