Showing papers on "Popular music published in 1992"

Producing Pop: Culture and Conflict in the Popular Music Industry

Abstract: Introduction: between the artist and audience feeding the world: popular music and the global entertainment industry music machines: technology and popular music priorities and prejudice: A&R and the acquisition of artists images, identities and audiences: marketing and artist development studios and videos: the production of sound of vision promotional war games: pop radio in Britain and America media matchmakers: publications, performances - stores and dance floors between success and failure: collaboration and conflict in the recording industry conclusion: commerce, chaos and cultural change. Appences: a note about the recording industry statistics world sales of records and tapes 1990.

Dancing in the Distraction Factory: Music Television and Popular Culture

Abstract: 1. Silence! Academics At Work 2. From Anarchy to Chromakey - Developments in Music Television 3. A Musicology of the Image 4. The Structure of Music Video - Re-thinking Narrative Analysis 5. Meta-Narratives of Stardom and Identity 6. A Televisual Context - MTV 7. Aesthetics and Politics in Music Television - Postmodernism Reconsidered Concluding Thoughts.

Innovation and Diversity in the Popular Music Industry, 1969 to 1990

Abstract: This study investigates the organization of the music industry in the United States and its effect on innovation and diversity in American popular music during the 1970s and 1980s. I revise and update Peterson and Berger's (1975) analysis of the popular music industry and observe that, contrary to their assumption that high market concentration leads to homogeneity and standardization in popular music, innovation and diversity in popular music in high market concentration depends on the system of development and production used by major record companies. Major record companies employ an open system of development and production that incorporates innovation and diversity as an effective strategy in maintaining the viability and control of the market. As examples, I discuss new styles of music appearing in the 1980s, radio and music video exposure, and distribution and retailing. I show that the level of innovation and diversity in large culture industries depends more directly on the specific organization of each industry and the structure of its market than on the degree of market concentration.

Cheap print and popular piety, 1550-1640

Abstract: Introduction Part I. The Broadside Ballad: 1. Small and popular music 2. A Godly ballad to a Godly tune 3. The 1642 Stock Part II. The Broadside Picture: 4. Idols in the frontispiece 5. Stories for walls 6. Godly tables for good householders Part III. The Chapbook: 7. The development of the chapbook trade 8. Penny books and marketplace theology Conclusion.

Dope Girls: The Birth of the British Drug Underground

Abstract: This book uncovers the origins of twentieth-century popular culture's most enduring themes - drugs, sex, and pop music. The drug-induced death of the West End musical actress, Billie Carleton and the highly publicised inquest which resulted, became the focus for a heady cocktail of public anxieties about drug abuse, the supposedly malign influence of oriental men and the "frailty" of the women who associated with them. Cocaine and opium had been criminalised only two years before, and the popular press made much of the link between the Chinese opium dens of Limehouse and the drug habits of the decadent demi-monde of London's West End. Meanwhile, women had made enormous social advances during the war years, winning the vote for the first time in 1918 but provoking fear and resentment about their changing role in a still deeply conservative society. "Dope Girls" attempts to evoke the mood of the time -the hectic social life, the jazz and musicals, the sex and drug scandals, and their voyeuristic coverage in the popular media.

Mahler: A Musical Physiognomy

Abstract: Theodor W. Adorno's classic study of Gustav Mahler's music defies traditional thematic analysis, which, according to Adorno, "misses the music's substance in its preoccupation with procedure." He reaches beyond the boundaries of conventional analysis for an understanding of the music through the composer's character, his historical, philosophical, and social background, and his moment in musical history. First published in German in 1960, this ground-breaking work quickly established itself as a bold new form of musical interpretation, expanding the framework in which the composer's character and, through this, his creations are more fully understood. Adorno illuminates his argument through evocative metaphors, vivid images, and unusual comparisons. The result is a densely layered, anti-systematic interpretation that reveals as much about Adorno as it does about his subject. One of the most original and highly regarded of modern musical commentators, and among the first to call himself a sociologist of music, Adorno was a philosopher, cultural critic, and composer. His unique critical method illuminated music by relating it to history and social milieu. He held that music was a nonconceptual language that represented yet transcended the social world; in music and art, aesthetic value and social relevance were necessarily united. The essential themes of his Marxism - reification, fetishism, the emancipatory role of art, and the dialectical relationship of affirmation and negation - were alive in even the most formal works of art. In Mahler's A Musical Physiognomy, Adorno views the composer's works as a continuous and unified development from his childhood response to the marches and folktunes of the Bohemian village where he was born. But despite its traditional roots, Mahler's music intentionally breaks the balance of established musical language.

The Seventh Stream: The Emergence of Rocknroll in American Popular Music

Abstract: Philip Ennis presents a major social and cultural study of the origins and evolution of rocknroll. With masterful command of general trends and telling details, he describes the artistic, economic, and political context that nurtured this radically new popular music. This seventh stream, which drew from existing forms of pop music, began as a youth movement of rebellion and remains a worldwide banner of youth in search of alternatives. Rocknroll emerged, he shows persuasively, from the successive meeting and melding of the other six streams pop, black pop, country pop, jazz, folk, and gospel. He chronicles how these were shaped by struggles over musical property rights, and by the new technologies of radio and phonograph record. The most decisive clash was between the New York based music publishers and the radio broadcasters. Their decades long contest resulted in many cultural changes. The basic unit shifted from sheet music to the phonograph record. The radio disc jockey in small, independent radio stations became the new focal point for all the popular musics. New venues, audiences, and talent appeared throughout the nation. The appearance of rocknroll marked a significant cultural moment, argues Ennis. This seventh stream was part of an explosive efflorescence in all the American arts after World War II. Its early stars Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis Presley built a pantheon of performers with deep roots in all the other streams."

A history of Western musical aesthetics

Abstract: "A most welcome contribution, a veritable treasure trove of insight...So pervasive has been the fascination of aesthetics for critics and literary figures through the ages that the sheer number of their writings challenges the imagination. Lippman has organized the subject in a logical chronology starting with Plato and Aristotle and culminating in such figures as T. W. Adorno and Georg Lukacs. This comprehen-sive, encyclopedic treatment of writers includes trenchant analyses of their writings and assessments of their contributions and of their relationships to their cultural and historical eras. Lippman writes in a clear and readable style...All the sections are top-notch." - "Choice". "Recent composers have posed [enormous challenges] to traditional conceptions of music and musical values. The book is particularly timely and badly needed." - Lewis Rowell, author of "Thinking about Music: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Music"." A History of Western Musical Aesthetics" follows through the centuries debates about the place and function of music, the perceived role of music as a good or bad influence on the development of character, as a magical art or a domestic entertainment, and as a gateway to transcendental truths. Edward Lippman describes the beginnings of mu-sical tradition in the myths and philosophies of antiquity. He shows how music theory began to take on new dimensions and intensity in the seventeenth century, how musical esthetics was specifically defined and elaborated in the eighteenth century, and how, by the nineteenth century, music became the standard by which other arts were judged. The twentieth century added problems, pressure, and theories as music continued to diversify and as cultures viewed each other with more respect. Edward Lippman, professor emeritus of music at Columbia University, is the author of "A Humanistic Philosophy of Music" and many other works.

Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music

Abstract: Introduction. Part 1 The historical background: Europe and the Near East, including the Arab world of the Middle Ages, British folk music Africa, including the Afro-Arab culture, some fundamentals of African music North America, including white and black music, instrumental and vocal music. Part 2 The theoretical foundation: the matrix modality wholeness the beat. Part 3 The blues: the uniqueness of the blues, including blues in American music, blues mode and the twelve-bar form African origins of the blues, including the talking blues, blues accompaniment, Afro-American rhythm British origins of the blues, including proto-rock and roll blues harmony, including the history of Gregory Walker, primitive harmony the riddle of the twelve-bar blues. Part 4 Parlour music and ragtime: the parlour modes parlour harmony parlour rhythm ragtime some final reflections. List of musical examples. Works cited. Glossary. Index.

The Effect of Country Music on Suicide

Abstract: T7his article assesses the link between country music and metropolitan suicide rates. Country music is hypothesized to nurture a suicidal mood through its concerns with problems common in the suicidal population, such as marital discord, alcohol abuse, and alienation from work. The results of a multiple regression analysis of 49 metropolitan areas show that the greater the airtime devoted to country music, the greater the white suicide rate. The effect is independent of divorce, southernness, poverty, and gun availability. The existence of a country music subculture is thought to reinforce the link between country music and suicide. Our model explains 51% of the variance in urban white suicide rates. Sociological work on the relationship between art and society has been largely restricted to speculative, sociohistorical theories that are often mutually opposed. Some theorists see art as creating social structure (Adorno 1973), while Sorokin (1937) suggests that society and art are manifested in cyclical autono- mous spheres; and still others contend that art is a reflection of social structure (Albrecht 1954). Little empirical work has been done on the impact of music on social problems. While some research has linked music to criminal behavior (Singer, Levine & Jou 1990), the relationship between music and suicide remains largely unexplored. Music is not mentioned in reviews of the literature on suicide (Lester 1983; Stack 1982, 1990b); instead, the impact of art on suicide has been largely restricted to analyses of television movies and soap operas (for a review, see Stack 1990b). In this article, we explore the link between a particular form of popular music (country music) and metropolitan suicide rates. We contend that the themes found in country music foster a suicidal mood among people already at risk of suicide and that it is thereby associated with a high suicide rate. The effect is buttressed by the country subculture and a link between this subculture and a racial status related to an increased suicide risk.

Rock: The primary text. Developing a musicology of rock

Abstract: This book is part of a remarkable series of studies of popular music in Britain published by Open University Press. The series covers a wide range of subjects, from parlour to punk, using what the editors claim is an interdisciplinary approach dealing with “not only ‘texts’ and performances, but institutions and technology as well, and the cultural practices and sets of social relationships through which music and songs were produced.”

Patterns of harmony

Abstract: There are two seemingly self-evident truths concerning the harmonic practices of popular music. The first, which finds clear expression in Adorno, is that such music's harmonic language is both detrimentally limited and static. The harmonic repertoire is considered to consist of a few formulae (Adorno deals with them in terms of standardisation: see Middleton 1990, p. 45ff.), by means of which song-writers string together their songs, uninfluenced by the song's content. For the expert listener, therefore, popular music should be uninteresting: it is only its psycho-economic dimension which makes it worthy of study. This tends also to be the conclusion of established musicology, except that there it is felt such ‘extra-musical’ speculation is best left to the sociologist. The second truth is that the differences between Afro-American-derived styles are material, since our identities are so strongly incorporated in the styles we use: We mark out the differences between genres and styles partly by reference to contrasts in the way this stock of techniques and sounds is used. (Middleton 1990, p. 88) Since harmony is not only at the forefront of traditional analytical investigation, but also forms an important initial focus for songwriters, it may well be assumed that it is therefore an important factor in enabling us to distinguish, for example, ‘rock’ from ‘pop’ from ‘soul’. However, the material reality behind these differences of style has rarely been subject to systematic investigation.

The Rise of Musical Classics in Eighteenth-Century England: A Study in Canon, Ritual, and Ideology

Abstract: The English invented the idea of musical classics. In the 18th century England was the first country where old musical works were performed regularly and reverentially, and where a collective notion of such works - "ancient music" - first appeared. This work explores the formation of the musical "classics" in regard to repertory and social contexts. It examines the performance of old music in 18th-century England, from the interest in music of the Elizabethan period at the beginning of the century, through the performance of works by Henry Purcell, Arcangelo Corelli, and other English and Italian composers, to the development of festivals that featured choral-orchestral works of Purcell and Handel. The book concludes with the establishment of the Concert of Antient Music in 1776, where the traditions of performing old works came together as a self-conscious canon focused upon the work of Handel. It examines closely the political and social reasons for these developments. In addition, it shows how they laid the groundwork for the classical-music tradition of the 19th century.

Can you feel it? DJs and House Music culture in the UK

Abstract: I spent the summer of 1990 studying the work of disk jockeys involved in the ‘House’ club scene in London, Manchester and Belfast. What I was initially intrigued by was how a popular music genre could develop such a following, indeed, some notoriety, without the traditional trappings of ‘rock 'n' roll’ (‘star performers’, ‘groups’), and without a manifest ideological stance adopted in relation to mainstream lifestyles. I came to conclude that a shift of meanings had occurred in the activity of mass dancing to records during the late 1980s, a shift which has created a new and central role for disk jockeys.

The culture industry: the arts in urban regeneration.

Abstract: Cultural industries, Derek Wynne cultural questions, Derek Wynne television - a strategy for expansion, Haydn Shaughnessy the popular music industry, Steve Redhead local government and cultural policy, Justin O'Connor issues in education and training, Linda Dockery urban regeneration and the arts, Derek Wynne the economics of the culture industry, Howard Hughes and Chris Gratton cultural production, Howard Hughes cultural consumption Chris Gratton

The Space Between the Notes: Rock and the Counter-Culture

Abstract: The Space Between the Notes examines a series of relationships central to sixties counter-culture: psychedelic coding and rock music, the Rolling Stones and Charles Manson, the Beatles and the `Summers of love', Jimi Hendrix and hallucinogenics, Pink Floyd and space rock. Sheila Whiteley combines musicology and socio-cultural analysis to illuminate this terrain, illustrating her argument with key recordings of the time: Cream's She Walks Like a Bearded Rainbow, Hendrix's Hey Joe, Pink Floyd's Set the Controls For the Heat of the Sun, The Move's I Can Hear the Grass Grow, among others. The appropriation of progressive rock by young urban dance bands in the 1990s make this study of sixties and seventies counter-culture a timely intervention. It will inform students of popular music and culture, and spark off recognition and interest from those that lived through the period as well as a new generation that draw inspiration from its iconography and sensibilities today.

'Sadeness', Scorpions and single markets: national and transnational trends in European popular music

Abstract: Among the biggest international hits of 1991 was ‘Sadeness’, a piece of music created in a studio in Spain by Michael Cretu, a German-based, Rumanian-born producer using samples from recordings of Gregorian chants This followed the chart successes of dance records created in Belgium by Technotronic and Snap, in Italy (Black Box) and Sweden (Dr Alban)

Selling the Sixties: The Pirates and Pop Music Radio

Abstract: Was it a non-stop psychedelic party or was there more to pirate radio in the sixties than hedonism and hip radicalism? From Kenny Everett's sacking to John Peel's legendary 'Perfumed Garden' show, to the influence of the multi-national ad agencies, and the eventual assimilationof aspects of unofficial pop radio into Radio One, Selling the Sixties examines the boom of private broadcasting in Britain. Using two contrasting models of pop piracy, Radios Caroline and London, Robert Chapman sets pirate radio in its social and cultural context. In doing so he challenges the myths surrounding its maverick 'Kings Road' image, separating populist consumerism from the economic and political machinations which were the flipside of the pirate phenomenon. Selling the Sixties includes previously unseen evidence from the pirates' archives, revealing interviews and an unrivalled selection of rare audio materials.

Music and Musical Thought in Early India

Abstract: Offering a broad perspective of the philosophy, theory, and aesthetics of early Indian music and musical ideology, this study makes a unique contribution to our knowledge of the ancient foundations of India's musical culture. Lewis Rowell reconstructs the tunings, scales, modes, rhythms, gestures, formal patterns, and genres of Indian music from Vedic times to the thirteenth century, presenting not so much a history as a thematic analysis and interpretation of India's magnificent musical heritage. In Indian culture, music forms an integral part of a broad framework of ideas that includes philosophy, cosmology, religion, literature, and science. Rowell works with the known theoretical treatises and the oral tradition in an effort to place the technical details of musical practice in their full cultural context. Many quotations from the original Sanskrit appear here in English translation for the first time, and the necessary technical information is presented in terms accessible to the nonspecialist. These features, combined with Rowell's glossary of Sanskrit terms and extensive bibliography, make "Music and Musical Thought in Early India" an excellent introduction for the general reader and an indispensable reference for ethnomusicologists, historical musicologists, music theorists, and Indologists.

Rock Formation: Music, Technology, and Mass Communication

Abstract: Technology and Popular Music The History of Sound Recording Sound and Popular Music The Design and Marketing of Music Technology Technology, Music and Copyright The Process of Sound Recording Technology and the Musician Rock, Roll 'n' Record

Mixing pop and politics: rock music in Czechoslovakia before and after the Velvet Revolution

Abstract: Rock and pop music in the USSR and eastern Europe has become an area of increasing interest to both the western mass media and cultural studies since glasnost, perestroika, the collapse of the Eastern bloc Communist regimes and the constitution of new western-styled democratic governments. This is largely because rock music has represented probably the most widespread vehicle of youth rebellion, resistance and independence behind the Iron Curtain, both in terms of providing an enhanced political context for the often banned sounds of British and American rock, and in the development of home-grown musics built on western foundations but resonating within their own highly charged political contexts. As the East German critic Peter Wicke has claimed, Because of the intrinsic characteristics of the circumstances within which rock music is

World Musics in Music Education: The Matter of Authenticity

Abstract: with piano accompaniments added, with texts translated and sometimes altered to fit American conceptions, and generally ’cleansed’ of their rhythmic and tonal ’irregularities’. However, with ethnomusicologists now serving as advisors to some textbook publishers, an effort to improve the authenticity level of the music printed and recorded has developed. Further, other music publishers have been praised for their efforts to offer authentic music materials to a needy profession. Added to this, the Education Committee of the Society for Ethnomusicology plans to develop a computer information project to assist classroom teachers and music specialists in the collection of authentic materials for the teaching of world musics. With this activity toward authenticity of music materials for teaching, it is remarkable that little discussion has appeared in the music education literature on what authenticity means. It is the purpose of this article to stimulate that discussion.

Excursions in World Music

Abstract: List of Recordings Preface Chapter 1: Introduction: Studying Musics of the World's Cultures Bruno Nettl Our Purpose: Presenting the World of Music Notes on the "Marriage of Figaro" Certain Basic Assumptions Universals of Music Musical Change, Transmission, and History Musical Instruments Why Different Cultures Have Different Kinds of Music The Field of Ethnomusicology Bibliography Chapter 2: The Music of India Charles Capwell Attending a Music Conference in Calcutta Roots The Karnatak Recital and Types of Pieces Instruments The Realm of Indian Music Prospects Bibliography Discography Chapter 3: Music of the Middle East Bruno Nettl Concerts in Tehran Musical and Cultural Values Middle Eastern Culture and History Melody and Rhythm Ways of Making Music Bibliography Discography Chapter 4: The Music of China Isabel K. F. Wong The Contemporary Scene Instrumental Performance at a Teahouse in Shanghai The Qin and Its Music The Pipa and Its Music Prominent Features in Culture and Music Regional Styles Bibliography Discography Chapter 5: The Music of Japan Isabel K. F. Wong Hogaku Performance in Tokyo Theater Music The Religious Traditions A Concert and a Court Tradition General Tendencies and Characteristics of Hogaku Bibliography Discography Chapter 6: The Music of Indonesia Charles Capwell Javanese Music in Chicago The Javanese Gamelan The Cultural and Historical Significance of Javanese Gamelan Music Music in Bali The Influence of Foreign Artists and Tourists Four Kinds of Popular Music in Java Unity in Diversity Bibliography Discography Chapter 7: The Music of Sub-Saharan Africa Thomas Turino A Shona Mbira Performance in Zimbabwe The Mbira and Some General Principles of African Music Africa General and Africa Specific Musical Values, Practices, and Social Style A Sampling of Instruments Popular Music in the Twentieth Century Bibliography Discography Chapter 8: The Musical Culture of Europe Philip V. Bohlman Music in the Life of Modern Vienna Europe as a Music Culture Ideas About Music Musical Instruments History and Social Structure in European Musical Life European Music at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century Bibliography Discography Chapter 9: Music in Latin America Thomas Turino An Andean Mestizo Fiesta in Paucartambo, Peru Sociocultural Heritages and Historical Background Mestizo Musical Values and Musical Style Native American Musical Values and Musical Style African American Musical Values and Styles Bibliography Discography Chapter 10: Music in the Caribbean Timothy Rommen Cat Island, June 2, 2006: Ninth Annual Rake-n-Scrape Festival. Shared Histories, Mutual Challenges Themes in Caribbean Music We, the People: Nation And Identity In The Caribbean Bibliography Discography Chapter 11: Native American Music Bruno Nettl "North American Indian Days" Some Older Ceremonial Traditions The World of Native American Cultures and Music Ideas about Music Musical Instruments Aspects of the History of American Native American Music Bibliography Discography Chapter 12: Ethnic North America Philip V. Bohlman Music at the Urban Folk Festival The Multiplicity of Musics in North America Ideas about Music Musical Instruments Social Structure/Musical Structure The Music of an African American Community Ethnic Music and the Globalization of American Popular Music Bibliography Discography Glossary Index

Drugs, music, and ideology: a social pharmacological interpretation of the Acid House Movement.

Abstract: During the summer of 1988, a musical concert experience called Acid House arrived on the cultural scene in many British cities. The media created a frenzy of misinformation in reporting about the latest drug craze. Acid House music was then banned from the pop music charts, radio and television, and retail outlets. Some psychoactive substances have been bought, sold, and consumed at Acid House events, but drug use does not appear to be extensive. At the physiological level, the nature of Acid House music, especially the drumming aspect, seems instrumental in providing altered states of consciousness. At the interpersonal and social level, the set and setting of Acid House events further enhances and reinforces the specific physiological and psychological responses. The degree of acceptance by various subcultural groups may depend greatly on the amount of media and societal exposure given to it, particularly if authoritarian attempts to suppress it enhance its political or ideological aspects.

I Put a Spell on You: The Autobiography of Nina Simone

Abstract: }James Baldwin used to tell Nina Simone, "This is the world you have made for yourself, now you have to live in it." Simone has created for herself a world of magnificent peaks. Often compared to Billie Holiday and Edith Piaf, Simone is known as one of the greatest singers of her generation. She has recorded forty-three albums, ranging from blues to jazz to folk, and her hits like "I Loves You, Porgy," "My Baby Just Cares for Me," "I Put a Spell on You," and "Mississippi Goddam" have confirmed her as an enduring force in popular music. Her song "Young, Gifted, and Black" became the anthem for the Civil Rights Movement and thrust her beyond international stardom into the center of activism. But such worlds as Simone's are not without their grim valleys: disastrous marriages, arrest and the threat of imprisonment, mental breakdown, poverty, and attempted suicide. She has survived these trials and continues to perform throughout Europe and the United States. With undiminished passion and in her unconquerable voice, this is Nina Simones powerful memoir of her tempestuous life. }

From pop to punk to postmodernism : popular music and Australian culture from the 1960s to the 1990s

Abstract: Part 1 Institutions and contexts: Australian popular music and its contents, Graeme Turner Tjungaringanyi - Aboriginal rock, John Castles magpies, lyrebirds and emus - record labels, ownership and orientation, Marcus Breen heritage rock - pop music on Australian radio, John Potts from Bandstand and Six O'Clock Rock to MTV and Rage, Sally Stockbridge. Part 2 Generations of change: growing up (uncool) - pop music and youth culture in the '50s and '60s, Craig McGregor music, counter-culture and the Vietnam era, Louise Douglas and Richard Geeves death rockers of the world unite - Melbourne 1978-80, Vikki Riley Be my woman rock'n'roll, Vivien Johnson nothing ventured, nothing gained - Midnight Oil and the politics of rock, Simon Steggels Kylie - the making of a star, Idina Rex music video, the bicentenary (and after), Philip Hayward dance parties - capital, culture and simulation, Andrew Murphy and Edward Scheer.

Adorno, Jazz, and the Aesthetics of Popular Music

Abstract: When academics analyze popular art, they usually subsume it under the rubric of "popular culture." Unfortunately, this approach assumes that "aesthetics is naked cultural hegemony, and popular discrimination properly rejects it."' Although it is accepted that jazz is particularly rich as a mass-culture artform, its status as popular musicsomething distinct from the Western tradition of "serious" composed music--taints it as distinctly less valuable. In an attempt to undercut this prevailing disregard for the aesthetic value of popular music, I shall focus on the special case of jazz as treated in the seminal writings of Theodor W. Adorno. His theories have supported the tendency to approach popular art in terms of a sociological critique that downplays its aesthetic dimension; I will argue that Adorno's writings actually support the appraisal of jazz (and, by extension, other popular music) on its own terms.