analysing popular music theory, method and practice - tagg.pdfVIP

E:\M55\ARTICLES\Pm2anal.fm 2015-03-16 11:31 Philip Tagg Analysing popular music: theory, method and practice by Philip Tagg Important preface I wrote this article a long time ago (1981). While I still agree with the gist of that text, my think- ing about semiotic music analysis has developed considerably over the intervening decades.1 Apart from the inclusion of new footnotes, a few corrected typos, the renumbering of music ex- amples and this short preface, the only significant differences between this document and the original text from 1982 concern terminology. Several concepts used in my doctoral thesis (Tagg, 1979) and in the original article did not turn out to be entirely satisfactory and have been re- placed here by more adequate terms.2 Music’s Meanings (Tagg, 2013) contains all the ideas presented in this old article, in addition to the various improvements of theory and method developed since its original publication. If, out of historical curiosity, you still want to read the 1982 version without its corrections and improved terminology, please see footnote 3.3 Philip Tagg, March 2015 This text was first published in Popular Music, 2 (1982), pp. 37-65 N.B. {37} = start of page number 37 in the Popular Music article. {37} Popular music analysis - why? One of the initial problems for any new field of study is the attitude of incredulity it meets. The serious study of popular music is no exception to this rule. It is often con- fronted with an attitude of bemused suspicion implying that there is something weird about taking ‘fun’ seriously or finding ‘fun’ in ‘serious things’. Such attitudes are of in- terest when discussing the aims and methods of popular music analysis and serve as an appropriate introduction to this article. In announcing the first International Con