Musicology and the history of the Music....

Musicology (Greek: μουσική = "music" and λόγος = "word" or "reason") is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture. In the intermediate sense, it includes all relevant cultures and a range of musical forms, styles, genres and traditions. In the broad sense, it includes all musically relevant disciplines and all manifestations of music in all cultures. The broad meaning corresponds most closely to the word's etymology, the entry on "musicology" in Grove's dictionary, the entry on "Musikwissenschaft" in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, and the classic approach of Adler (1885). In the broad definition, the parent disciplines of musicology include history; cultural studies and gender studies; philosophy, aesthetics and semiotics; ethnology and cultural anthropology; archeology and prehistory; psychology and sociology; physiology and neuroscience; acoustics and psychoacoustics; and computer/information sciences and mathematics. Musicology also has two central, practically oriented subdisciplines with no parent discipline: performance practice and research, and the theory, analysis and composition of music. The disciplinary neighbors of musicology address other forms of art, performance, ritual and communication, including the history and theory of the visual and plastic arts and of architecture; linguistics, literature and theater; religion and theology; and sport. Musical knowledge and know-how are applied in medicine, education and music therapy, which may be regarded as the parent disciplines of Applied Musicology. Traditionally, historical musicology has been considered the largest and most important subdiscipline of musicology. Today, historical musicology is one of several large subdisciplines. Historical musicology, ethnomusicology, and systematic musicology are approximately equal in size - if numbers of active participants at international conferences is any guide. Systematic musicology includes music acoustics,the science and technology of acoustical musical instruments, physiology, psychology, sociology, philosophy and computing. Cognitive Musicology is the set of phenomena surrounding the computational modeling of music.

 

Music history or historical musicology studies the composition, performance, reception, and criticism of music over time. Historical studies of music are for example concerned with a composer's life and works, the developments of styles and genres (e. g. baroque concertos), the social function of music for a particular group of people (e. g. court music), or modes of performance at a particular place and time (e. g. Johann Sebastian Bach's choir in Leipzig). Like the comparable field of art history, different branches and schools of historical musicology emphasize different types of musical works and different approaches to music. There are also national differences in the definition of historical musicology. In theory, "music history" could refer to the study of the history of any type or genre of music (e.g., the history of Indian music or the history of rock). In practice, these research topics are more often considered within ethnomusicology (see below) and "historical musicology" is assumed (ethnocentrically) to imply Western Art music. The methods of historical musicology include source studies (esp. manuscript studies), paleography, philology (especially textual criticism), style criticism, historiography (the choice of historical method), musical analysis, and iconography. The application of musical analysis to further these goals is often a part of music history, though pure analysis or the development of new tools of music analysis is more likely to be seen in the field of music theory. Music historians create a number of written products, ranging from journal articles describing their current research, new editions of musical works, biography of composers and other musicians, or book-length studies. Music historians may examine issues in a close focus, as in the case of scholars who examine the relationship between words and music for a given composer. On the other hand, some scholars take a broader view, and assess the place of a given type of music in society using techniques drawn from other fields, such as economics, sociology, or philosophy.

New musicology is a term applied since the late 1980s to a wide body of work emphasizing cultural study, analysis, and criticism of music. Such work may be based on feminist, gender studies, queer theory, or postcolonial theory, or the work of Theodor Adorno. Although New Musicology emerged from within historical musicology, the emphasis on cultural study within the Western art music tradition places New Musicology at the junction between historical, ethnological and sociological research in music.
New musicology was a reaction against traditional historical musicology, which according to Susan McClary, "fastidiously declares issues of musical signification off-limits to those engaged in legitimate scholarship." Charles Rosen, however, retorts that McClary 'sets up, like so many of the "new musicologists," a straw man to knock down, the dogma that music has no meaning, and no political or social significance. (I doubt that anyone, except perhaps the nineteenth-century critic Hanslick, has ever really believed that, although some musicians have been goaded into proclaiming it by the sillier interpretations of music with which we are often assailed.)' (Rosen 2000).Today, many musicologists no longer distinguish between musicology and New Musicology, since many of the scholarly concerns that used to be associated New Musicology have now become mainstream, and the term "new" clearly no longer applies.

....."Music - Genera"

              A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music.
Music can be divided into many genres in many different ways. Due to the different purposes behind them and the different points of view from which they are made, these classifications are often arbitrary and controversial and closely related genres often overlap. Many do not believe that generic classification of musical genres is possible in any logically consistent way, and also argue that doing so sets limitations and boundaries that hinder the development of music. While no one doubts that it is possible to note similarities between musical pieces, there are often exceptions and caveats associated.

There are several academic approaches to genre. In his book Form in Tonal Music, Douglass M. Green lists the madrigal, the motet, the canzona, the ricercar, and the dance as examples of genres (from the Renaissance period). According to Green, "Beethoven's Op. 61 and Mendelssohn's Op. 64 are identical in genre - both are violin concertos - but different in form. Mozart's Rondo for Piano, K. 511, and the Agnus Dei from his Mass, K. 317 are quite different in genre but happen to be similar in form." Some treat the terms genre and style as the same, and state that genre should be defined as pieces of music that share a certain style or "basic musical language". Others state that genre and style are two separate terms, and that secondary characteristics such as subject matter can also differentiate between genres. A music genre (or sub-genre) could be defined by the techniques, the styles, the context and the themes (content, spirit). Also, geographical origin sometimes is used to define the music genre, though a single geographical category will normally include a wide variety of sub-genres.Kembrew McLeod, in an essay entitled "Genres, Subgenres, Sub-Subgenres and More", suggested that in electronic music, "the naming of new subgenres can be linked to a variety of influences, such as the rapidly evolving nature of the music, accelerated consumer culture, and the synergy created by record company marketing strategies and music magazine hype. The appropriation of the musics of minorities by straight, middle and upper-middle-class Whites in the United States and Great Britain plays a part, and the rapid and ongoing naming process within electronic/dance music subcultures acts as a gate-keeping mechanism, as well."A list of genres of music (including sub genres) can be found at List of music genres. There are a number of criteria with which one may classify musical genres, including:

The Art/Popular/Traditional distinction


Time period


Regional and national distinctions


Technique and instrumentation


Fusional origins

Sociological function




The Art/Popular/Traditional distinction:


Art music:
Art music primarily refers to Classical music or others listed at List of art music traditions (including non-European classical music), Contemporary classical music (including Electronic music, Experimental music and Minimalist music). Art music may also include certain forms of Jazz (even though jazz is primarily a form of popular music), Religious music, folk, and world beat music. New Age is also used as an form an art music. Art music is music that is used as in a form of a work of art, and uses many textbook elements of music. Art music is mostly instrumental, but lyrics are added but are in a poetic, political, or religious sense. Art music is music generally discussed in music education and played on public radio stations.



Popular music:
The usual stereotype of "popular music" is music belonging to any of a number of musical styles that are accessible to the general public and are disseminated by one or more of the mass media. For a critical introduction, see the work of Richard Middleton (e.g. Studying Popular Music 1998) and Starr/Waterman American Popular Music (2004). Popular music is also used in more of a sense with the market economy, in a way music can be used to make a profit. Popular music is usually found on most commercial radio stations, in most commercial music retailers and department stores, and for use in movie and television soundtracks. Popular music is also recorded on the Billboard charts and uses music producers as opposed to singer songwriters and composers.

The relationship between (particularly, the relative value of) classical music and popular music is a controversial question. Some partisans of classical music may claim that classical music constitutes art and popular music only light entertainment. However, many popular works show a high level of artistry and musical innovation and many classical works are unabashedly crowd-pleasing. The elevation of classical music to a position of special value is closely connected to the concept of a Western canon, and to theories of educational perennialism.The very distinction between classical and popular music has sometimes been blurred in the border regions , for instance minimalist music and light classics. In this respect music is like fiction, which likewise draws a distinction between classics and popular fiction that is not always easy to maintain.



“ Neat divisions between 'folk' and 'popular', and 'popular' and 'art', are impossible to find ... arbitrary criteria [are used] to define the complement of 'popular'. 'Art' music, for example, is generally regarded as by nature complex, difficult, demanding; 'popular' music then has to be defined as 'simple', 'accessible', 'facile'. But many pieces commonly thought of as 'art' (Handel's 'Hallelujah Chorus', many Schubert songs, many Verdi arias) have qualities of simplicity; conversely, it is by no means obvious that the Sex Pistols' records were 'accessible', Frank Zappa's work 'simple', or Billie Holiday's 'facile'." (Middleton, 1990) ”



Traditional music:
Traditional music is the modern name for what used to be called "Folk music", before the term "Folk music" was expanded to include a lot of non-traditional material. The defining characteristics of traditional music are:

Oral transmission: The music is passed down, or learned, through singing and listening and sometimes dancing.

Cultural basis: The music derives from and is part of the traditions of a particular region or cultur

U 2

U2 has been perhaps the biggest music act in the world since the late 1980s to the current day. They take prominent stands on human rights issues, expressed through their lyrics and other public statements and actions. The band's lead singer, Bono, has become quite prominent in charity movements and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. The band consists of Bono, lead singer and songwriter; The Edge, lead guitar, keyboards, vocals; Adam Clayton, bass guitar; Larry Mullen Jr., drums. Their manager is Paul McGuinness.

The band formed in Dublin, Ireland, in 1976. The three members who strongly identified themselves as Christians (all except Clayton) decided to pursue and promote the band's career in a manner that would be consistent with their religious beliefs, which are heavy on social action. Theology professor Eugene Peterson says the band has "little patience with media-driven aspects of the Christian religion and a church and culture that shows little concern for justice and poverty and sickness".

The band's popular 1983 song "Sunday Bloody Sunday" commemorated the slaughter of innocent civilians during the Irish troubles. It called for a renunciation of violence, a sentiment that resonated greatly with the people of Ireland. Throughout the 1980s the band used this song to campaign against the Irish Republican Army's (IRA) efforts to raise money to fuel continued armed conflict. The IRA sent a threat to U2 that if they continued their campaign they would be kidnapped. The band continued anyway.

The band's 1984 album "Unforgettable Fire" was named after paintings made by the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs. The album's songs "Pride" and "MLK" were both tributes to the modern-day leader they most admire, Martin Luther King. Another song, "Bad", was about heroin addiction, which was a serious problem in their home town of Dublin at that time.

U2 were major participants in the historic and seminal "Live Aid" concert of 1985, which raised funds for relief from a severe drought in Ethiopia. The band was seen by many of the 1.5 billion people who viewed the concert on live television, and Bono's unscripted leap into the crowd captured the imagination of all. The more than 75 performing groups raised some $250 million for the charity. In the months following the concert, U2's record sales skyrocketed and have never come back down. In 1986 the band headlined a promotional tour to support Amnesty International, and the effort reportedly tripled the organization's membership.

In the 1990s the band's music and concerts mocked the excesses of commercialism. Some critics failed to understand that Bono's exaggerated on-stage personas during the "Zoo TV" tour were parodies, and thus concluded that the band had given in to what they in fact were criticizing. In the early 2000s U2 shifted from stadium extravaganzas to performing in smaller arenas where they were closer to their audiences. In 2004 the band teamed up with iPod for an innovative promotional campaign.

U2 continues their work for charity and social action. They promoted the Northern Ireland Peace Accords, raised money for the survivors of the Omagh bombing, played in devastated Sarajevo following the war there, helped bolster the shaky economy of New York City by playing there following the September 11 terrorist attacks, participated in the Live 8 series of concerts to relieve Third World debt, and continue to promote the Make Poverty History campaign. Bono has become prominent in efforts to end poverty and seek relief from AIDS and promote trade for Africa. He has become quite celebrated for these efforts apart from his music and he often finds himself publicly hobnobbing with presidents and finance ministers to promote these charitable ends.

U2 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. By that year they had won 22 Grammy awards, a historic record surpassed only by Stevie Wonder.

Political Economy Of Black Music

If there is an East Coast/West Coast rivalry over the control of hip hop, it is not unlike the "rumble in the jungle" that recently took place in the former Zaire. Like the situation in the re-christened Congo, where American and European interests are occluded by the media, masked as humanitarian," the control of black music by the corporate entertainment industry is never highlighted. The six major record firms have a colonial-like relationship with the black Rhythm Nation of America that produces hip hop and other forms of black music. Despite the names of a few big money makers - Suge Knight, Sean Combs, and Russell Simmons - or the lurid deaths of Tupac Shakur and Christopher Wallace (also known as Notorious B.I.G. and Biggie Smalls), rap, like most black music, is under the corporate control of whites and purchased mostly by white youths.

No better example of how black artists are colonized by white recording companies - aided and abetted by blacks - than the case of Tupac Shakur. Originally on contract to Interscope, founded by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Fields, heir to the Marshall Fields fortune, Tupac was "handed over" to Death Row Record's Marion (Suge) Knight when the enfant terrible of rap was in a New York State penitentiary. While Death Row Records was the creation of Dr. Dre and Knight, it practically owned its existence to Interscope (and some say to a drug dealer named Michael "Harry-O" Harris). Desperate to get out of jail, Tupac signed an onerous agreement with Death Row that made David Kenner, Death Row's counsel, his counsel and manager, a direct and unmistakable conflict of interest. Tupac, according to Connie Bruck in her July 7 New Yorker article, "The Takedown of Tupac," was trying to extricate himself from Death Row but was killed. Now Interscope is willing to intercede on behalf of Tupac's estate, represented by his mother, Afeni, because it might come under scrutiny and its relationship with Death Row, currently under investigation by state and federal authorities for possible racketeering, exposed.


While the rise of rap had not been foreseen, what rap represents - breaking the "bonds of solidarity in chains"
between the black lower class and the middle class - had been foretold by E. U. Essien-Udom in his book, Black Nationalism. Written more than thirty years ago, Essien-
Udom observed that class tensions were developing between thelower and middle classes, with black middle-class leadership assuming that its leadership represented the strivings of
the masses. "Lower class-Negroes," observed Essien-Udom, "are beginning to define themselves in relation to the Negro 'image' portrayed by the middle class and are attracted to
it; they are also repelled by it because their conditions do not permit genuine identification with middle-class Negroes. As it is in their relations with white society, lower-class Negroes tend to withdraw and disassociate themselves from the middle and upper class Negroes. This estrangement suggests the beginning of class consciousness and conflict among the Negro masses, not directed against whites, but
against the Negro middle and upper classes." Today's black leadership cannot relate to those who are the engines of a $1 billion genre of a multi-billion dollar industry. Such an estrangement is self-inflicted cultural, political and economic genocide.

Black leaders have bought into a whole set of assumptions based on white beliefs and the American rules of the game. Consequently, they have never be able to educate those who have talent about protecting their rights as musicians and artists, to expect to be able to earn a living from their crafts. If black music had been nurtured and understood as a source of cultural pride and cultural capital, blacks would have been able to more fully develop an entre- preneurial class of artists, businessmen and women, lawyers, and accountants, create and support their own institutions. In other words, build the sort of true bourgeois class that would have not been afraid to express its own nationalism and build some level of group economics on its own people's talent, and such a development would have entailed making black workers and artists realize that they are enmeshed in an economic system that had to be struggled against by organizing on their terms and interest rather than just racial solidarity. They, like the Jews who invented Holly- wood, could have had "an empire of their own," as Neal Gabler documented in his aptly titled book. Black music could have been the engine of a black-led music industry with all the necessary contradictions of capital and labor.

Today's Music And Economy..

"Diddy enjoying a big gulp"

Diddy Enjoying A Big Gulp
                       As America enters a time period of financial uncertainty, many citizens of this country feel the pressures that our forefathers felt in the 1930’s. Speaking for the generation that encompasses men and women in their twenties, we have never been so afraid financially. We come from a time when internet business gave birth to millionaires and billionaires under the age of thirty, including prosperous entrepreneurs such as Shawn Fanning (creator of Napster), Sergey Brin and Larry Page (founders of Google), and Tom Anderson (Founder of MySpace). And as we continue to explore the vast possibilities of the internet and how it can be used, many industries face expulsion from the world’s stage by new technologies that provide services understanding to modern needs.
And now more than ever, the record industry is facing difficult times ahead. As the “Big Four” (a term used to name the four biggest record companies in the world: Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, EMI Group, and Warner Music Group) struggle in a turbulent ocean to keep afloat, many artists are leaving them to sign with independent labels that give them better deals on their royalty percentages. Radio Head recently released a studio album in which profits were generated by donations. Madonna recently left Warner to sign with Live Nation, which technically isn’t a record label. In fact, they are a concert promotion company. And with instances like these occurring more often than not, the “Big Four” are forced to try new ideas to keep revenue at the levels they are used to.

David Bowie Glamming It Up:

                      In 2001, the record industry took its biggest financial hit. After writing computer code in his dorm room for months, Shawn Fanning released Napster to the world, an internet website that allowed subscribers to freely download licensed music onto their computer and burn it onto CD, all the while not paying anything for it. Although it flew under the radar for a while, many artists and record executives started to take notice of the buzz generated by this website. After multiple lawsuits were filed against the Napster Company, it finally closed its ‘doors’ (so to speak) in 2002 by declaring itself bankrupt and selling its assets to the Best Buy corporation.As of 2008, the Compact Disc (which in dates past covered 80% of the record companies’ sales) dropped 30%. As the record executives promise that recovery is just on the horizon with the advent of digital download, the average share price of the record labels dropped 72% in this decade (according to economist.com). And as the companies lose more and more money, the future of the industry is definitely on shaky ground.
As someone that believes in paying the artists for the music that they create, I wonder to myself, did the record industry have it coming to them? At the end of the forties, the record industry became more organized. The music became more accessible. All fans had to do was go to the local record store and find the album they were looking for. And as businessmen realized the potential earning power of selling vinyl records to the public, marketing schemes were instilled to sell music. By the time the fifties dawned, Rock and Roll captivated the nation with a musical revolution that has not yet been surpassed. And when Elvis Presley made his first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show in September of 1956 with a flashy, rebellious attitude, the record companies realized that nonconformity sold records.

With acts such as David Bowie, Alice Cooper, Elton John, KISS, everybody in the eighties, the Cash Money Millionaires, and so on, the record industry has produced more and more acts that focus on flashiness and glam to sell records. Now I’m not saying that these artists cannot be respected creatively, but their superstar status can be linked to the antics they do on and off the stage. In this decade alone, the term ‘making it rain’ can be heard on a good percentage of songs on the radio. ‘Making it rain’ refers to an individual taking their money and throwing it up in the air so as if to brag that they have money to burn.
But as we enter an era of economic dreariness, does one have the capital freedom to throw up money in the air and walk away from it just so that those around them can grabble in their wake? In my opinion, they do not. And as Sony, EMI, and such promote these lavish lifestyles, I think that the public has finally had enough. Enough of the Ferraris, the Lamborghinis, the $100,000 pieces of jewelry, and the artists throwing their riches into their fans faces. It’s almost as if these artists are telling their fans, “Look what you paid for! You paid for my $4 million house.” And now I think that the fans are finally saying, “I’m not paying for your 4-year-old’s yoga classes anymore.”
And although I am an advocate of paying artists for their art, can you blame the consumers for their lack of willingness to pay their hard earned money considering the shenanigans seen in the supermarket tabloids? Something to think about; but again that’s me, make up your own mind, peace…