October 21, 13

Sampling, Meanings and Interpretation

- Stan Eminem (samples Dido Thank You); the meaning of the original song; only
samples the first verse; very dark; social commentary; meaning totally changed from the
original song; he chose the sample for the potential meaning; although criticized,
skyrocketed Didos career
- Diamonds Are Forever Kanye West sample; celebrity status, consumerism turned into
a song about blood diamonds in Sierra Leone
Shuker chapter 5
- Pop music: refers to any media form thats self contained and conveys cultural meaning
- Includes recording, album covers, music videos, live performances
- Textual analysis: identifying and analyzing the formal qualities of texts, their structures,
and characteristics.
- Intertextuality: a text communicates its meaning only when its situated in relation to
other texts
- Preferred reading: dominant messages set within the codes and conventions that went
into the creation of the text
- A songs meaning is not definite
- Context plays a large role in how meanings are interpreted
- Cultural meanings are made by consumers
- Songs take on a completely different meaning
Three forms of text:
- Graphic; emphasis on cover art, posters; any promotional material that contribute to
advertising/branding
- Musical; emphasis on lyrics and music
o Musical analysis; tensions in the field of musicology; music context best
understood in its social context
o Lyric analysis: content analysis deals with the subject matter
- Videos; promotional devices; pre-occupation with visual style; abolish traditional
boundaries between an image and its real-life event
- Rap artists referencing the past; Nas Cant forget about you; samples Nat King Coles
Unforgettable
October 23, 13
Genres, covers and authenticity
Genres:
- A category or type
- An organizing element; characteristics, time periods, uses, types of listeners
- Defined in part by distinctions made by the music industry
- Standardize codes and conventions; musical, lyric, visual, ideological
- These codes are fluid
- Genres are merging together; new genres

Dimensions of popular music genres:

- Placed in context of historical roots and social/political context
- Stylistic traits in music
- Non-musical stylistic traits
- Primary audience
- The styles durability; will it continue to develop or is it a passing fad
Metagenres; over-arching categories that contain various genres;
- Rock, world music, pop genres; disco pop; heavy metal rock subgenres; pop
disco Euro disco; rock heavy metal death metal
Musical borrowing and appropriation
- Appropriation; the artistic use of anothers work in the creation of a new piece
Appropriation in art
- Andy Warhol, Campbells Soup Cans (1962)
- Da Vinci, The Last Supper; Warhol reworked art into new pieces
Appropriation in pop music
- Remaking pop standards
- Early rock & roll: a lot of artists borrowing from the blues
- Elvis Hound Dog actually a remake; multiple artists have remade it; Big Mama
Thornton is the original artist
Authenticity
- Authors intent
- Style, genre manipulation
- Musical originality
Pop and rock polarized
- Pop = lie; love, sex, commercial success
- Rock = authentic; musicianship, personal creativity, more valued and authentic
Alan Moore (2002)
- Authenticity of expression; artificial vs. genuine
- Authenticity of experience; listeners experience is being validated
- Authenticity of execution; genre norms, tradition of performance
- Authenticity is credited to the performance rather than decorated within it; value
judgment
Covers:
- Originating moment
- Spectrum of copies
- Original
- Direct copy
- Parody
- Minor/Major interpretation
- Tribute bands trying to recreate the original

- Appropriation
- Authenticity
- Intertextuality
- Context; genre, time period, gender, race, location
November 6, 13
DOCUMENTARY:
- Music videos are vital to the music industry; culture
- Controversy; uses female sexuality to advertise and draw attention
- The more bizarre, the better, i.e. coated in silver or gold
- Women shown dancing around the artist; shown as members of the crowd or band
members, shown hanging around the artist
- Easy solution found to get attention, regardless of genre
- Women can play a role in the narrative of the video; i.e. group sex showing status
symbol
- Cultural norms
- The most important aspect of a woman is their sexuality
- Women presented as aggressors, hungry for sex
- Women using intimate objects when men are absent; they eventually fall apart
emotionally until a man comes around to make her feel better
- Shown in detail in music videos
- When women do wear clothing, it is usually low-cut, lingerie, etc.
- Characters drawn straight from adolescent fantasy
- Nurses, policewomen, the use of water, the schoolgirl, the cheerleader, car washes,
bathtubs, mud fights, girl on girl action etc.
- High disrespect; porn resemblance
- Money showered on womens bodies; the idea that a womens sexuality can be bought
and sold by men
- Violence, gang violence, racism
- Blacks portrayed as out of control [rapists]
- Snoop Dogg: portrays himself as a pimp
- Porn stars appearing in music videos; porn directors now shooting music videos
- Fantasies and what it means to be a man/woman according to the media
- Women defining themselves through being shown posing in front of a camera; wanting
to be watched and to arouse
- Open and willing to whatever a man wants
- Women looking in mirrors; if she looks at herself like that, its okay for others to do the
same; they want to be looked at
- Camera angles reinforces this view; shots from above, between legs, and up her skirt
- Women are not portrayed as real people with dreams and feelings; they are portrayed
as bodies and objects
- Not a bad thing; however, in music videos, women are presented as nothing else
- Images work their way into the real identity of women; how real women portray
themselves/expose themselves
- Music ability not the only requirement to make it in the dream world

Even artists who portray themselves as innocent and independent sell out giving in to
the pornographic imagination i.e. Mariah Carey, Jessica Simpson, Christina Aguilera,
Gwen Stefani, Jewel, Janet Jackson, etc.
Women also showed as being abused; spanked, pushed against walls, tied up, pushed
away, alcohol poured on them, spread across pool tables, kidnapped; women still never
say no and welcome this abuse
Mens violence taking on erotic quality
Verbal abuse turning into physical abuse in real life; central park incident; women not
smiling
Sexual assault commonly occurring
Robs women of their humanity; self provoked

November 18, 2013

Gender and Sexuality
- Accounts of pop as artificial and rock as authentic
- Reflect gender hierarchies; pop = women, rock = men
Frith and McRobbie, rock and sexuality (1978);
- Cock rock (hair bands, hard rockers) vs. teeny bop (male pop singer, primarily
consumed by girls)
- Active (men, rock) vs. passive (women, pop)
-

Madonna first considered very superficial; compared to Cyndi Lauper in the 80s; girls
just wanna have fun material girl
The definition of authenticity was later challenged; she was seen as being engaged in
politics of play
Provocativeness; Madonna one of the first to use her body
Dancing > singing; Madonna in control of her sexuality
Justify My Love; banned on TV stations; displaying sexual acts; using it to appeal to
viewers?
Collaborates with artists who are hot at the time; Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears,
Nicki Minaj
Artists refer to themselves as bitches, pimps
Women taking more manly approaches to music and performing
Resistance to the norm

November 20,2013
Relations between texts and audiences
- The hypodermic syringe model: an early model; the idea that the audience would accept
the messages they received because they have no other opinions; brainwashed by the
media
- Producers text audience
- The two way text audience relationship
- A text may be structured in a particular way, but it may be decoded by the audience in
ways not determined by the text itself
- Fluid interaction between a text, its production and its reception.

Authors/producers <-> audience <-> listener <-> text

Cultivation analysis: studies the long term effects of the media on forms of behaviors
and attributes; real world consequences
Culture:
2 meanings
- The works and practices of artistic and intellectual activity
- A way of life
Subcultures
- Social groups organized around shared interests and practices
- Subcultures typically set themselves against other larger social groups
2 components: plastics (dress and music), infrastructural (ritual)
-

Dick Hebdige: there is a symbolic fit between the values and lifestyles of a group: its
personal experience and the musical forms it uses to express or reinforce its main
concerns.

Disco:
- A musical genre
- A performance site; dance venue, club
- A mode of participation and fandom; DJ and audience
- Tied to race, sexuality and location
- Emphasis on the body (dance), the DJ and the audience
3 main kinds of disco in the 1970s:
- R&B disco: soul and funk; groups keep gospel oriented vocals; self contained bands
already associated with funk
- Eurodisco; contained, simple vocals; less syncopated bassline; Donna Summer
suggestive moaning example
- Pop disco; represented by mainstream pop artists; more commercial, more white,
appealed to more mainstream audiences; The Bee Gees
- Disco was a subcultural movement that crossed over from dance clubs
Kopkind, the dialectic of disco: gay music goes straight
- Rock vs. disco
- Depersonalized vs. personalized style
- Physicality; the body and sex; DJ plays with audiences emotions; mix starts, builds,
builds, break = high point; climax ;) fuck me again with your music
- Camp: an object or symbol taken out of context and applied to a new situation; sublime
or ridiculous effect; The Village People
- Disco Sucks Movement; mass protest leading to the fall of disco; blow ups of disco
records in the middle of a field

Punk
- A cultural style, an attitude by a rebellion against authority and a deliberate rejection of
middle-class values
- A back to basics rebellion against the perceived artifice and pretension of corporate rock
music
- 1975-1978
- Lyrical themes: A challenge against established authority; fascist i.e. swastika logo;
drugs, suicide, violence
- Stripping down of rock to its most basic elements; lower recording aesthetic
- The velvet underground, the stooges, new york dolls, patti smith, the ramones, the sex
pistols, the clash
Scenes
- A specific kind of urban cultural context and practice.
- The formal and informal arrangement of industries, institutions, audiences, and
infrastructures.
- The intersection of music and its physical location
- Seattle grunge rockers: called themselves punk rockers
- Grunge = louder and faster; often run by independent labels
Seattle Grunge:
- Fused punk: heavy metal and more traditional pop styles
- Green River Together Well Never (1988); takes forever to get to chorus
- The Pixies Bone Machine (1988); abrasive and melodic
- Nirvana Smells Like Teen Spirit (1991); launched grunge into the mainstream; written
to try and make the ultimate pop song, mocking The Pixies
Politics:
Popular Musics Relation to Politics
1. Pop or rock as oppositional to established values (including conscious rock); used
for protest purposes; non-standardized, non-commercialized
2. Direct connections between rock and politics e.g. Dead Kennedys, California Uber
Allies; commentary on social issues; other genre examples (black eyes, blue tears
Shania twain, Kiss with a fist Florence and the machine)
Conscious Rock: the contribution of music to organize political movement, raise
awareness, directly affect political change
Band Aid Do They Know Its Christmas
We Are The World 80s version and Haiti version
-

3. Censorship;
Prior restraint: preventing an artist from recording the music
Restriction: placing restrictions; banning the video from radio or TV, preventing an
artist from performing in a particular city
Suppression: government or legal system placing moral codes; government imposition
of censorship

The Dixie Chicks, Political Controversy and Censorship

- Travelling Soldier
- First country song about war
- Lead singer made anti-Bush statement at concert
- Shock; country music usually very patriotic
- Eve of the Iraq war
- Lead singer said she was ashamed that the president was from Texas
- Mass protest; people destroyed CDs and expressed hatred and disappointment
- Dixie Chicks songs pulled from radio playlists; people fired from refusing to pull the
songs from stations
- #1 single fell to the bottom of the charts
December 2, 2013
Blackface Minstrelsy and Vaudeville
- Popular entertainment that exaggerated black dance and music in the 1840s-1870s
early 1900s
- Played by white performers; coated their faces with black cork and wore tattered/urban
clothing; stereotypes
- Overlap with the jazz age; perpetuated already negative stereotypes of black people
- The Jazz Singer; interpreted as a metaphor of Jews and blacks being separated
throughout history
Black vs. white music
- Longstanding stereotypes that place black music in the physical territory and white
music in the intellectual territory
Freedman, black musics on top; white jazz stagnant
- Sweet, commercial dance band music (white) vs. hot swinging jazz (black)
- Identifies whites with reason and common sense vs. blacks being spontaneous and
creative
Essentialism:
- Many critics in the first half of the 20th century believed that black and white musical
traditions were tied to essentialized notions of musical ability
- More recently, scholars have discussed the fact that aptitude for music, or any other
aesthetic expression, is not racially predestined
- The fact that you can tell a jazz artists color just by listening to the music
Common factors in definitions of black music:
- Race, ethnicity and skin color of the producers
- Geographical, social and historical locations where the music is produced
- Specific musical characteristics that tend to be characterized as black
- Blues notes
- Improvisation
- Call and response
- Rhythm

Paul Gilroy, The black Atlantic (2003)

- The self-identity, political culture and ground aesthetics that distinguish black
communities have often been constructed through their music and the broader cultural
and philosophical meanings that flow from its production
Brian Ward, just my soul responding
- Conventionally recognized spectrum of musical techniques and devices that range from
supposedly black to supposedly white polls
- A black-to-white musical spectrum allows for the discussion of music alongside
perceived racial connections
Nelson George, Death of Rhythm and Blues (excerpt)
- Claimed that R&B in the 1980s lost much of its expressive power because of its
separation from the black community
- Artists as a commercial product for mass consumption
- Skin colour and cosmetic surgery; Michael Jackson
- Retronuevo: Black music that appreciates its heritage; An embrace of the past to create
passionate, fresh expressions and institutions
December 4, 13
DOCUMENTARY:
- The box of masculinity: strong, tough, lots of women, etc.
- Hip hop: stereotypical masculinity standards
- Its like being in a domestic violence situation a woman
- Rappers seem to be preoccupied with violence and gunplay
- Guns used as a symbol of what it means to be a man
- Hip-hop created in the ghettos (the Bronx) where it was literally a warzone; poverty,
violence; Black, Indian and Latino people
- Everybody wants to be hard
- Ego driven
- Rappers have been called sissy in childhoods; eager to become hard, ready for the
streets
- Gang/prison environment
- Confrontation with the wrong person
- Same kind of violence seen in Hollywood movies, sports culture, military culture, video
games etc.; a culture of violence.
- Black males are 14% more likely to become homicide victims than any other social
group
- Nelly invited to do a bone marrow drive, but not allowed to discuss his music; displayed
objectifying women in music videos; protesting against his Tip Drill video; swipe
credit card down a womans ass
- The only way in which women are presented in hip-hop
- They dont believe that violence against woman is a serious issue
- Event: men freely acting out fantasies on women, as if in their own hip hop video;
slapping and grabbing women

Shooting their own hip hop videos

Police didnt see this as a priority; women felt as though they were getting molested
Bitch being used to describe women and vulnerable men
Putting manhood and sexuality into question when some men are seen as more
vulnerable girly men
Victims of homophobia in lyrics still go to concerts and support music
When men try to be sexy, other men look too; homophobic yet homoerotic
Homoeroticism: men shirtless and greased up, yet till trying to be masculine and thug
Men trying to hide homosexuality by doing it in secret
Aspiring rappers rapping about rape and murder and drugs; they believe that the
industry doesnt want to hear about anything positive in order to be successful
They all say that they dont want their children to be like them
They are aware that this isnt really who they are
The notion that violence sells
70% of hip hop is consumed by white people
Music reinforces stereotypes about black people; rap about being poor in the ghettos,
while wearing diamonds and in fancy cars
Black men portrayed as dangerous
White men run the industries, making decisions about the music; its a business
Hip hop is trapped in a box

December 8, 13
Geography and globalization
- Major western corporations have impact on other continents; Asia, Africa, middle east,
etc.
- The availability and accessibility of music [online]
- Globalization: the process by which the world is increasingly compressed into a single
social and/or cultural system, together with increased social consciousness of the world
as a whole.
- Localization: Captures the way that globalization is producing new methods of local
attachment
- Views the local as an aspect of globalization.
Four patterns of cultural transmission:
I.
Cultural exchange: two or more cultures interact and exchange features under fairly
loose forms and more or less equal terms; reggae
II.
Cultural dominance: one form of culture is imposed by a powerful group on weaker one
III.
Cultural imperialism: cultural dominance is increased by the transfer of money and/or
resources from the dominated to dominating culture group; copyright money, major
record labels profiting from smaller labels
IV.
Transculturation: the result of the worldwide establishment of the transnational
corporations in the field of culture; the corresponding spread of technology, and the
development of worldwide marketing networks; a result of globalization

Brackett reading: international music

- Recordings produced outside of the US-UK axis of mainstream music
- Harry Belafonte; Banana boat song popular worldwide, on many childrens shows
(Sesame Street, The Wiggles, The Muppets)
- Popularized Caribbean music
- Sampled in Lil Waynes 6 foot 7 foot, Jason DeRulos Dont Wanna Go Home
- Miriam Makeba; popularized South African music; Pata Pata; associated with a dance;
many pop culture songs do this
Shuker chapter 1
- Bob Marley and the Whalers
- Connection to Jamaican culture and the Rastafarian religion
- Political and religious messages; love and world peace
- Matisyahu: Rastafarian and Jewish connection
- Paul Simon, Graceland; 1986
- Fused South African music with his own style
- Exposed millions of listeners to African music
- Western musician seen as exploiting African music for profit
- Many African musicians getting a lot of opportunities and exposure as a result
- A lot of writing on world music has focused on questions on power and economics;
profit
- So many successful fusions of genres; possible to not exploit the culture
- African Child Infant Sorrow
- Get Him To The Greek parody of the music industry and its obsession with Africa
Lipsitz, Immigration and Assimilation
- Global music vs. World music
- Global music represents musical fusions resulting from immigrants in a new country as
well as different cultures; interconnectedness of cultures; helps understand experiences
of immigrants
- World music represented by music with a hand from western music corporations that
have helped market it
- Global music more related to experience, even if it later ends up being marketed
Rai music:
- Algerian
- Blends Arabic lyrics and instruments with synthesizers, disco arrangements, blues
chord progressions, Jamaican reggae and Moroccan gnawa rhythms
- E.g. Cheb Khaled, El Harba Wine
- Anti government writers adapting this song as their anthem; the rai rebellion
Bhangra
- Musicians fuse folk songs from Punjab with disco, pop, hip-hop, house and pop
- DJs in England mixed Bhangra with other musical styles
- For example, Bhangramuffin fuses Raggaemuffin and American hip-hop with Bhangra
- KNaan America; uses Ethiopian jazz samples and rap