Improvisation and Value in Rock, 1966

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-232
Author(s):  
DAVID BRACKETT
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
White Male ◽  
Musical Style ◽  
Cultural Hierarchy ◽  
Musical Transformation ◽  
Musical Practices ◽  
Indian Classical Music

AbstractThe mid-1960s has figured as a central period in the historiography of popular music, but the role of improvisation has been little discussed. This article argues that issues of improvisation and value are crucial to understanding the emergence of a high-low split within popular music, a division that figures prominently in criticism and fan discourse up to the present day. This new stratification within popular music made it possible for rock to acquire critical prestige relative to other popular music genres. The formation of rock also relied on its association with a primarily white, male, middle-class demographic. This article demonstrates that rock's prestige rests simultaneously on maintaining this narrow demographic profile while locating aesthetic and spiritual value in musical practices coming from elsewhere (in terms of geography, race, or cultural hierarchy): blues, Indian classical music, jazz. The socio-musical transformation in which improvisation played such an important role is explored through a survey of recordings and an analysis of the development of rock criticism in 1966, the year in which a new constellation of aesthetics, politics, and musical style crystallized.

scholarly journals Musical Practices in the Funeral Context: A Case Study of Cemeteries in the Ljubljana Region in 2016

2017 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 217-241
Author(s):  
Anita Prelovšek
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Folk Music ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Instrumental Ensemble ◽  
Vocal Ensemble ◽  
Musical Practices

In Ljubljana and in its surroundings the music at a traditional funeral still consists usually of a vocal ensemble or a trumpet, but in 2016 this has increasingly tended to be replaced by a girl’s vocal and instrumental ensemble. The choice of music depends largely on the wishes of the relatives of the deceased. Folk music predominates, followed by popular music; the music requested least is classical music. The most frequently performed songs of the year 2016 were: Gozdič je že zelen, Lipa zelenela je and Nearer my God to Thee.

Reimagining the archive as thick sound: A case study of Dhrupad from Bettiah and beyond

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-58
Author(s):  
Sumitra Ranganathan
Keyword(s):  
Complex I ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Philosophical Problem ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Musical Practices ◽  
Indian Classical Music ◽  
And Function ◽  
Archival Work

The ephemerality of music is a consuming philosophical problem; it is also a practical dilemma for archivists and researchers. For oral traditions such as Indian classical music, notations, recordings and transcriptions fail to capture much of what is communicated in musical performance, which problematizes the creation and function of archives. This article explores an approach to archiving musical practices in relation to constitutive processes of emplacement, a complex I denote by the term ‘thick sound’. Using a rich and historic Dhrupad tradition as a case study, I discuss how I used documentary, material, aural, embodied and sensory performance data to construct my archive. I investigate the ways in which such documentation captures ecologies of music-making and the challenges posed for the analysis of histories of (thick) sound. I conclude by discussing the implications for theorizing archival work as active intervention, mediating relationships of past, present and future.

Goal-Directed Soul? Analyzing Rhythmic Teleology in African American Popular Music

2011 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 179-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Fink
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Delayed Gratification ◽  
Soul Music ◽  
Reception Study ◽  
Analytical Work ◽  
American Popular Music ◽  
Goal Direction

Abstract A theoretical consideration of teleology in African American popular music, focusing on the late-1960s output of Motown Records. The question of goal direction and musical value in popular music is traced back to the theoretical dispute between Leonard Meyer and Charles Keil, who stand in for the two poles of an outmoded binarism: a “classical” music defined by control of teleology and delayed gratification, and a “popular” music defined by a liberating feeling of groove in an endless present. Soul music and culture, steeped in the aspirational drive of the black middle class, falsifies this view of African American popular music. Drawing on more recent analytical work on grooves (Butler, Danielsen), a model of rhythmic teleology is developed and then tested on two seminal tracks produced by Norman Whitfield and sung by the Temptations. In both “Cloud Nine” (1968) and “Runaway Child, Running Wild” (1969), Motown's signature “four on the floor beat” functions as a rhythmic tonic. Reception study supports the proposition that Whitfield's control of rhythmic teleology, combined with socially conscious lyrics about drug use and the counterculture, represent a powerful intervention in favor of goal direction and delayed gratification at a pivotal moment for the African American middle class.

Conflation and conflict in Brazilian popular music: forty years between ‘filming’ bossa nova in Orfeu Negro and rap in Orfeu

Popular Music ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
JONATHON GRASSE
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
Musical Style ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
Bossa Nova

Popular music plays important roles in two related films portraying Brazilian slum life. Based on a 1953 play by Vinícius de Morais, Marcel Camus's 1959 film Orfeu Negro, and a 1999 feature by Brazilian director Carlos Diegues titled Orfeu, augment traditional samba styles with bossa nova and rap, respectively. Interpreting musical style as allegorical texts within fictive landscapes, this paper examines conflation and conflict among musical meanings, Brazilian social histories, and discursive identities marking the twentieth century. Broad aspects of Brazilian political and socio-cultural development are implicated, such as authoritarianism, the politics and sociology of race, technological advances, mass media, and modes of modernisation. Here, bossa nova and rap engage society through reflexive and generative interpretations within a narrative designed to illustrate connections between processes of innovative, trans-national cultural production, myths of national identity, social change, and the powerful role of popular music in film.

scholarly journals Transformasi Musik Arumba: Wujud Hibriditas Yang Meng-global

Panggung ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hinhin Agung Daryana ◽  
Dyah Murwaningrum
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Cultural Space ◽  
Musical Transformation ◽  
Descriptive Method

ABSTRACT This study focused on the transformation of Arumba music caused by the urge of want to be more acceptable and acknowledged its existence by the current environment. It is influenced by it popularity among Bandung Society. It needs to be observed because there are still limited numbers of research that illustrate the journey of arumba music and it role in Bandung society. This research employed descriptive method and qualitative approach. The result shows the cultural space and personal interpretation take effect on the transformation of arumba music into an interesting music. It build up Jorgensen theory on musical transformation sketch. It can be concluded that the arumba music transformation is reaction for seeking authenticity. Moreover, this phenomenon caused a significant effect, especially in determiining the position, image, and role of arumba music in the popular music repertoire in West Java.Keywords: Arumba, transformation, bamboo musicABSTRAKPenelitian ini difokuskan pada transformasi musik Arumba yang disebabkan oleh adanya dorongan keinginan untuk lebih dapat diterima dan diakui keberadaannya oleh lingkungan baru. Hal ini dipengaruhi oleh popularitasnya di kalangan masyarakat Bandung. Sejak kelahirannya musik Arumba dijadikan hiburan dan kemudian bergeser menjadi alat pendidikan di perguruan tinggi. Penelitian ini menjadi penting karena kondisi jumlah penelitian yang membahas perjalanan musik arumba dan perannya dalam masyarakat Bandung sangat terbatas. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode deskriptif dengan pendekatan kualitatif. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa ruang budaya dan interpretasi pribadi mempengaruhi transformasi yang terjadi pada musik arumba. Studi ini akan dibicarakan dalam sketsa transformasi musik Jorgensen. Dapat disimpulkan bahwa transformasi musik arumba adalah reaksi pelakunya dalam upaya mencari otentisitas musiknya. Selain itu, fenomena ini menyebabkan dampak yang cukup signifikan, terutama dalam menentukan posisi, citra, dan peran musik arumba dalam repertoar musik populer di Jawa Barat.Kata kunci: Arumba, transformasi, Bandung, musik bambu

Inside Magoo (1960): Comedic Commentary on 1950s America and Cancer

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Cantor
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
White Male ◽  
American Cancer Society ◽  
Educational Film ◽  
Cancer Society ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Post War ◽  
United Productions Of America

This chapter traces the role of humour in Inside Magoo (1960), an educational film released by United Productions of America (UPA) for the American Cancer Society (ACS). Humour, I suggest, provided 1) a response to ACS’s concerns that public fears of cancer led people to avoid appropriate medical help, and 2) a commentary on 1950s America from the perspective of someone – Mr. Magoo – who rejected the post-war world of white, male, middle-class, consumerist suburbia. This film was thus not only about cancer. It wrapped the ACS message within humorous observations on life in the 1950s to charm audiences into adopting ACS approaches to the disease; a technique, I suggest, that was common to other UPA cancer educationals of the 1950s.

Conclusion

2019 ◽  
pp. 174-194
Author(s):  
Anna Bull
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Gender Identities ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
The Aesthetic

The conclusion lays out four ways in which the tradition and practices of classical music form an ‘articulation’ with the middle classes: the formal modes of social organization that it requires; its modes of embodiment; its imaginative dimension; and the aesthetic of detail, precision, and ‘getting it right’. It argues that the aesthetic of classical music does the boundary-drawing work of retaining this as a middle-class space and practice, and within these spaces, classical music cultivates a form of selfhood characterized by emotional depth that is recognized as valuable. It draws out two ways in which this book contributes to a wider understanding of the middle classes: the ways in which gender identities structure classed reproduction, and the continuing role of classical music as legitimate culture conferring institutionalized cultural capital. Finally, it lays out ways forward for classical music in policy and practice.

“Ignorance of Your Culture Is Not Considered Cool”: Reconsidering the Avant-Garde Impulse in American Punk

Damaged ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 63-92
Author(s):  
Evan Rapport
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
American Culture ◽  
Musical Style ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Blackface Minstrelsy ◽  
Vernacular Culture ◽  
American Popular Music

This chapter reconsiders the role of American rock experimentalists such as Captain Beefheart, DEVO, and the Residents in the formation of punk’s musical style. Although these musicians are often referenced in punk histories, their contributions are typically misunderstood because of an anachronistic focus on the British punk scene of 1977 as punk’s starting point. These musicians used avant-garde approaches to American popular music and vernacular culture in order to tackle American music’s unacknowledged and whitewashed history, including such controversial practices as blackface minstrelsy, as well as the problems of white suburbia, the war in Vietnam, the failures of hippie idealism, and a frustration with both mainstream American culture and the counterculture.

Practice, performance and the archive: Cases from Indian classical music genres

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-17
Author(s):  
Aditi Deo ◽  
Lakshmi Subramanian
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Sound Studies ◽  
Music Genres ◽  
Practice Performance ◽  
Musical Practices ◽  
Indian Classical Music ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Musical Networks ◽  
Affective Dimensions

Given their emphasis on oral pedagogy and improvisatory approaches, Indian classical music genres present a challenge for constructing historically nuanced studies of musical practices, shifts in them over time and their links to broader developments. Much scholarship on Indian classical music tends to maintain loyalties to disciplinary silos such as social and cultural history, cultural studies and ethnomusicology, often sacrificing aspects of the spectrum of musical experiences. The dispersed nature of musical networks has meant that the archive for studying the phenomena of listening to, learning and disseminating music is fragmented, mobile and multi-local, not easy to capture with conventional methodologies of historical reconstruction or even purely ethnographic fieldwork. A central concern that drives the articles in this issue is a focus on exploring musical sound, repertoire and practices as archives. Such a focus raises two kinds of challenges. One is the identification of archives that can capture the ephemerality and immediacy of these musical practices; the other is the question of interpretive methods that can faithfully reflect the aesthetic and affective dimensions of musical practice. The contributors to this Special Issue explore a range of historical records centred on music ‐ notations, compilations, repertoires, biographies, texts, anecdotes, performances, recordings, pedagogic tools ‐ as their primary archives. Drawing upon disciplinary insights from cultural history, ethnomusicology and sound studies, and often in conversation with musicians and listeners, they offer conceptual and methodological lenses for reading such archives productively.

The Effect of Indian Classical Music on Migraine Episodes in Young Females of Age Group 18 to 23 Years

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
Tanvi Jha ◽  
Anita Pawar ◽  
Keashav Mohan Jah ◽  
Madhulika Monga ◽  
Sunita Mondai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pain Intensity ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Test Group ◽  
Young Females ◽  
Pain Scales ◽  
Group A ◽  
Indian Classical Music ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
Group B

Music has been known for its soothing effects since ancient times. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of Indian classical music during migraine episodes in young (18 to 23 years) female patients. A standard music playlist was prepared and distributed to the test group of 25 patients. They listened to the music during every migraine attack occurring for a period of 4 months. Questionnaires containing pain scales were administered at 0 month, 2 month and 4 month. The statistical analysis of the responses provided by the patients of the 2 groups (A and B) showed significant differences. The pain intensity during an attack, the duration of an attack and frequency of attacks showed significant decline while alertness after an attack showed considerable improvement in the music group (Group A) subjects. However, subjects of Group B, our non music group, showed no improvement in their migraine symptoms with respect to pain intensity, duration, alertness and frequency of attacks. Our results demonstrate the potential role of Indian classic music as an adjuvant therapy for management of migraine episodes.

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