Society for the Promotion of New Music

You should know this is not my own list - I found it in “The Anthropology of Music” by Alan P. Merriam [Northwestern University Press, 1964]. It started me thinking about music beyond the Notes and Chord Changes. What I did was take a style of music I was familiar with and try to identify the functions it might or might not have in our culture. It was surprising to see how music works in our culture - and more so, that even in our corporate mass entertainment media these functions still have validity. Ours is a complex society and the components of this culture are complex. All of the music I worked with had more than one function ascribed to it. - it could be Physical response as dance music, Emotional expression as words describing lost love, Aesthetic enjoyment as OK I did like the Notes and Chord Changes, Entertainment as it was fun and enjoyable to listen to. This was with musics I was familiar with! Something new and “foreign” would require a little set up work. That set up work was easy - listening. The ...»