Tag Archives: musicology

The Definition of ‘Rock’ and Stylistic Overlaps

Posted on February 7, 2020 by Paul Carr

The third essay of the Bloomsbury Handbook of rock music Research is provided by Taylor Myers and Brad Osborn, who initially examine the music theory, musicological and cultural studies literature that has emerged relating to rock scholarship over the last … Continue reading →

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The Impact of Musical Environment on Lyrics and Meaning

Posted on October 4, 2018 by Paul Carr

This post is directed mainly to my undergraduate musicology students, but I am sure other readers will find it of interest to. This week in our class, we discussed the various ways in which the ‘musical environment’ (the sounds and … Continue reading →

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Starting Questions for Thinking About Music and Production.

Posted on September 28, 2016 by Paul Carr

Here are a series of questions aimed at my students, but anyone is free to comment. The exercise is chose a couple of songs and ask yourself the following. 1.Can the recorded songs communicate anything beyond the notes, sounds and textures … Continue reading →

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Sting Book. Final draft

Posted on July 22, 2016 by Paul Carr

Well, I am hopefully now in the final stage of the editing process for my Sting book. The (hopefully) final draft is sent off – so I am getting ready to enter the process of indexing and finalising the final … Continue reading →

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The Heritage of Live Popular Music Making in Merthyr Tydfil 1955 to the Present Day: How Do Musical Memories, Mediated Through Technology, Impact Identity and Nostalgia?

Posted on March 30, 2016 by Paul Carr

The relationship of popular music to memory, identity and nostalgia is now well established in popular music studies, with academics such as Schulkind, Hennis and Rubin (1999) outlining how music, in particular from ones youth, can have strong nostalgic impact … 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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Copyright in Lyrics: The Case of Taylor Swift

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Paul Carr

There was an article in The Guardian today that discusses the $42m lawsuit against Taylor Swift by Jesse Graham. Firstly, before we start – here are the videos of the two tracks in question – Swift’s ‘Shake it Off’ and … Continue reading →

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The Demise of the Triangular Mix: Why Has it happened?

Posted on October 29, 2015 by Paul Carr

In Alan Moore’s excellent paper with Ruth Dockwary, he discusses the demise of what he calls the ‘Triangular’ mix – which has been replaced by the ‘diagonal’. To get an understanding of this, listen the ‘The Wind Cry’s Mary’ by Jimi … 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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