Hello, and welcome to my M&S page.
No, that does not stand for "Marks & Spencer". You will not find quality succulent chicken, vintage wine or decadent cakes here.
Having said that, I'm suddenly rather hungry...
Anyway, back to the point at hand.
The purpose of this page, primarily, is to do my assignment as requested, i.e make a webpage to discuss the functions of music in society. And as it's something more informal than your standard essay, I fathomed putting it on my blog would be apt because this is where I talk about my life (when I remember to update) and having opinions on the career path I'm working my way on to ties in with that nicely.
At this point I might warn that if you're not particularly interested in a long one-sided discussion about music and society, you'd probably prefer to "head home".
So, without further ramble, let us begin.
Right. Where do we begin?
Let's get some subheadings going ~
Entertainment
Obviously, and primarily in western cultures, music is one of our main sources of entertainment and has been for centuries. Starting somewhere in the years 500 - 1400 in the medieval era where music was secular and sacred, it was purely instrumental and was used for theatrical traditions and court consumption. Next, the renaissance (1400 - 1600) saw the use of madrigals, another type of secular music which were quite often love songs and also used as courtly entertainment.
After that came the Baroque, Classical and Romantic eras (17th, 18th and 19th centuries respectively), all of which are known collectively as the Common Practice period. Defining a precise time in history when orchestras were established is difficult due to the fact that musicians have played together in groups for centuries, however, the common practice period saw great use and attention of orchestras for musical compositions. Because of this, concerts became a more recurring event and were very likely to be optimal gatherings for middle and higher class folk at the time.
Having said that, you can't really talk during a classical concert but there's always afterwards in the lobby, or some kind of events room I'd imagine.
So moving down the timeline, into the 20th and 21st centuries, contemporary concerts start popping up and having the same social effect whereby people who love the same kind of music all come together to enjoy it. Much in the same way as a classical concert but much less formal and an awful lot louder.
A perfect example of large scale concerts would be music festivals held throughout the year at varying venues around this island (at this point referring to the UK, of course). Festivals tend to last for a couple days with camping sites available for those who want to stay near the grounds for the duration of the festival, especially if they've travelled halfway across the country to get there. They host a variety of different bands, artists, genres etc that cater to everyone's tastes, and several other stalls to keep people entertained between sets.
Religion
Well, I've mentioned before about sacred music in the 15th and 16th centuries. So I think this is probably a lot to do with music in church for church. Be that 'church' with a capital 'C' or a lower case one, we're dealing with music for God sung by angels. There's the very traditional type of music that you'd hear in church; composers such as Bach and Vivaldi contributing, then you have the gospel music which has the same idea but is more contemporary. This is people's way of being closer to God.. Maybe? Ok, I made that up.
Back in the days of and before slavery, our African friends would sing hymns, sacred songs and work songs in a call and response fashion which I suppose kept morale up when you've not much else to do but work. Like that, the songs would be passed through generations and end up being the feel good, happy clappy gospel songs we know today.
On the other side of the ocean... I'm not entirely sure why those white peeps sing in church. Trying to research it and just getting a lot of explanation for Christian mass structures and where the hymns come in. So I guess it's really for the focus of God and rejoicing Our Father, who art in Heaven...
If there's any kind of religious song we all enjoy singing, whatever our religious preferences, it's a good ole Christmas Carol. If you don't, bah humbug to you.
That's about it really. Church 'n' stuff.
Social and Political Commentary
This probably has a lot to do with certain bands and musicians who have used protest themes, anti-war themes etc in their songs. It's often not ambiguous, carrying a very specific message usually in the context of the time it was written.
Communication, Dance music and Performance Art
I've grouped these three together because music in itself is an art form, and is a way of joining two art forms together - dance and music - both of which have a way of communicating ideas and emotions. Music by itself is a way of expressing one's self, oftentimes when words might not be enough. So in instrumental music a musician might express themselves through their instrument and portray those feelings in their performance on stage, their movements while playing and the way the play the piece. I'm thinking of pianists and violinists while I type this because those are the players I feel the most emotion from when watching them perform but that's probably also my bias towards those instruments. That isn't to say that other musicians and instruments can't portray feeling because, of course, they can but in different ways, not to mention I think different instruments work for different expressions.
So putting the feeling of that music with dance, another art which, like music, is very expressionistic, can come together to tell stories without ever having to utter a single word. For example ballets do exactly that; using musical devices to, in a sense, help animate the dancers movements. Like "Mickey Mousing" for film scores.
Then you have the contemporary dance music that we know today which has the same basic purpose but as opposed to just being classical in style, it covers a lot more genres and even a genre of it's own. The kind of music that when you hear it you expect someone to shout "Raaaaaave!!" then start dancing madly.
Looking at it, these are all ways of communication.
Music as the soundtrack to events or films
Music and films have gone hand in hand since the dawn of cinema, really. Before films with recorded sound (or "talkies" as they were colloquially known) were produced, the showing of films usually required an in-house pianist or organ player to perform. Something I've actually seen first hand in a 1920's production I was recently part of the orchestra for; Our resident pianist (and also composer of the songs for the show) had the job of improvising the music each night to go with the picture on screen. I don't think anyone else in the cast or orchestra paid as much attention, but I found it entertaining each night because he interpreted it differently each time. It kept me interested while I wasn't playing anything.
As time moved on, films acquired recorded dialogue and therefore acquired music to go with that. Music in films is used for enhancing the dramatic narrative or the emotional impact of the scenes in question. This alone can provoke certain expectations from the viewer about what they are about to experience; this is especially true for horror films. A lot of eerie, creeping string scores accompanied by well cued silences can certainly have an audience on edge fearing the outcome of the rest of the scene.
At the same time, big orchestral scores and sweeping epics of string and wind instruments set an audience up for an hour and a half of super heroes and super villains, mass city destruction and epic super power battles. It's all very super.
In the same way, music can even be used in adverts to aid the selling of products with the use of happy, feel-good music. In car adverts they often use overly epic music to make the idea of driving that car feel awesome. Probably works for some people. I've go no real interest right there. Adverts also have a way of incorporating "jingles" into their 1 minute slots which are meant to be memorable little ditties that stick in your head and brainwash you into buying things you don't understand why you need them.
Identity and expression in youth culture
The small people in their teens, going through emotional changes start to feel a need to create an identity for themselves by which people should recognise them, and one of the easier ways to do this is through music and the subcultures that come with each genre. In most cases, you'll find the large majority of people listening to any specific genre of music are probably a certain type of person. Now, I like to avoid stereotyping as best I can but I think that's quite true, in my humble opinion. Which is probably because of the topics some genres focus on.. Or maybe the perspective it takes.
I think virtually all genres talk about love in some form, but they each have a different perspective; a lot of the alternative rock I listen to (Panic! At The Disco, Fall Out Boy) talk about love but usually a one-sided, heartbroken, almost pining kind of love. Whereas you get modern RnB which just bypasses the love and goes straight to the sexy time. Granted, there are alt. rock songs with a sexual theme but you wouldn't have to rate them 18 and only play them after the 9 o' clock watershed. Alt. rock tends to be more poetic while RnB is just explicit. And wrong.
If it wasn't obvious, by the by, I rather dislike modern RnB. Hence prefixing it with "modern" each time. If that's what the youth want to identify with then allow me to book my tickets to Jupiter.
The Cult of Celebrity
Um... Don't really know how to approach this one? I suppose it might be referring to the importance of musical celebrity status in modern times. Or maybe it's literal and is referring to the ridiculous following some celebrities get. Perfect example - Justin Bieber. I'm pretty certain that his fangirl base (because it is 99% female) are some kind of cult following. Almost devil worshipper-like but their religious idol is Bieber.
Somehow, the generation I'm growing up around seem to be fixated with celebrity life-styles like a cat watching a fish tank; ready to sink their claws in and have a bit of that. On top of that, it seems most of them feel that music is the easiest route to getting them that ridiculous (pointless) level of fame. Which in turn makes it harder for those who couldn't give a toss about so-and-so's new boyfriend and just want to have their music heard and enjoyed.
Somebody make them stop. *Sigh*
Artistic Expression in Avant-Garde Movements
Avant-Garde music refers to music that is often thought to be ahead of its time. Some genres that come with that are serialist, minimalist, experimentalist; music that generally goes against the usual traditional structures of music making. Some notable composers of the 20th century are Schoenberg, Stravinsky and John Cage, the latter most likely known best for his amazing piece of music "4:33".
I feel like I wrote that already... I know I have. I just can't remember where. Hmm...
Anyway.
I actually quite enjoy these strange genres of music.
Edit: It dawned on me that I just ended this page without signing off which is rather rude of me. I apologise (half a year later..).
[No Google Chrome, I will not use the American spelling of apologise. Deal with my correct English s.]
Not sure how I would've done it.. It seems I was so happy to finish that I clicked send (to the wrong email, no less) and ran away.
Nevertheless, there you have it. My general, somewhat curious opinions on music in society. I left a lot to be desired but I'll only ramble if I try to fix it so let's not.
Thank you for reading, I hope it entertained and possibly educated somewhat.
Bren ♪♫
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