Popular Music Studies Vocabulary

Diegetic music

Music that originates from the source within a film's story. Audible to the characters

Diegetic music examples

Characters listening to music on the radio or headphones■ Characters walking by and listening to street music

Non-diegetic music

Music added during post-production. Only the audience can hear it

Non-diegetic music examples

Movie soundtracks

Background themes

Participatory music

everyone present is doing something in the performance (ex. clapping or singing along)

Hegemony

Leadership or dominance, especially by one country or social group over others

Antiphony

Call and response (think sports chants)

Pedagogical

Broadly educational

Didactic

instructional focus

Deliberative Democracy

school of thought in political theory that claims that political decisions should be the product of fair and reasonable discussion and debate among citizens

Representative Democracy

political system in which citizens of a country or other political entity vote for representatives to handle legislation and otherwise rule that entity on their behalf

Corrido

a ballad in a traditional Mexican style, typically having lyrics that narrate a historical event

Narcocorrido

a ballad in a traditional Mexican musical style whose lyrics recount the exploits of drug traffickers

Politics

- Narrow definition includes governance and resistance

- More open definitions include the public life of groups of individuals

- Can even include the everyday life of individuals themselves

Power

- Relations permeate society

- Also exists in the relations between individuals

- Can also influence what society at large considers to be natural or common

Ritual & Acclamation

- Staging of mass public assent

- Often involves unanimous collective participation (no dissent or debate)

Music as violence

Physical

- Mosquito high pitched noise

Symbolic

- Psychological warfare

Music as protest

- Coordinate

- Disrupt

- Build solidarity

- Increase morale

- Promote a message & active participation

Censorship

- Kill musician

- Broadcast bans of genres

- Ban particular songs

"Fuzzy" Message Songs

Songs with vague, ambiguous or unclear lyrics/ meaning that can be open to different interpretations

Nortenos

Style of folk music, associated particularly in north Mexico and features accordion, rhythms and other things associated with central European immigrants

Vocables

Sounds and syllables in songs

White Savior

White person who helps nonwhite people in a self-serving or performative manner

Country Trap

Subgenre that fuses traditional country elements with trap music signature bass, rap vocals and hi-hat patterns

Flag Song

- Used as a national anthem

- Used to open the powwow

- Can include the use of vocables