Structures of Meaning: Popular Music and Society
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Structures of Meaning: Popular Music and Society by Hugh Ian Crozier, Goldsmiths College Submitted for the degree of Doctor ofPhilosophy A bstract of Thesis The sociology of music has a long history and has attracted theorists because, although music has obvious effects on people which appear to be socially and culturally constrained, there is no 'meaning' which can be held accountable. Likewise, certain types of popular music, in particular 'rock' and 'reggae', are associated with identifiable social groups and yet homologies tying musical types with social structures are not easy to identify. Nevertheless, a feature of this field of study, which has been well received for some two decades, is to announce 'links' between certain popular musical styles and social structures. These 'links' are based on description and assumption rather than rigorous analysis. They are, however, an important feature of the myths which surround popular music, and an analysis of one group of myths in particular is offered. This thesis works with two main propositions: first, that popular music can be addressed sociologically in the same way as 'serious' or 'classical' music; and second, that the musical analysis should be consistent with the musical type concerned as well as descriptive of the music itself. Popular music, even if formally notated, has considerable degrees of freedom, far more than are available to 'serious' music. The presence of these degrees of freedom makes formal notation an inappropriate document for popular music and might explain why its main method of distribution and reproduction this century has been in the form of recorded artefacts - discs, tapes, compact discs, etc. Although these aural records could be used, the disadvantage of these media is the lack of generalisation. For this reason appropriate wTitten documents can be utilised. These are offered here in the form of charts which identify general rather than specific elements in the music and are here employed to demonstrate overall structures in musical texts. It is from this position that it is possible to identify trends and similarities in popular music and this allows conclusions to be drawn concerning musical structures and social structures which are tied firmly to the musical texts involved. This both satisfies the musicological and sociological demands of such analyses by the identification of specific homologies. This thesis offers studies illustrating the method. 2 Table of Contents Fage Preface 4 Introduction 10 Chapter 1 Music and Sociological Analysis 19 Chapter 2 Issues and Tensions arisingFom c')'ociol()gy~\' approach to music 35 Chapter 3 Methodological Issuesf(Jr a Sociology ofPopular Mush,' 65 Chapter 4 Pep - New Orleans .fa:::: and Homology 117 Chapter 5 High Society, Theodore Adorno and the Popular Music business 163 Chapter 6 Mellers. Beatles and !:'ternity 194 Chapter 7 A4yth%gies ofJa:::: 216 Conclusion 240 Selected Bibliography and References 244 Appendix 1 248 Appendix 2 252 Appendix 3 255 3 Preface and Acknowledgements This thesis, which explores homologies between musical and social structures, inevitably deals in part with rudimentary musical theory. Most details will be explained as they emerge, but I offer here an overall background which will enable the general reader to have a fuller understanding of the argument. Western music as it has developed since the Reformation is based on the tempered scale. In its major mode - by far the most common, especially in popular music - the scale of any of the 12 pitches (separated by semitones) in the tempered diatonic scale can be found by applying the following formula, starting at any note: from the start note, advance by: tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone In musical nomenclature, alphabet terms are assigned to the white keys on the piano keyboard, from A to G. Each group of A to the next A above spans one octave. Octaves can start from any of the white keys or any of the black which are named according to the white keys to which they are adjacent. The black key to the right of the white key F is called Fi1' (sharp), but since it is at the same time immediately to the left of the white key G it is also called Gt.. (flat). Thus, increasing a pitch by a semitone sharpens it, while decreasing it by the same interval causes it to be flattened. On a piano keyboard, a semi tone interval is represented by adjacent keys, whether white or black. A tone rise in pitch entails a move to the next but one key, again counting black and white keys. A tone increment from C moves the pitch to D, the white key immediately to the right of C. A fall of a tone from F P involves a drop in pitch to E. Using the above formula, the scale of C major is: CDEFGABC while the scale ofF is: 4 FGABb CDEF. Scales are bounded by notes having the same name. They are separated by the interval of one octave. In summary, there are twelve possible major scales in Western music (classical and popular), each starting on one of the semitone divisions bounded by an octave. Since the classical period (starting about the end of the eighteenth century), improvisation in musical performance has tended to be less common, presumably because of its 'romantic' possibilities of self expression, which stands opposed to the classical movement. The received version of art music stresses a written text which should be adhered to more or less strictly. In the Baroque period, on the other hand, improvisation was expected, and especially in the continuo, or accompaniment. The instructions to continuo players are only sketched out and have the name figured bass. This type of instruction survives today in popular music, variously called chord sequences or chord charts. These specify the underlying harmonics of a piece but do not instruct the player precisely how to play it. The artist is thus given considerable scope for embellishment and interpretation. Chords A chord is a group of two or more notes sounded simultaneously. The three most common chord types in popular music are: major, minor and dominant (usually dominant 7th). These basic types are subject to extreme variation and embellishment, especially by improvising musicians. In popular music nomenclature, chords are named according to their root note which governs its effect in the context of a given piece of music. This effect is entirely relational in character. There is no intrinsic reason to the note C in isolation which would suggest its property as the dominant of F, which, in the chord of 7 C , would require a return to the chord ofF (major or minor). In the context of a piece of music written in F, however, it would have that effect; but in a blues composition in the key of G we might find that same chord having the value of a subdominant 7th. It is, i 2 indeed, found in blues compositions written in C as the tonic 7th . 5 The major chord is composed of the 1st (tonic, or root), third (mediant) and the fifth (dominant - i.e., the name of the degree of the scale, not to be confused with a dominant chord). Dominant 7th chords are the major chord with the inclusion of the flattened 7th. Minor chords are found by sounding the 1st, minor (or flattened) third and fifth. Each of the twelve semitones in the diatonic scale can be used as the basis for chord 3 construction . Chord sequences (or charts) Western mUSIC IS usually notated by dividing the musical flux into bars which are consistent with the rhythm and metre of the piece. Most popular music is based on phrases of two bars in length which are organised into melody lines of either eight, 4 sixteen or thirty two bars in length . Moreover, most is in four-four time, meaning that there are four beats in every bar. These common features are exploited in the type of musical shorthand typical in Western popular and folk music, chord sequences or charts. These are the only surviving musical descendant of the Baroque figured bass. They offer a set of harmonic structures and other rudimentary instructions which will ensure that players in the rhythm section (or continuo) will play the same background for the ensemble or soloists. Since jazz and other folk music is heavily improvised, soloists especially will also tend to use the harmonic structure of a piece to inform their own variations rather than relying only on the melody line. Two such charts are offered here by way of illustration. The subdominant 7th, being a 'blue' note, is found commonly in jazz improvisation and is sometimes written in more formal compositions such as Jelly Roll Morton's The Pearls (probably composed in 1918). 2 This attribute of musical notes (and, indeed, chords) might be thought to have a parallel with Saussure's notion of the arbitrariness of linguistic signs. However, for a number of reasons, which must include the rational development of Western music alluded to by Weber (1949:30-32), there are probably fewer degrees of freedom for musical signs than for linguistic. This probably marks the limits of a semiology of music. 3 This thesis does not utilise even simple formal notation. However, Wright (1980) does so on the grounds that it is a convenient way of distinguishing between different 'takes' of a piece. The general reader is referred to his admirably brief Note on Simple Musical Notation (1980:x). .. The ubiquitous twelve-bar format of the classic blues has become familiar only through exposure. According to van der Merwe, it sounded alien to publishers when W C Handy first tried to interest them early this century (van der Merwe 1992:285).