Cognition
The field of music cognition
involves the study of many aspects of music, including how it is
processed by listeners. Rather than accepting the standard practices of
analyzing, composing, and performing music as a given, much research in
music cognition seeks instead to uncover the mental processes that
underlie these practices. Also, research in the field seeks to uncover
commonalities between the musical traditions of disparate cultures and
possible cognitive "constraints" that limit these musical systems.
Questions regarding musical innateness, and emotional responses to music
are also major areas of research in the field.
Deaf
people can experience music by feeling the vibrations in their body, a
process that can be enhanced if the individual holds a resonant, hollow
object. A well-known deaf musician is the composer
Ludwig van Beethoven, who composed many famous works even after he had completely lost his hearing. Recent examples of deaf musicians include Evelyn Glennie, a highly acclaimed percussionist who has been deaf since age twelve, and Chris Buck, a virtuoso violinist
who has lost his hearing. This is relevant because it indicates that
music is a deeper cognitive process than unexamined phrases such as,
"pleasing to the ear" suggests. Much research in music cognition seeks
to uncover these complex mental processes involved in listening to
music, which may seem intuitively simple, yet are vastly intricate and
complex.
Montreal Neurological Institute
researcher Valorie Salimpoor and her colleagues have now shown that the
pleasurable feelings associated with emotional music are the result of dopamine release in the striatum--the same anatomical areas that underpin the anticipatory and rewarding aspects of drug addiction.[
Sociology
Music is experienced by individuals in a range of social settings
ranging from being alone to attending a large concert. Musical
performances take different forms in different cultures and
socioeconomic milieus. In Europe and North America, there is often a
divide between what types of music are viewed as a "high culture" and "low culture."
"High culture" types of music typically include Western art music such
as Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and modern-era symphonies, concertos,
and solo works, and are typically heard in formal concerts in concert
halls and churches, with the audience sitting quietly in seats.
Other types of music—including, but not limited to, jazz, blues, soul, and country—are
often performed in bars, nightclubs, and theatres, where the audience
may be able to drink, dance, and express themselves by cheering. Until
the later 20th century, the division between "high" and "low" musical
forms was widely accepted as a valid distinction that separated out
better quality, more advanced "art music" from the popular styles of
music heard in bars and dance halls.
However, in the 1980s and 1990s, musicologists studying this
perceived divide between "high" and "low" musical genres argued that
this distinction is not based on the musical value or quality of the
different types of music.[citation needed] Rather, they argued that this distinction was based largely on the socioeconomics standing or social class of the performers or audience of the different types of music.[citation needed]
For example, whereas the audience for Classical symphony concerts
typically have above-average incomes, the audience for a rap concert in
an inner-city area may have below-average incomes.[citation needed]
Even though the performers, audience, or venue where non-"art" music is
performed may have a lower socioeconomic status, the music that is
performed, such as blues, rap, punk, funk, or ska may be very complex and sophisticated.
When composers introduce styles of music that break with convention,
there can be a strong resistance from academic music experts and popular
culture. Late-period Beethoven string quartets, Stravinsky ballet scores, serialism, bebop-era jazz, hip hop, punk rock, and electronica have all been considered non-music by some critics when they were first introduced.[citation needed] Such themes are examined in the sociology of music. The sociological study of music, sometimes called sociomusicology, is often pursued in departments of sociology, media studies, or music, and is closely related to the field of ethnomusicology.
Media and technology
The music that composers make can be heard through several media;
the most traditional way is to hear it live, in the presence of the
musicians (or as one of the musicians), in an outdoor or indoor space
such as an amphitheatre, concert hall, cabaret room or theatre. Live music can also be broadcast over the radio, television or the Internet.
Some musical styles focus on producing a sound for a performance, while
others focus on producing a recording that mixes together sounds that
were never played "live." Recording, even of essentially live styles,
often uses the ability to edit and splice to produce recordings
considered better than the actual performance.
As talking pictures
emerged in the early 20th century, with their prerecorded musical
tracks, an increasing number of moviehouse orchestra musicians found
themselves out of work.[28] During the 1920s live musical performances by orchestras, pianists, and theater organists were common at first-run theaters.[29] With the coming of the talking motion pictures, those featured performances were largely eliminated. The American Federation of Musicians
(AFM) took out newspaper advertisements protesting the replacement of
live musicians with mechanical playing devices. One 1929 ad that
appeared in the Pittsburgh Press
features an image of a can labeled "Canned Music / Big Noise Brand /
Guaranteed to Produce No Intellectual or Emotional Reaction Whatever"[30]
Since legislation introduced to help protect performers, composers, publishers and producers, including the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 in the United States, and the 1979 revised Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works
in the United Kingdom, recordings and live performances have also
become more accessible through computers, devices and Internet in a form
that is commonly known as Music-On-Demand.
In many cultures, there is less distinction between performing and
listening to music, since virtually everyone is involved in some sort of
musical activity, often communal. In industrialized countries,
listening to music through a recorded form, such as sound recording or watching a music video, became more common than experiencing live performance, roughly in the middle of the 20th century.
Sometimes, live performances incorporate prerecorded sounds. For example, a disc jockey uses disc records for scratching,
and some 20th-century works have a solo for an instrument or voice that
is performed along with music that is prerecorded onto a tape. Computers and many keyboards can be programmed to produce and play Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) music. Audiences can also become performers by participating in karaoke,
an activity of Japanese origin centered on a device that plays
voice-eliminated versions of well-known songs. Most karaoke machines
also have video screens that show lyrics to songs being performed;
performers can follow the lyrics as they sing over the instrumental
tracks.
Internet
The advent of the Internet has transformed the experience of music, partly through the increased ease of access to music and the increased choice. Chris Anderson, in his book The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More, suggests that while the economic model of supply and demand describes scarcity, the Internet retail model is based on abundance. Digital storage
costs are low, so a company can afford to make its whole inventory
available online, giving customers as much choice as possible. It has
thus become economically viable to offer products that very few people
are interested in. Consumers' growing awareness of their increased
choice results in a closer association between listening tastes and
social identity, and the creation of thousands of niche markets.[31]
Another effect of the Internet arises with online communities like YouTube and Facebook, a social networking service.
Such sites simplify connecting with other musicians, and greatly
facilitate the distribution of music. Professional musicians also use
YouTube as a free publisher of promotional material. YouTube users, for
example, no longer only download and listen to MP3s, but also actively create their own. According to Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, in their book Wikinomics, there has been a shift from a traditional consumer role to what they call a "prosumer" role, a consumer who both creates and consumes. Manifestations of this in music include the production of mashes, remixes, and music videos by fans.
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