Joseph Clementi
The main question I want to focus on is how music has expressed and is expressing the rise of the digital age. Through this project, I want to look at how musicians have expressed an increase in technology conceptually and sonically. From a conceptual standpoint, I’m planning to research what themes of technological growth, both positive and negative, are reflected through the lyrics and concepts of a musician. Sonically, I want to research how musicians went from writing and performing songs on just a guitar, to a synthesizer, and now to a computer and what the drastic change in technology has done to music composition and theory. Additionally, I need to take on the perspective of the listener in this ever changing relationship. I’m planning to address questions such as what the role of the listener is when dealing with these albums that reflect are changing society? What are they to do with these masterful creations and how should they change their life? In order to answer these questions, I need to do extensive research into the history of both the growth in technology and music. I want to look at other periods of technological growth throughout history and analyze the music during this time. I think it will be important for me to draw conclusions from each time period and then be able to summarize how the music has stayed the same or changed throughout the years. Following this, I’m planning to fully dissect the past thirty years and find notable albums that have expressed contrasting and/or similar themes. After the musician and historical side is complete, I will tackle the concept of the listener by speaking with experts in musicology and the music industry and drawing conclusions from these insightful conversations.
Works Cited CONNELL, MATT. "Talking About Old Records: Generational Musical Identity among Older People." Popular Music, vol. 31, no. 2, 2012, pp. 261–278., www.jstor.org/stable/23325761. Accessed 14 Feb. 2020. This source is from a social experiment where a DJ would play records and a group of people of all different ages would listen and discuss. This report is the DJ's conclusions from the experiment and what he noticed. It examines what the role of music and the advancements in music technology have meant to this group of people. One of the biggest discoveries of this experiment was that the musical identities of each generational group were not consistent. This source will help me because I am able to get an insight into how music has changed throughout the years. In this experiment, music was listened and analyzed from the 1940s to present day with a group of people of all different ages. Through this, I can see how music has changed and how generational bias plays into the advance of music. Earl J. Hamilton, Profit Inflation and the Industrial Revolution, 1751–1800, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 56, Issue 2, February 1942, Pages 256–273 This source is a global analysis of the Industrial Revolution with a specific focus on machinery. Along with the new advancements in technology, the author argues that the main factor behind the Industrial Revolution was profit inflation as workers were paid extremely low wages. The prices of products were increasing rapidly during this time, and this should have resulted in higher wages for workers. However, many of these workers were immigrants, and they were used to living in extremely low standards, so companies didn't end up paying them what they should have. The author explains how workers were essentially exploited by their employers, and this began a start of a growing income inequality throughout the globe (specifically England) This is helpful to me because I have a foundational understanding of anthropology during this time period. Workers were being pushed to the extremes and reaping little to no benefit. This was a time where the 1% of the world dominated the rest, and this has pretty significant sociological effects. Now that I know that so many people of the world were experiencing hardship, I wonder if they expressed these problems of stress they were dealing with through music. Laske, Otto E. "Verification and Sociological Interpretation in Musicology." International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, vol. 8, no. 2, 1977, pp. 211-36. JSTOR, doi:10.2307/836887. Accessed 10 Feb. 2020. This source is an introduction and a thesis trying to explain the relationship between sociology and musicology. It explains the two branches of musicology: historical and systematic. Historical musicology is the study of the history of music while systematic musicology covers fields such as psychomusicology, sociomusicology, and philosophy of music. In his thesis, the author attempts to describe how systematic musicology is more valuable than historical musicology as it provides a field for more than just the study of history and music. This helps me with my research because I am now getting a more specific field that I can look into and study. I now know that my project falls under the category of systematic musicology. Since my project and topic is more broad, it cannot simply pertain to the category of historical musicology. Through this source, I found the term "semiotic" or the study of signs. There is a field called music semiology which is essentially the study of signs or symbols in music. This is going to really help with my project and further research. Lundquist, Barbara Reeder. "Sociomusicology : a Status Report." College Music Symposium, vol. 22, no. 1, 1982, pp. 104-11. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40374145. This report is about systematic musicology, and it offers a much clearer and digestible take on the subject. It separates musicology once again into two facets: synchronic and diachronic. Synchronic musicology is the study of the internal processes of music such as composition, theory, and production, while diachronic is the study of external processes such as what people do with it. The source then talks about ethnomusicology and the way it works. Ethnomusicology is defined as a field that looks at both diachronic and synchronic mechanisms for dissecting music. Essentially, ethnomusicology is more of a cultural examination of musicology. This source was very helpful to me as I was able to further specify my topic. I believe my project contains serious elements of ethnomusicology as I am definitely looking at cultures and how specific ones react differently than others. Additionally, I've identified terms, synchronic and diachronic, to explain and research. These new ideas are kind of taking the place of "sonic" and "conceptual" for me. Nettel, R. "The Influence of the Industrial Revolution on English Music." Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, vol. 72, 1945, pp. 23-40. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/765857. Accessed 10 Feb. 2020. This source dissects the relationship between the English industrial revolution and the music during this time period and after. It contrasts the music of Handle and other classical musicians with the english folk scene that began emerging. This source is especially useful because it brings in actual examples of songs during this time period and how they express feelings of what was happening during this time. I'm going to benefit from this source because of the level of depth and specificity about the music during this time period. Though it is specific, I feel like a lot of these concepts mentioned in this source about mechanization and music in England can be applied globally, specifically to the United States. There is so much to unpack within this source such as music composition and lyrics. Additionally, this source approaches this time period with a synchronic and diachronic approach to musicology analysis. Internal Subject Matter Expert Plans:
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I’ve begun to focus on the field of sociomusicology which is essentially the relationship between music and society and they way they reflect one another. This concept, which I was not aware of before my research, is integral to my final project. Because of this term, I feel like I now have a better understanding of what my project looks like. I believe the topic of my project is under sociomusicology with an emphasis on technology. Now that I know this, I feel like I have more control over my project. I came across this field of study when I was researching the scholarly conversation part of my project narrative sheet, and I found that many of the experts and stand-out people for my project are socio-musicologists.
I’m planning to speak with at least three internal experts at Galloway for my project. The first person I want to reach out to is Mr. Mitchell as he is an expert on how music has changed sonically over the years. I believe he will be able to provide me with lots of valuable information about the growth of technology in music and specifically how new genres have become possible due to technology. Then, I want to ask Dr. Barksdale some questions about the historical and cultural side of this technological boom. From this interview, I will gain an insight into how music was affected by technology and how it’s changed over the years. Finally, I will talk to Mrs. Benkesser who is an expert in ethnomusicology. From our discussion, I will take away how this relationship has been affected globally and how music from certain parts of the world, such as Germany post world war II, has been impacted more than others. I really only have one external expert, but I feel confident in him to respond. My expert is Anthony Fantano. He runs a Youtube channel called “The Needle Drop”, and it has over 2 million subscribers. On his channel, Anthony focuses on album reviews and opinion pieces on the music industry. I want to reach out to him because I think he’ll be able to provide me with an outside perspective on how technology and social media has recently been impacting music conceptually and sonically. Additionally, I want to ask him for other albums for me to look at when dissecting the relationship between music and technology in present time (post 1995). Besides reaching out to these people, my next steps are to begin my actual research. I’m first planning to look at the industrial revolution and what music was like before and after this. Other than this, I feel really confident and good in my project now that I’ve discovered the concept of sociomusicology. I’m super excited to get started on this! |
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