Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T13:32:32.107Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Analysing popular music: theory, method and practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Philip Tagg
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Popular music analysis-why? One of the initial problems for any new field of study is the attitude of incredulity it meets. The serious study of popular music is no exception to this rule. It is often confronted with an attitude of bemused suspicion implying that there is something weird about taking ‘fun’ seriously or finding ‘fun’ in ‘serious things’. Such attitudes are of considerable interest when discussing the aims and methods of popular music analysis and serve as an excellent introduction to this article.

Type
Research Article
Information
Popular Music , Volume 2 , January 1982 , pp. 37 - 67
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Asaf'ev, B. 1976. Die musikalische Form als Prozess (Berlin)Google Scholar
Bengtsson, I. 1973. Musikvetenskap – en översikt (Lund)Google Scholar
Bernstein, L. 1976. The Unanswered Question (Cambridge, Mass.)Google Scholar
Bradley, D. 1980. ‘The cultural study of music’, stencilled paper from the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, no. 61 (Birmingham)Google Scholar
Chapple, S. and Garofalo, R. 1977. Rock ‘n’ Roll is Here to Pay: The History and Politics of the Music Industry (Chicago)Google Scholar
Chester, A. 1970. ‘For a rock aesthetic’, New Left Review, 59, pp. 82–6Google Scholar
Cohn, N. 1970. Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom (London)Google Scholar
Czerny, P. and Hoffman, H. P. 1968. Der Schlager (Berlin)Google Scholar
Fabbri, F. 1982. ‘A theory of genres: two applications in Italian popular song’, in Popular Music Perspectives, ed. Tagg, P. and Horn, D. (Gothenburg and Exeter)Google Scholar
Fonogrammen i kulturpolitiken 1979. Rapport från Kulturrådet, 1979:1 (Stockholm)Google Scholar
Francès, R. 1958. La Perception de la musique (Paris)Google Scholar
Frith, S. 1978. The Sociology of Rock (London)Google Scholar
Gravesen, F. 1980. ‘“Party-musik’ – introduktion til en genre’, in Nordisk musik och musikvetenskap under 70-talet, ed. Carlsson, A. and Ling, J. (Gothenburg), pp. 261–76Google Scholar
Hamm, C. 1979. Yesterdays – Popular Song in America (New York)Google Scholar
Hamm, C., 1981. ‘The fourth audience’, Popular Music, 1, pp. 123–42 (Cambridge)Google Scholar
Hamm, C., 1982. ‘Popularity in music – aesthetics and procedure’, in Popular Music Perspectives, ed. Tagg, P. and Horn, D. (Gothenburg and Exeter)Google Scholar
Helms, S. 1981. Musik in der Werbung (Wiesbaden)Google Scholar
Karbuŝicky, V. 1973. ‘Das “Verstehen der Musik” in der soziologischästhetischen Empire’, in Musik und Verstehen, ed. Faltin, P. and Reinecke, H.-P (Cologne), pp. 121–47Google Scholar
Karshner, R., 1971. The Music Machine (Los Angeles)Google Scholar
Keiler, A. 1978. ‘Bernstein's The Unanswered Question and the problem of musical competence’, Musical Quarterly 64:2, pp. 195–222CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lerdahl, F. and Jackendoff, R. 1977. ‘Toward a formal theory of tonal music’, Journal of Music Theory, 1977: 1, pp. 111–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ling, J. 1978A. ‘Assafjevs Intonationsteori — ett försök till analys’, stencilled paper from Gothenburg University Musicology Department (Gothenburg)Google Scholar
Ling, J. 1978B. ‘Hjort Anders's “12th Night March” - stylistical and ideological change’, Antropologiska Studier, 25/26, pp. 122–39Google Scholar
Maróthy, J. 1974. Music and the Bourgeois, Music and the Proletarian (Budapest)Google Scholar
Mellers, W. 1973. Twilight of the Gods — The Beatles in Retrospect (London)Google Scholar
Melzer, R. 1970. The Aesthetics of Rock (New York)Google Scholar
Meyer, L. B. 1956. Emotion and Meaning in Music (Chicago)Google Scholar
Mühe, H. 1968. ‘Zur Intonation des deutschen Schlagers’, unpublished dissertation, Karl-Marx-Universität (Leipzig)Google Scholar
Narmour, E. 1977. Beyond Schenkerism — The Need for Alternatives in Music Analysis (Chicago)Google Scholar
Nattiez, J.-J. 1974. ‘Sur la relation entre sociologie et sémiologie musicales’, International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, 5: 1, pp. 61–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rebscher, G. 1976. Natur in der Musik (Wiesbaden)Google Scholar
Riethmüller, A. 1976. ‘Die Musik als Abbild der Realität — zur dialektischen Wiederspieglungstheorie in der Ästhetik’, Beihäfte zum Arkiv für Musikwissenschaft, 15 (Wiesbaden)Google Scholar
Rösing, H. 1977. Musikalische Stilisierung akustischer Vorbilder in der Tonmalerei (Munich and Salzburg)Google Scholar
Rösing, H. 1981. ‘Die Bedeutung musikalischer Ausdrucksmodelle für das Musikverständnis’, Zeitschrift für Musikpädagogik, 16, pp. 258–64Google Scholar
Schafer, R. 1974. The New Soundscape (Vienna)Google Scholar
Schafer, R. 1977. The Tuning of the World (New York)Google Scholar
Schuler, M. 1978. ‘Rockmusik und Kunstmusik der Vergangenheit: ein analytischer Versuch’, Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, 35: 2, pp. 135–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seeger, C. 1977. Studies in Musicology 1935–1975 (Berkeley), especially ‘On the moods of a musical logic’, pp. 64–88Google Scholar
Shepherd, J. 1977. ‘Media, social process and music’, ‘The “meaning” of music’ and ‘The musical coding of ideologies’, in Shepherd, et al. , Whose Music? A Sociology of Musical Languages (London), pp. 7–124Google Scholar
Stoïanova, I. 1978. Geste–Texte–Musique (Paris)Google Scholar
Tagg, P. 1979. Kojak – 50 Seconds of Television Music (Gothenburg)Google Scholar
Tagg, P. 1981A. ‘Fernando the flute’, stencilled paper from Gothenburg University Musicology Department, no. 8106 (Gothenburg)Google Scholar
Tagg, P. 1981B. ‘On the specificity of musical communication’, stencilled paper from Gothenburg University Musicology Department, no. 8115 (Gothenburg)Google Scholar
Tagg, P. 1982. ‘Natur som musíkalisk stereotyp’, in Naturresurser i Kultursociologisk belysning, ed. Frängsmyr, and Swedin, (Stockholm) (forthcoming) (ed.) 1980. ‘Film music, mood music and popular music research’, stencilled paper from Gothenburg University Musicology Department, no. 8002 (Gothenburg)Google Scholar
Tarasti, E. 1978. Myth and Music — A Semiotic Approach to the Aesthetics of Music (Helsinki)Google Scholar
Varis, T. 1975. The Impact of Transnational Corporations on Communication, Tampere Peace Research Institute Reports, no. 10 (Tampere)Google Scholar
Wedin, L. 1972. ‘Multidimensional scaling of emotional expression in music’, Svensk Tidskrift för Musikforskning, 54, pp. 115–31Google Scholar
Wellek, A. 1963. Musikpsychologie und Musikästhetik (Frankfurt am Main)Google Scholar
Wicke, P. 1978. ‘“Licht in das Dunkel” — Popmusik in der Analyse’, Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft, 1978:1, pp. 3–15Google Scholar
Wicke, P. and Mayer, G. 1982. ‘Rock music — some progressive aspects of capitalist mass culture’, in Popular Music Perspectives, ed. Tagg, P. and Horn, D. (Gothenburg and Exeter)Google Scholar
Zak, V. 1979. O melodike massovoy pesni [On the melodies of the popular song] (Moscow)Google Scholar
Zoltai, D. 1970. Ethos und Affekt (Budapest)CrossRefGoogle Scholar