Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Popular music is a basic part of culture in the United States and much of the world. Music in the broadest sense is not clearly definable. When considering the significance and impact of the media in the modern world, developing a concrete definition becomes more problematic. Definitional concerns are most apparent when music is discussed or thought of in a “universal sense” (music as the universal language). Nevertheless, music can be generally understood as the human temporal organization of sounds that differentiate such sounds from noise, speech, and so on. Modern developments that accompany changes in the ways in which music is produced and consumed can be attributed directly to the media. Generally, use of the term media refers to the ability to disseminate information to a wide variety of people. For centuries this process was accomplished exclusively through the circulation of printed materials, most notably newspapers; however, more recently this also includes radio, television, and the Internet. Music has been studied under the auspices of musicology (the historical and scientific study of music), ethnomusicology (the study of music as culture), and the general social sciences. The sociological study of music has been a subject of inquiry for the better part of a century. Sociological work that addresses some of the ways meaning is conveyed through music has yielded key ... log in or subscribe to read full text