Showing papers on "Popular music published in 1996"

Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music

Abstract: Acknowledgments Music Talk The Value Problem in Cultural Studies The Sociological Response Common Sense and the Language of Criticism Genre Rules On Music Itself Where Do Sounds Come From? Rhythm: Race, Sex, and the Body Rhythm: Time, Sex, and the Mind Songs as Texts The Voice Performance Technology and Authority Why Music Matters The Meaning of Music Toward a Popular Aesthetic Notes Index

The West: Unique, Not Universal

Abstract: In recent years Westerners have reassured themselves and irritated others by expounding the notion that the culture of the West is and ought to be the culture of the world. This conceit takes two forms. One is the Coca-colonization thesis. Its proponents claim that Western, and more specifically American, popular culture is enveloping the world: American food, clothing, pop music, movies, and consumer goods are more and more enthusiastically embraced by people on every continent. The other has to do with modernization. It claims not only that the West has led the world to modern society, but that as people in other civilizations modernize they also westernize, aban doning their traditional values, institutions, and customs and adopt ing those that prevail in the West. Both theses project the image of an emerging homogeneous, universally Western world?and both are to varying degrees misguided, arrogant, false, and dangerous. Advocates of the Coca-colonization thesis identify culture with the consumption of material goods. The heart of a culture, however, involves language, religion, values, traditions, and customs. Drinking Coca-Cola does not make Russians think like Americans any more

Rhythm and Noise: An Aesthetics of Rock

Abstract: That wild, thin mercury sound - ontology I'll be your mirror - recording and representing record consciousness pump up the volume jungle rhythms and the big beat Adorno, jazz and the reception of popular music romanticizing rock music sing o' the times - ideology and aesthetics.

The Global Jukebox: The International Music Industry

Abstract: Preface List of Tables List of Figures 1.INTRODUCTION 2. MUSIC AND THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY 3.MUSIC AS POPULAR CULTURE 4.THE MUSIC INDUSTRY IN TRANSITION 5.THE PRODUCTION OF POPULAR MUSIC 6.THE CONSUMPTION OF POPULAR MUSIC 7.THE AMERICAN EXAMPLE 8.THE SWEDISH EXAMPLE 9.FUTURE SOUNDS: TOWARDS A GLOBAL JUKEBOX ? Appendix 1 Internet WWW music sites Bibliography

Popular Music and Local Identity: Rock, Pop and Rap in Europe and Oceania

Abstract: World music, indigenous music and world television mixing pop and rock - rock and pop in the Czech Republic before the velvet revolution questions of style - Italian rappamuffin and its social contexts treaty now! world music and indigenous popular music in Australia the sounds of nowhere? independent music in Aotearoa.

Influence of Dinner Music on Food Intake and Symptoms Common in Dementia

Abstract: The influence of dinner music on food intake and symptoms common in dementia such as depressed mood, irritability and restlessness was studied. The study was carried out in a nursing-home ward in Sweden. Soothing music was played as dinner music for weeks, Swedish tunes form the 1920s and 1930s for two weeks and pop music for two weeks. Prior to these periods, there was one week without music, and at the end of the intervention there was a two-week control period. The effects of the intervention were assessed by psychological ratings and by weighing the food helpings. It was found that during all three music periods the patients ate more in total. The difference was particularly significant for the dessert. The staff were thought to be influenced by the music, as they served the patients more food, both main course and dessert, whenever music was played. The patients were less irritable, anxious and depressed during the music periods. The results of the study suggest that dinner music, particularly soothing music, can reduce irritability, fear-panic and depressed mood and can stimulate demented patients in a nursing-home ward into eating more.

Between God and Gangsta Rap: Bearing Witness to Black Culture

Abstract: A former welfare father from the ghetto of Detroit, Michael Eric Dyson is today a critic, scholar, and ordained Baptist minister who has forged a unique role: he is a compelling spokesman for the concerns of the black community, and also a leader who has a genuine rapport with that community, particularly with urban youth. In his essays, lectures, sermons, and books, he has emerged as one of the leading African-American voices of our day. Dyson's passion for contemporary black culture informs Between God and Gangsta' Rap, his latest foray into the ongoing debate about African-American identity which embraces the hopes of the church and the cool reality of hip-hop. Bringing together writings on music, religion, politics, and identity, and offering a multi-faceted view of black life, the book charts the progress of Dyson's own soul, from his roots in the Detroit ghetto, to his current status as a Baptist minister, professor, cultural critic, husband, and father. Dyson opens with a letter to his brother, who is serving life in prison on a murder charge. This painful piece reveals a violence in the author's own family that sets the tone for themes that will emerge throughout these writings: violence on the black body and soul; the redemptive power of hope through school, church, and family; sexuality as a source of anguish and of joy; and the struggle with entrenched white racism. There is a section of wonderful profiles Dyson calls "Testimonials"-studies of black men, from O.J. Simpson to Marion Barry, and from Baptist preacher Gardner Taylor to Michael Jordan and Sam Cooke. In "Obsessed with O.J.," Dyson offers an extremely personal and insightful series of reflections on the case. In "Lessons," Dyson takes up the subjects of politics and racial identity. Newt Gingrich and moral panic, Quabiliah Shabazz, Carol Moseley Braun, the NAACP, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X all figure in these insightful and accessible pieces. And "Songs of Celebration" draws from Dyson's writings for the popular press such as Rolling Stone and Vibe, and explores the joys and pitfalls of black expression, from the black vernacular bible to gospel music, R & B, and hip-hop. Dyson concludes with an essay framed as a letter to his wife, which offers a positive counterbalance to the opening address to his brother. The letter serves as a tribute to the redemptive powers of love, the black family, spirit, and change. Arguing that the richness of black culture today can be found in the interstices-between god and gangsta' rap-Dyson charts the progress and pain of African Americans over the past decade, showing that brilliance and beauty, pain and drudgery are components of this changing culture. As a compendium of his thinking about contemporary culture Between God and Gangsta' Rap will find a wide audience among black and white readers.

Metalheads: Heavy Metal Music And Adolescent Alienation

Abstract: * Profile: Jack * A Heavy Metal Concert: The Sensory Equivalent of War * Profile: Nick * Heavy Metal Music and the Socialization of Adolescents * Profile: Mark * What Is This Thing Called Heavy Metal? Profile: Brian * The Allure of Heavy Metal * Profile: Spencer * The Effects of Heavy Metal * Profile: Lew * Sources of Alienation, I: Family and Community * Profile: Reggie * Sources of Alienation, II: School and Religion * Profile: Jean * The Girls of Metal * Profile: Barry * Heavy Metal Music, Individualism, and Adolescent Alienation

Cultural studies and the study of popular culture: theories and methods

Abstract: Cultural studies and the study of popular culture - an introduction television fiction film newspapers and magazines popular music the consumption of everyday life.

The Sibling Society

Abstract: This work argues that currently people navigating a way from a discredited paternalist society to one where impulse is given its way. In this new society people don't bother to grow up - and are becoming half adults. Technology and affluence are creating a universal, one-dimensional society where everwhere eyes meet uniformity and likeness rather than distinction and difference - the same shopping malls, the same ubiquitous pop music - all across the globe. As this happens, so it becomes harder for parents to teach their children any kinds of values - and people are now all siblings.

On playing by ear

Abstract: The vast majority of all music ever made is played by ear. To make music by ear means to create, perform, remember and teach music without the use of written notation. This is a type of music-making that has been little observed by musicology, which has mainly been devoted to notated music. Even in the research on folk and popular music, which has expanded in the last twenty or thirty years, questions of musical practice when you play by ear are rarely treated: how do you learn to play an instrument, how do you make songs, how do you teach and learn songs and how do you conceive of music theory?

Rockin' Out: Popular Music in the USA

Abstract: Preface. Introduction: Definitions, Themes, and Issues. Into the Twentieth Century: Popular Music and Mass Culture. Rock 'n' Roll: The Birth of a New Era. Marketing and the Politics of Race, Language, and Gender. Regulating Popular Music. 1. Mass Technology and Popular Taste: The Tin Pan Alley Era. Sound Recording: From the Cylinder to the Disc. Tin Pan Alley Constructs the Mainstream Tradition. Commercial Broadcasting: A Very Private Enterprise. Hollywood Bolsters Tin Pan Alley. 2. Blues and Country Music: Mass Media and the Construction of Race. Blues and Country: More Equal Than Separate. "Race" Music: The Popular Sounds of Black America. "Hillbilly" Music: The White Working-Class Country Cousin. The Dissemination of Blues and Country: More Separate than Equal. The Long Road Back for Records. 3. "Good Rockin' Tonight": The Rise of Rhythm and Blues. The Publishers and the Broadcasters: ASCAP vs. BMI. Enter the Deejay: The Broadcasters vs. the AFM. From Big Bands to Solo Singers. The Major Labels Reclaim Country Music. The Independents Promote Rhythm and Blues. High Fidelity/Low Overhead. Television and the Suppression of FM Broadcasting. Independent Radio: Deejays in Your Face. 4. Crossing Cultures: The Eruption of Rock 'n' Roll. Cultural Diversity and the Politics of Race and Gender. Structural Changes in the Music Industry. Sounds of the Cities. Doo Wop: The Intersection of Gospel, Jazz, and Pop. Rockabilly: The Country Strain. 5. The Empire Strikes Back: The Reaction to Rock 'n' Roll. The Established Powers Fight Back. Schlock Rock: Enter the White Middle Class. The Official Attack of Rock 'n' Roll. Surf's Up! 6. Popular Music and Political Culture: The Sixties. The Civil Rights Movement and Popular Music . The British Invasion Occupies the Pop Charts. Breaking the Sounds of Silence. Against the Grain: The Counterculture. 7. Music vs. Markets: The Fragmentation of Pop. The Music Industry: A Sound Investment. Creativity and Commerce: Rock As Art. Sweeter Soul Music. Singer/Songwriters, Soft Rock Solutions, and More. Women's Music: The Feminist Alternative. From Country Rock to Southern Boogie. Mad With Power: Heavy Metal. All That Glitters Doesn't Sell Gold. 8. Punk and Disco: The Poles of Pop. Punk vs. Disco. Punk: Rock as (White) Noise. Disco: The Rhythm Without The Blues. 9. Music Videos, Superstars, and Mega-Events: The Eighties. Early Music Television: They Want Their MTV. Superstars: The Road to Economic Recovery. Charity Rock and Mega-Events: Who Is the World? Technology and the New International Music Industry. 10. Rap and Metal: Youth Culture and Censorship. The Continuing History of Heavy Metal. Hip Hop, Don't Stop. Popular Music and the Politics of Censorship. 11. Alternative to What? Strange Bedfellows: Alternative and the Mainstream. Marketing Categories and Monster Contracts. Country and R&B: The Other Alternatives. Lollapalooza: Countercultural Sensibilities, Mainstream Clout. Bibliography. Index.

Rock And Roll : A Social History

Abstract: Now updated with two new chapters and an extraordinary collection of photographs, this second edition of Paul Friedlander's Rock and Roll: A Social History is a smash hit. The social force of rock and roll music leaps off the page as Paul Friedlander provides impressive insights based on hits from Johnny B. Goode to Smells Like Teen Spirit and beyond. In this musical journey, Friedlander offers the melodious strains and hard-edged riffs of Elvis, the Beatles, The Who, Dylan, Clapton, Hendrix, Motown, the San Francisco Beat, Punk, New Wave, rap, metal, 90's grunge, plus file sharing, and much more. The book is written in a refreshing, captivating style that pulls the reader in, offering no less than a complete social and cultural history of rock and roll for students and general audiences alike. Friedlander writes, 'This book chronicles the first forty years of rock/pop music history. Picture the various musical styles as locations on a giant unfolding road map. As you open the map, you travel from place to place, stopping at each chapter to sample the artistry. Don't forget to dress your imagination appropriately for this trip, because each genre is affected by the societal topography and climate that surround it. Enjoy your trip. We promise it will be a good one!'

Popular Music in Singapore: Exploring Local Cultures, Global Resources, and Regional Identities

Abstract: As an area of geographical inquiry, popular music has not been explored to any large extent. Where writings exist, they are somewhat divorced from the recent theoretical and methodological questions which have rejuvenated social and cultural geography. In this paper one arena which geographers can develop in their analysis of popular music, namely, the exploration of local influences and global forces in the production of music, is focused upon. In analysing the music of Dick Lee, a Singaporean artiste, I illustrate how music is an expression of local/national influences. At the same time I discuss how Lee's music is also reflective of the power of globalising forces, illustrating the ways in which local resources intersect with global resources in a process of transculturation. Then I discuss the ways in which musical analysis offers a handle on larger political, economic, and sociocultural developments in Asia. Lee's search for a regional sound parallels the shift in many other spheres of Asian existenc...

High Lonesome: The American Culture of Country Music

Abstract: What does the "country" in country music mean? Most interpret country as a regional or folk music that belongs to people in the hills and in honky-tonks, but Cecelia Tichi argues that it is in fact a national music form, one that belongs to all Americans. Illustrated with photographs of country music artists and images of American art, "High Lonesome" uses interviews and biographical profiles to provide an insider's look at the schooling, customs, demands and discipline of country music - an art form that Tichi maintains is emphatically part of mainstream American culture.

Musica mizrakhit , Israeli rock and national culture in Israel

Abstract: It has become an annual ritual on Israeli television that, near Independence Day, several intellectuals are gathered in the studio in order to discuss the question whether there is an authentic Israeli culture and what exactly is its nature. Soon enough, popular music turns up as a major subject. It seems that popular music has become one of the few areas in Israel in which a vivid scene of cultural activity takes place, without public funding, and which plays a role in shaping a sense of identity for various groups.

Pennies from heaven : the American popular music business in the twentieth century

Abstract: Part One: 19001920 Thomas Edisons Wonderful Kinetoscope Machine Big Time, Small Time, and E. F. Albee The Victrola and the Pianola Inside the Popular-Music Business Part Two: 19211930 Popular Songs and the Movie Business The Decline and Fall of the House of Albee The Mechanical Music Business A Simple Radio Music Box A Glut of Movie Music Part Three: 19311940 The Fall and Rise of the Record Business Music in Motion Pictures Popular Music and Radio ASCAP versus the Broadcasters Part Four: 19411953 On the Road to New Technology and an Expanded Industry Mass Entertainment and the Music Business ASCAP and BMI Face the Reality of Television Part Five: 19541966 From Monaural to Stereophonic Sound Growth to a Four-Billion-Dollar Business ASCAP versus BMI Payola Problems and Rate Wars Part Six: 19671970 Copyright Revision or Not? The Music-Licensing Wars Big Money Invades the Music Business FM and Top 40 Radio Part Seven: 19711976 Continued Fighting over Licensing Industry Associations Play Their Part The Seven Dirty Words Case and MOR Music Configurations, Payola, and Soul Music A New Copyright Bill at Last Part Eight: 19771980 The U.S. Supreme Court and Licensing The Copyright Royalty Tribunal Other Copyright Problems Seesawing Sales and New Ideas in the Record Business Part Nine: 19811984 Television Music Licensing Rates and PiracyUnsolved Problems Continuing Difficulties for Music Publishers Tight Control of a Prosperous Record Business Part Ten: 19851996 Anxious Indies in an Aggressive Marketplace Desperately Seeking Synergy.

Music education freed from colonialism: a new praxis

Abstract: This paper argues against a conflation of the culturally specific (i.e. the western) and the universal in theoretical discourse about music and music education. The charge is made that music education practices generally have lost touch with the contemporary practices of musicians, thus isolating music education from other educational practices. Set in a context of ISME's commitment to a world view of music and music education, such problems are serious. It is argued that the use of western terminology is inimical to ISME's goals. Terms like ‘music’ and ‘aesthetic’ are specifically western. Epistemological links exist between an aesthetic theory and the associated musical practices, but these are not universal.

' Madchester Rave On 1: placing the fragments of popular music

Abstract: Summary Geographers have neglected popular music, in spite of its key role in cultural identity. Using the example of Manchester, we outline geography's role in forging a certain distinctiveness to the city's 'independent 'music. It is suggested that such musical fragments, which complement and contrast with the global aspirations of mainstream popular music, feed into the formation of postmodern 'neo-tribes

“Don't say Nothin' bad about my baby”: A re‐evaluation of women's roles in the Brill building era of early rock ‘n’ roll

Abstract: This feminist cultural analysis explores a period in American rock ‘n’ roll known as the Brill Building era. While previous researchers have characterized this era as inconsequential to women's history in rock music and as a time wherein regressive songs reinforced traditional views toward femininity, I argue that such a claim is untenable when other features of this music, besides its lyrics, are explored. The Brill Building era marked the massive entry of women into rock ‘n’ roll, providing anglo Americans with their first taste of a female youth culture focused on sexuality and their first exposure in popular rock ‘n’ roll to the voices and vernacular of young, African American women.

Music of the Warao of Venezuela: Song People of the Rain Forest

Abstract: This work examines the music of the Warao, which is a central aspect of their life. Their musical genres are divided into three categories - music for pleasure, utility and theurgy. Musical and textual transcriptions of the songs are provided, and included on the accompanying compact disk.

Banned!: Censorship of Popular Music in Britain, 1967-92

Abstract: Part one Contextualization: a concise history of British censorship censorship - some characteristics of the debate. Part two Industry and the law: "Not here you don't" - censorship by record companies "I'm sorry, Sir, we don't stock that" - retail policy towards popular music "I fought the law" - pop into Court Plate A - a copy of warrant to search Earache Records Plate B - a copy of Property Schedule of stock seized in raid on Earache Records - part one Plate C - a copy of Property Schedule of stock seized in raid on Earache Records - part two. Part three Broadcasting: introductory note - British broadcasting and the law "What's that sound?" - control and censorship of British pop radio Plate D - a copy of list of records distributed by the BBC Training Unit during the Gulf War - part one Plate E a copy of list of records distributed by BBC Training Unit during the Gulf War - part two Ob-Seen? - pop and television. Part four Live music: "Keep yer ya yas in" - censorship of live music festivals and raves - community censorship. Part five Censorial campaigners: keeping up the pressure religious censors - combatting the Devil's music? pressed into censorship? rockin' the House? - the role of MPs in censoring rock.

Adorno, Modernism and Mass Culture: Essays on Critical Theory and Music

Abstract: Preface, Introduction, 1. Critical Theory and Music, 2. Adorno's Aesthetics of Modernism, 3. Adorno, Popular Music and Mass Culture, 4. Critical Reflections on Adorno, Bibliography, Indices

Aural sex: the female orgasm in popular sound

Abstract: In The Pleasure of the Text (1975), Roland Barthes defines representation and bliss as mutually incompatible terms. Bliss is the limit of selfhood and the threshold of the text; it runs parallel to and is incommensurable with pleasure. One cannot, according to Barthes's schema, represent bliss since bliss is the destruction of representation. With the experience of rapture or jouissance, the codes of orderly rhetorical representation are scrambled and the comfort and safety of interpretation are violently punctured. For Barthes, the site of this disturbance is never mass culture, where any potentially ecstatic repetition is "humiliated repetition" and the shock of bliss is engulfed in a deluge of superficially new fashions. The erotic text appears only in excessive scenarios: "if it is extravagantly repeated, or on the contrary, if it is unexpected, succulent in its newness" (Barthes 1975:42). Bliss interrupts language. An orgasm: the blissed-out sound of broken-down speech. If we abandon Barthes's anti-mass stance, what do we make of the proliferation of sounds of ecstasy that have been a staple of the pop music world since the I960s? Specifically, how can we account for the meaning of the many works that include or, more often, center on the female voice simulating sexual bliss? Indeed, with the advent of digital technology and the widespread use of digital sampling in popular music, female sex vocalizations (moans, shrieks, gasps, sighs) have become a staple of dance music from hip hop to Belgian new beat.' And outside of the arena of music, in contemporary popular pornographic technologies (phone sex, CD-ROM, virtual reality), soundtracks are currently being produced that utilize these vocalizations in a variety of both nuanced and cliched ways. Is it possible that underlying the simple discomfort and embarrassment that naturally accompanies the public airing of such graphic sex sounds is a more profound disturbance: a gentle threat to the stability of sensical representation? What happens to this seemingly untenable presentation of bliss when it takes the form of a recording? Is this the pleasurable clawback of ecstasy, containment of rapture, and prevention of total textual loss? Or are pop music sex sounds something harder to pin down, something we experience as unsettling to deep cultural architecture?

The changing context of african music performance in zimbabwe

Abstract: This article is concerned with the historical transformations of Zimbabwean music performance, particularly popular music. It covers mainly the colonial period and to a limited extent the first ten years of independence. The article analyses music-making and performance as cultural production. The musicians involved in the process of cultural production are characterised as 'cultural workers', that is, professional and non-professional, commercial and noncommercial, rural and traditional, urban and modern individuals, whose occupation or part of their occupation involves culture. The article investigates the processes that have led to the evolution of what we may refer to as 'commercial cultural workers', that is, popular music performers who make part of or their living from the music. Among the processes behind the evolution are colonisation, urbanisation and transformations within the political economy of African societies. These processes occurred within the context of colonial institutions such as churches, the army, private companies, municipalities and the mass media. These changes led to the specialisation and commercialisation of cultural performance.