Tag Archives: music analysis

Music Persona and Authenticity

Posted on October 11, 2018 by Paul Carr

In last weeks musicology session, we considered three main ways in which the person singing a song can be identified. These were The ‘Real’ Person/Performer singing/playing a song: For example David Jones, Reginald Kenneth Dwight, Gordon Sumner, Saul Hudson, The … Continue reading →

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Matching Mole, Progressive Style, Genre and Protest

Posted on May 29, 2016 by Paul Carr

I attended a really fantastic conference last week on Progressive Rock at Edinburgh University. It was a great opportunity to spend three days listening and thinking about the various factors that make up this genre of music. Here is the … Continue reading →

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Ways of Thinking About Song Arrangement and Track

Posted on November 23, 2015 by Paul Carr

  I have spent today playing around with some ideas for a new book I am in the early stages of working on. There are a lot of sweeping statements in there at the moment – but this is where … Continue reading →

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Have we seen an end time signature experimentation in main stream pop music: If so Why?

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Paul Carr

In preparation for a lecture this week, I  was considering examples of popular music that use time signatures other than 4/4 or 3/4. As you will see in the Facebook responses below – the vast majority of responses where either … Continue reading →

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Prioritising the Elements of Music as a Starting Point of Analysis

Posted on October 16, 2015 by Paul Carr

This weeks  podcast concerns how we can begin to use the elements of music as a starting point of music analysis. It starts with three main questions How are the elements being used? This can be as basic as a … Continue reading →

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The Elements of Music: How can we use them to discuss ‘interest’ in a piece of music?

Posted on May 19, 2015 by Paul Carr

This post concerns the elements of music, and the ways in which they are prioritised to indoctrinate interest in a piece of music. How can we use the elements that for most are so familiar, to begin to analyse popular … Continue reading →

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How Music Means and/or What Music Means?

Posted on May 18, 2015 by Paul Carr

Here is another very brief snippet asking students to consider the difference between WHAT music means and HOW it means. As Alan Moore points out in his book ‘Song Means’ – there is often a confusion here. For me, it … Continue reading →

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How Can We Think About Popular Music?

Posted on May 17, 2015 by Paul Carr

Another very very short segment – this time concerning the ways in which we can think about popular music analysis – more detail late!

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More Thoughts on the A Level Music Curriculum

Posted on April 12, 2015 by Paul Carr

I have spent much time over the last several years trying to think more deeply about some of the issues associated with the ways in which students are prepared for higher education music courses. The National Diploma awards which were … Continue reading →

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The Semiology of Music Part 1: Is it the music or our words that are Vague?

Posted on February 3, 2014 by Paul Carr

This week was the first of a series of lectures on how music REFERS meaning.  What I am interested in is any examples of how music imparts meaning using – Saussures simple dyadic model as a starting point. The question … Continue reading →

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