Meaning in Music

Term Paper # 99808

Music Studies
Political Science

Meaning in Music

This paper discusses capitalistic motivations behind music.

1,200 words () | 5 sources | APA | 2007 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses music and musical artists who had an impact on culture. The paper explains how music can translate into a promotion of capitalism, a criticism of capitalist society or, at worst, a hypocritical stance about the relation between capitalism and the Third World. The paper discusses how music expresses the truth in complex ways so that it often is difficult to identify authentic motivations. The paper maintains that it is acceptable to implement any intention as long as it is achieved implicitly.

From the Paper:

"The concept of mediation refers to the circulation of meaning. According to Silverstone (1999), mediation is similar to translation in that it is never satisfactory because it cannot ever be precise. The metaphor of translation illustrates just what a small proportion of our musical experience happens to be immediate, but instead is produced, managed, and staged. The reason for this is that the media are "prophylactically social in so far as they have become substitutes for the ordinary uncertainties of everyday interaction" (Silverstone, 1999, p. 3)."

Sample of Sources Used:

Bernstein, J. (2001). The culture industry: Selected essays on mass culture. Routledge.
Eagleton, T. (2000). The idea of culture. Blackwell.
MacCabe, C. (1986), High theory/ low culture: Analyzing popular television and film. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Schor, J. & Holt, D. (2000). Consumer society reader. The New Press.
Silverstone, R. (1999). Why study the media? London: Sage.