MUS 505 Chapter 1: WEEK 1
25 May 2016
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Document Summary
Chapter 1: themes and streams of american popular music. Popular music: music that is mass-reproduced and disseminated via the mass media, that has at various times been listened to by large numbers of americans, and that typically draws upon a variety of preexisting musical traditions. Listen critically to music; that is, listening that consciously seeks out meaning in music by drawing on knowledge of how music is put together, its cultural significance, and its historical development. Formal analysis: listening for musical structure, its basic building blocks, and the ways in which these blocks are combined. Musical process: popular songs may be analyzed not only as composed works with their own internal characteristics but also as interpretations by particular performers. One must understand not only song but also singing. Riff: a repeated pattern designed to generate rhythmic momentum. Hook: a memorable musical phrase or riff. Groove: a term that evokes the channeled flow of swinging , funky , or phat rhymes.
