Interpreting Popular Music
David Brackett
Abstract
There is a well-developed vocabulary for discussing classical music, but when it comes to popular music, how do we analyze its effects and its meaning? This book draws from the disciplines of cultural studies and music theory to demonstrate how listeners form opinions about popular songs, and how they come to attribute a rich variety of meanings to them. Exploring several genres of popular music through recordings made by Billie Holiday, Bing Crosby, Hank Williams, James Brown, and Elvis Costello, the book develops a set of tools for looking at both the formal and cultural dimensions of popula ... More
Keywords: popular music, cultural studies, music theory, listeners, popular songs, Billie Holiday, Bing Crosby, Hank Williams, James Brown, Elvis Costello
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2000 | Print ISBN-13: 9780520225411 |
| Published to California Scholarship Online: May 2012 | DOI:10.1525/california/9780520225411.001.0001 |
