Reflecting surfaces: the use of elements from Indian music in popular music and jazz

Popular Music ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerry Farrell
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Indian Subcontinent ◽  
North India ◽  
Western Music ◽  
Pop Music ◽  
The World ◽  
The Sixties ◽  
Indian Music ◽  
Reflecting Surfaces

In this article I explore the manner in which elements from a non-Western music appear in pop music and jazz. The music under discussion is that of the Indian subcontinent and the classical music of North India in particular. The essay covers references to Indian music in pop, rock and jazz from the sixties to the present day but concentrates mainly on the sixties and seventies, and, in the world of pop, on the music of the Beatles. The influence of orientalism on Western music is not a recent phenomena, as Reck (1985) notes, but its appearance in pop during the sixties meant that it reached a larger audience than ever before.

French classical music and Brazil: Beyond Franco-German rivalry

2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 349-356
Author(s):  
Marcos Câmara de Castro
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Belle Epoque ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Belle Époque ◽  
Cultural Choices

One of the consequences of any colonisation is the emergence in the colonies of a dominant consular class, one of whose characteristics is cultural snobbery. This snobbery is manifested mainly in cultural choices that ignore local music or include it in an ensemble of strategies to participate in an alleged metropolitan cultural universalism. In Brazil, Villa-Lobos, the Batutas orchestra or the dancer known as Duque, who all enchanted France during the belle époque and who still arouse interest all over the world, were only the tip of an iceberg of popular music. This paper aims to demonstrate how the music and writings of Debussy and Ravel can be helpful in establishing the construction of a true history of classical music in Brazil, beyond the historical Franco-German rivalry.

Brazil

Popular Music ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-226
Author(s):  
Charles A. Perrone
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Art Music ◽  
Pop Music ◽  
Urban Regions ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Musical Cultures ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact

With its blends of Amerindian, African and European sources, Brazil has one of the richest and most diverse musical cultures in the world. Primitive tribal musics flourish in the Amazon, rural and urban regions practise many folk/traditional forms, and cosmopolitan art music has been produced since before the time of Villa-Lobos. Various musics that can be considered popular reflect both this wide national spectrum and the impact of international mass media pop music. Here, a description of the major tendencies in contemporary urban popular music of Brazil will be followed by bibliographical and discographic indications for further study or research.

Notation and identity in contemporary popular music

Popular Music ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 215-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Stith Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The World ◽  
Long Term Changes ◽  
Western European ◽  
Rock N Roll

Popular music, like all manifestations of popular culture, lives on in spite of recurring criticisms that cast it as somehow inauthentic. In fact, defences against this discounting are built into popular music (for example, the Rolling Stones' classic: ‘It's only rock 'n' roll but I like it’) and built in, as well, to the identities of those who make the music a part of their lives, be they players, producers, consumers or critics. On the other hand, so-called classical music, not unlike other manifestations of Western European art culture, lives on in spite of popular music and provides the touchstone of authenticity that creates the defensive popular response. The ideas I am advancing here are intended to allow the players in this authenticity contest to be recognised as evidence of unique historical circumstances: recognised, that is, not only as stock dramatists of ethnocentrism, but as indicators of long-term changes in music cultures in all parts of the world.

Perspectives in popular musicology: music, Lennox, and meaning in 1990s pop

Popular Music ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stan Hawkins
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
Western Music ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Pop Music ◽  
Communication Processes ◽  
Critical Approaches ◽  
Music Research ◽  
Popular Music Analysis ◽  
Music Study

Scholars of popular music in the 1990s are increasingly aware that traditional musicology has failed to recognise commercial pop music as a legitimate academic area of study. Intransigence on the part of many Western music institutions towards recognising the field of popular music study is attributable to issues that have been heatedly debated and discussed in most disciplines of popular music study. Even withstanding the expansion of critical approaches in the 1970s, which paved the way forward to the emergence of new musicological discourses by the late 1980s, musicologists engaged in popular music research have continued to feel some sense of isolation from the mainstream for obvious reasons. The implications of consumerism, commercialism, trend and hype, with the vigorous endorsement of modernist ideologies, have repeatedly curtailed any serious opportunity for studying popular music in Western music institutions. To start accommodating this area of music within any musicological discourse, scholars active within the field of popular music have had to branch out into new interdisciplinary directions to locate and interpret the ideological strands of meaning that bind pop music to its political, cultural and social context. Musical codes and idiolects are in the first instance culturally derived, with communication processes constructing the cultural norms that determine our cognition and emotional responses to musical sound (Ruud 1986). Any proposal of popular music analysis therefore needs to seek the junctures at which a range of texts interlock with musicology. Similarly, the point at which consumer demand and musical authenticity fuse requires careful consideration; it is the commodification of pop music that continues to problematise the process of its aesthetic evaluation within our Western culture.

We Are the World: The Rise of “World Music”

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Woods
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
World Music ◽  
Western Music ◽  
Cultural Imperialism ◽  
Global Culture ◽  
The West ◽  
Lack Of Control ◽  
The World ◽  
Musical Characteristics

Due to globalization we live in a global culture which includes sharing and creating genres of music. “World music” is a phenomenon that began in the 80s. This genre, amongst other things, blends popular Western musical characteristics with non-Western musics which has rejuvenated popular music in the West. However, the term “world music” is difficult to grapple. “World music” cannot be described as a genre completely outside of the Euro-American mainstream. The music of our global culture is largely thought to be dominated by the cultural imperialism of the West. Nevertheless, this model does not encompass the extent of the control ‘foreign’ musical aspects of the “world music” genre are exerting on Western popular culture. Therefore, the co-option of “world music” by the West is being reversed. The popularity of “world music” is rising in Western popular culture. There are increasing amounts of “world music” resources becoming available and the “classicization of world music” is apparent in various trends. While “world music” depends on Western markets, these markets are dependent on non-Western music to diversify and provide products displaying the lack of control the West has on the genre it created. The roles have been reversed and “world music” is in the process of co-opting Western popular music.  

Learning Old Music in a New Age of Digital Reproduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 311-324
Author(s):  
Robert O. Gjerdingen
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
New Age ◽  
Good Alternative ◽  
Recent Immigrants ◽  
The World ◽  
Digital Reproduction ◽  
Rich History

There are over four hundred genres of popular music known in North America, and many more if one includes the favourite musics of recent immigrants. Which of these should be singled out and taught to children? There is no good answer to that question. Classical European music is a good alternative, one that has a rich history and is known, at least a little, all over the world. But instead of teaching children just to reproduce what is written on a page of music, why don’t we teach them to make classical music—to improvise and compose it. The rediscovery of the lessons from the old conservatories shows us how improvisation and composition can be taught to ordinary children, leading to extraordinary results.

Campus Rock

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 51-72
Author(s):  
James Carter
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Rock Music ◽  
College Campuses ◽  
College Campus ◽  
Pop Music ◽  
Acid Rock ◽  
Radio Stations ◽  
The Sixties ◽  
The Relationship

During 1967-8, The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Animals, The Who, Richie Havens, Jefferson Airplane and the Iron Butterfly, performed in the gymnasium at the small, liberal arts Drew University in suburban New Jersey. Turns out, this experience was not unique to Drew. College campuses across the country were essential for the growth of popular music, and of rock music in particular in the mid- to late-sixties. The music industry took notice as booking agents, record shops, pop music promoters, radio stations, and industry magazines and newspapers all began to place more emphasis on the opportunities provided by the nation’s colleges. While we know a great deal about activism on college campuses during the sixties, we know little about that same environment and its relationship to the growth and development of rock culture. This essay will explore the relationship between the growth of rock culture, the college campus, and the broader sixties experience. The college campus proved crucial in the development of rock music as student tastes determined “rock culture.” Folk, pop, soul/R&B, folk rock, hard rock, and psychedelic/acid rock, thrived simultaneously on the college campus from 1967 to 1970, precisely the period of significant change in popular music.

Teaching Indian Music in the West: Problems, Approaches and Possibilities

1986 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerry Farrell
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Western Music ◽  
The West ◽  
Traditional Methods ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Indian Classical Music ◽  
Indian Music

This article explores ways in which the elements of north Indian classical music may be taught in a western context. It examines traditional methods of teaching in India and points out the difficulties of transferring such methods into Western music education. The basic materials of Indian music are examined, with a view to using them to heighten awareness of music in general, but not necessarily to produce solo performers. The article suggests ways in which Indian music can be explored without compromising its inherent complexity, sense of form and aesthetic beauty; while, at the same time, making it more accessible to a wide range of people.

scholarly journals World Music or Regionality? A Fundamental Question for Music Historiography

2018 ◽  
pp. 13-22
Author(s):  
Helmut Loos
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
World Music ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
Pop Music ◽  
The Public ◽  
Global Meaning ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Public Consciousness

The term “world music” is still relatively new. It came into use around the end of the twentieth century and denotes a new musical genre, one which links European-American pop music to folk and non-European music cultures. It can be seen in a larger context as a phenomenon of postmodernism in that the challenge to the strict laws and boundaries of modernism allowed for a connection between regionality and global meaning to be established. Music in the German-speaking world had previously been strictly divided into the categories of “entertainment music” (U-Musik) and “serious music” (E-Musik), the latter functioning as art-religion in the framework of modernism and thus adhering to its principles. Once these principles of modernism became more uncertain, this rigorous divide began to dissolve. For example, the “serious music” broadcast consisting of classical music, previously a staple of public radio, gradually disappeared as an institution from radio programming. A colourful mixture of various low-key, popular music was combined with shorter classical pieces, so that the phenomenon known as “crossover”, a familiar term in popular music since the middle of the twentieth century, then spread to the realm of classical music. This situation differs fundamentally from the circumstances that once dominated the public consciousness from the nineteenth century well into the twentieth century and that indeed remain influential in certain parts of the population to this day. Historical-critical musicology must adapt to this transformed state of consciousness. Doing so will allow for a number of promising perspectives to unfold.

The music industry, technology and utopia – an exchange between Marcus Breen and Eamonn Forde

Popular Music ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARCUS BREEN
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Youth Culture ◽  
Music Industry ◽  
The State ◽  
Pop Music ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
The Sixties ◽  
Multiple Characteristics

A new struggle has emerged within popular music. This struggle is about technology and access to music through computer-mediated technology. Somewhat typical of the state of cultural things being more complex in their multiple articulations, this struggle runs in tandem with the historical struggle by youth for ‘their music’ against that of previous generations. The multiple characteristics of the struggle over cultural production, ownership and circulation represents a change from earlier days when pop music was articulated to youth culture and social movements, offering relatively direct relationships from one to another. (For example, ‘The Sixties’ became the shorthand reference for these cultural formations.) That relationship still exists, albeit in a self-conscious historical sense that requires continuous examination as it changes with the new generations of youth and the available technologies.

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