Week 1: The Meta of Pop Music

What is music?

• Music is organized sound

  • ex. John Cage, 4:33 

    • 4.33 minutes of silence but the sound occurring during the performance is part of the music.  

• Is understood by the categorization of genres

  • Each genre is laden with meaning and values that is often associated with a different group of people (race, ethnicity, class and gender)

What is pop music?

• The abbreviation of popular music 

• described as ‘new youth music’ by Rachlin starting with rock and roll in the 50s

What are some characteristics of pop music?

• Is Constantly changing 

• It reflects AND influences society (musically and socioculturally) 

  • music is CREATED OUT of different social conditions like new technological advances or social issues 

• It has an implication of whiteness 

  • Non white artists have a higher chance of being put in a different genre 

What makes pop music unique as a genre?

• Pop music is a collection of genre and a genre

• Usually shows influence of different genres either as a collection of songs or within one song 

  • K-pop music, country-pop music, pop-rock 

• Pop music is also a catch all term for a song without a recognizable genre 

  • Ariana grande, the weekend

What are consumers role in Pop music?

• is a unique force because of how much it is consumed

  • extremely wide reaching in both public and private aspects 

• Pop music is extremely portable 

  • singing in our body and through tech (Walkman, iPod)

• There is an aspect of taste that relates to ones background and experiences 

  •  taste is formed by our experiences 

• Groups can form around taste of music — you hang out around people who share similar music taste

What is the phenomena of The new pop star and what does it imply for artists?

• Musicians now are expected to be celebrities first and artists second 

• They are

  • Expected to build social media presence 

  • Expected to advertise 

  • You are expected to cross into other disciplines (movie star) 

  • You are expected to focus on your celebrity status vs the quality of your art 

How have artists react to of the new pop star movement

• Tik tok and going on social media— many artists have been going on tik tok and teasing their labels for demanding them to be constant on social media 

What are the 2 primary Paths to pop stardom?

• Tv show performances

  • American Idol — Kelly clarkson 

  • Girls Tyme on TV, precursor to Destiny’s Child 

• social media 

  • People with big social media platforms

  • who already has high engagement 

  • going viral 

    • Justin Bieber

What are the paths to stardom, before social media?

• playing shows

  • lady gaga at the bitter end 

• A and R  

What is A and R?

• Old school way of finding artists

• Stands for artist and repertoire 

• Is the person supporting the carrier of music artists 

• of a major label

• would go out and find artists that are potentially worth signing, and find them musical repertoire 

What is an example of pop music activism?

• K-pop fans and Tik tok users and twitter registered out a trump rally and then no body showed up as a form of protest

Where is pop music?

• radio 

• television 

• film 

• YouTube 

• retail stores 

• advertising 

• private spaces — in your room 

• public spaces 

Who controls pop music?

• record labels like 

  • Sony, warner 

• record stores 

• radio media 

• Publishers

• mucisians 

• listener 

what were the role of publishers in the past?

• would publish sheet music

• theatres would play the music and if consumers liked it, they would buy the sheet music and play it themselves 

What are the roles of publishers in the present?

• publishers are managers or agents of songs 

• adversities 

what is pop music for?

• to entertain 

• for dancing 

• to enhance our mood 

• to inform/educate 

• to reinforce or challenge beliefs 

• to sell a product 

• expression 

What can pop music tell us?

• who we are 

  • where we come form 

  • what we look like 

  • what we should look like 

  • who we identify with 

  • what we believe 

What is capitalism?

• the prevailing form of economic organization in modern word that assumes the free market as a natural, self regulation default. 

  • Provides wealth for very few 

  • endangers the environment and the wellbeing of most of the worlds population 

What is discourse (of powers)?

• Addressing, thinking about and having a conversation about the “already said” 

• How do we deploy language to understand our world? How do we establish discourse on particular subjects?

  • Micheal Foucault argues that obviously objective and natural structures in society, which benefit some and not others, are discourses of power 

What is representation?

• Who gets to speak, who holds power, who is on stage and who isn’t?

• How does representation affect our sense of who is normal?

• who is over and under represented in culture?

Why would companies agree to have their music streamed for free on Spotify?

• Companies all invested shares in the company and get dividends from their investment 

• companies pay a little royalty rate because they get money from dividends

What are some major points about Old town road?

• Release by lil nas x 

• longest running number 1 hip hop record

• landed both on hip-hop and country charts 

• got LNX signed by a major label 

• billboard removed old town road from the country charts 

What questions does the removal of OTR from billboard make you ask?

• why was old town road really removed?

• why is it so difficult for black artists to cross into white-dominated genres?

Why did LNX pick Billy Ray Cyrus for the old town road record?

• because billy ray cyrus is famous for being Miley Cyrus’ Dad 

• He is in the wider culture

• His look represents Old School Country 

Why was old town road removed from the country billboard?

• Not a musical discussion 

• relates to the normalization of whiteness, but also Nashville's hegemony as it relates to all things country music

• there are many songs on the country billboard that aren’t traditional 

• its okay for white guys to do pseudo-hop hop, but black guys can’t perform country 

What are the major points of Cowboy carter ?

• Released march 29th, 2024 after Texas hold em and sister carriages 

• topped the hot 200 (her 8th consecutive album to do so)

• topped the billboard country charts 

  • first black woman to do so 

Describe the controversy of cartboy carter?

• Ben sisario called it a “challenged to the historical segregation of pop genres” 

• Beyoncé said, “this isn’t a country album, this is a Beyoncé album”

• she resists that country music is white music 

  • the narrative of country as white, serves an ideological purpose. 

  • People don’t want to acknowledge black contribution to country music because it asks them to change those ideologies 

• It wasn’t nominated for any country music awards 

  • why should it be (because its not country) but why shouldn’t it be (because it topped the charts)

How did Cowboy Carter and Old town road impact country and hip hop for black artists?

• Cowboy carter and Old town road creates a lot of opportunity for Black artists to release more country 

• Shaboozy’s Tipsy 

What are the country elements in shaboozy’s tipsy?

• labour struggles 

• References — whiskey 

• honky tonk sound with fiddle and guitar 

• whistling reminiscent of early 2000s indie pop 

• Rock pop elements include typical song form 

  • 4 chord cycle- vi I, IV, I in A

What is neoliberalism?

• is an extreme form of capitalism that started to become dominant in the 1980s, under Ronald Reagan and Margaret thatcher (UK prime minister) 

• It is shorthand for an economic project that blames the public sphere for their shortcomings

• government exist to maximize wealth for private interest 

• if it doesn’t work or if inequalities worse’s, that is the personal failing of the individual or community 

  • Eg. saying communities have a lack of work ethics

How is capital accumulated under neoliberalism?

• by ruthless dispossession consisting of 

  • privatization and commodification of assets 

  • financialisation so that commodities can become an instrument of economic speciulation 

  • management and manipulation of crisis 

  • state redistribution, where wealth is distributed upwards 

How does neoliberalism affect music?

• profit going upwards also applies to the popular music industry 

• musicians who work in advertising are pressured to produce music quickly  

• labels only want to market best selling musicians and no longer want to invest in moderately profitable musicians 

What is Mobiot’s definition of neolibralism

• Neoliberalism sees competition as the defining factor of human relationship 

• citizens are only consumers

• efforts to make an equal society are counterproductive 

• Has the idea that the market ensures that everyone gets what they deserve 

• those who fall behind in competition, are losers and it is their fault

What are the features of neolibralism?

• massive tax cuts for the rich 

• crushing of trade unions 

• deregulation 

• privatization 

• outsourcing 

• competition in public services

Give an example of Taylor Swift being the neoliberal popstar

• During 2015, Taylor blames Nicki’s lack of nomination for VOTY 2015 on misogyny only and ignore the systematic racism and micro aggression that Nicki, as a Black woman, faces

• Swifts neoliberalism form of feminism, reinscribes the very form of oppression they claim to be against 

What are the characteristic of the neoliberal popstar?

Is..

• entrepreneurial and competitive 

• practices are presented as freely chosen (ignores management team, luck and market strategy) 

• Individualization of the self 

• goals of independence, self reliance, choice and security 

• Materialism matters more than citizen and political engagement   

• they perceive the self as a project 

  • where does the public artists end and the private artist begin 

• Problems are construed as one with market solutions 

• focus on profit and productivity 

• emphasize self responsibility, agency and initiative 

  • ignores privilege and believes all their success comes from hard work 

  • but no regard for those who are not given agency and initiative  

What are the 5 big categories of analysing music?

• Pitch (melody/harmony)

• dynamics (volume, intensity)

• timbre (sound quality)

• duration (length of beats and rhythm) 

• form (song structure)

What is pitch?

• a single note 

• the rate at which a frequency vibrates determines the pitch

  • faster the vibration the higher the sound

What happens when you play pitches together

• when you play pitches together you get a chord 

  • Also can create harmony 

What kind of harmonies can be in chords?

• the harmony of chords can be pleasant (consonant) or unpleasant (dissonant) 

  • pleasantness is culturally determined and varies across different music cultures 

What are dynamics?

• the perceived loudness and softness of a sound 

  • Szforzando (sudden loud), crescendo and diminuendo

What is timbre?

• the quality of sound

• Is generated by the particular harmonic series of a given instrument and pitch 

  • the distinctiveness of a particular voice or instrument 

  • also called be called quality of sound and tone colour 

    • trumpet is brassy and bright

What can affect timbre?

• the construction of an instrument 

• the materials of an instruments 

• the context which it is heard 

• its ability to sustain a note 

What is the duration?

The pulse and rhythm of a song

What is pulse and beat?

• the short regular element of time that underline rhythm 

• beat can be divided into recognizable meter (1-2-3-4)

What is rhythm?

• the temporal relationship within music. 

  • Doesn't need to agree with the beat,

    • it can be played by all instruments while the beat is kept by a percussive instrument. 

What is accent?

• emphasis on a particular beat or pitch 

What is syncopation?

• rhythmic effect that provides an unexpected accent, often by temporarily unsettling the meter through a change in the established pattern of stressed and unstressed beats. 

What is Form?

• The structure of a musical piece typically consisting of distinctive sections that are either repeated or used to provide construct with other section 

What is strophic form

• form which all verses of text have the same melody 

• can influence a chorus that is sung between verses and may have a different melody 

• Verse: same music different lyrics 

• chorus: same music, same lyrics 

What are the common components of a strophic pop song?

• Main 

  • verse 

  • chorus 

• optional 

  • bridge 

  • intro outro 

  • prechorus 

What is the chorus?

• Repeating musical unit with repeating lyrics, usually with the title of the song 

• usually has a fuller texture than other sections 

• makes the listener want to sing along 

What is a refrain?

• short unit which typically serves as a substitute tor a chorus.

• Usually one or two lyrical lines, usually with the title of the songs attached to the end of the verse 

What is a verse?

• narrative function (unfolds a songs story collectively and progressively

What is a prechorus?

• can function as a B part of verse or on its own, usually anticipates the chorus 

What is an intro?

Can be anything from a unique musical element to something that anticipates any element of the song.

What is an outro?

• Can recall any aspect of a song, can be repetitive (e.g. repeat a line of chorus) or be a new element (e.g. instrumental sections)

What is a bridge?

• A self contained musical unit usually heard once or twice within a song 

  • Often moves to a different key 

  • when it is heard more than once, its lyrics are repeated 

  • usually doesn’t contain the title of the song 

  • Break: intsrumental section in place of a bridge 

What is the standard pop form?

• intro

• verse

• prechorus 

• chorus 

• verse 

• prechorus 

• chorus 

• bridge 

• chorus