Midterm Flashcards
Discourse
- The stuff people say, write or think about a given subject
- The distinctions between facts and the meanings we impose on them
Ideology
- A set of political ideas, a “map of reality” that helps its adherents to understand and act in the world
- Values, beliefs, and principles that are determined by societies in which they emerge and are held
Culture
People’s way of life learned and transmitted through centuries of adapting to the natural and human world
Ways communities are regulated
1) Goverment: democracy, dictatorship, monarchy
2) Laws
3) Economy
What is “industrial means of consumption”?
Distribution and consumption
What did Adorno claim about popular culture?
That it is deliberately engineered to keep us from thinking too deeply about the problems in the world in general, and in our own lives as individuals
What did Adorno have in common with Marx?
That if the general public stopped to think about wealth inequality in the world, there would be a revolution where the privileged class would be overthrown and wealth would be distributed more equally
Culture industry
The institution(s) that create cultural practices and products for sale on a mass scale
Commodification
Turning a culture practice into a thing that can be bought and sold
Standardization
In a capitalist society, popular culture is standardized, using the same formula to appeal to the masses
What does commodification lead to?
Standardization
What is standardization dependent on?
Novelty
What is the pop music contradiction?
A song must differ enough to attract attention but be familiar enough to not repel listeners
What week/topic is Simon Frith associated with?
Meaning in Music
What does Simon Frith claim?
- We need a way of interpreting music in order to respond to it
- The meanings we take from songs aren’t encoded within them
Aesthetics
- Listening to music can be an aesthetic experience when we attend to it as “art”
- Important philosophers: Adorno and Kant
Ontology
The fundamental elements that can be said to constitute a thing’s existence
Epistemology
- The ability of music to be part of culture and to acquire meaning in relation to other activities
- What we know about music and what is understand to be music in a given cultural context
Standard Western Ontology
Music is an object, a collection of elements that go into making a whole, distinct work
Sociological understanding of music
- Music is a social process
- The meaning of a “musical work” is not inherent in the text itself but is worked out through the interactions of subjects in a particular social context
Who termed “schemes of interpretation”?
Simon Frith
What are schemes of interpretation
- Our response to a musical experience is based on internalized categories and learned behaviour
- use value, rules of behaviour and modes of listening
Musical genres
- Represent social divisions
- Built on discursive conventions and notions of authenticity
Musical canons
The body of rules, principles, or standards accepted axiomatic and universally binding in a field of study or art
e.g. Milton Babbit vs. The Beatles
What week/topic is Keith Negus associated with?
Music and identity
What does Keith Negus say?
- The relationship between social groups and musical sounds