Very few popular music artists are the subject of exclusively dedicated peer-reviewed journals. There is, however, at least one – who features in the Biannual Online-Journal of Springsteen Studies (BOSS) It aims to publish scholarly, open-access, peer-reviewed essays pertaining to Bruce Springsteen. And seeks to encourage consideration of Springsteen’s body of work primarily through the […]
Tag: pop
“Dumbness” as a musically authentic asset (new study)
Hector Qirko is not only Associate Professor of Anthropology and Associate Department Chair at the College of Charleston, US – he’s also, as can be appreciated above, a recording artist. As such, he’s noticed that when it comes to popular music, “dumbness” in performances can sometimes be regarded as a musically authentic asset. “I […]
Why do people go to pop concerts?
Technological innovations have facilitated widespread illegal downloading of recorded music (which points towards a decreased willingness to pay for music) nevertheless, people still go to pop concerts – which they usually have to pay for – raising the question ‘Why?’ Behavioural scientist Dr Steven Caldwell Brown [pictured] from The University of Edinburgh, Scotland, (and also […]
Doom Metal and Experiential Richness
Do you know your Doom Metal from your Goregrind, or your Blackened Death Metal from your Funeral Doom? If not, help is at hand in the form of a taxonomic ‘map’ which was developed by Jonathan Nicholas Piper as part of his PhD in Critical Studies/Experimental Practices at the University of California, San Diego. The […]
Camp vs. Kitsch: music investigations
For those unsure about the sometimes-misunderstood difference between ‘Kitsch’ and ‘Camp’, Dr. Freya Jarman, who is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Music at the University of Liverpool, UK, provides a concise definition : “Camp enjoys and glorifies its own awfulness where kitsch doesn‘t realise it.” Dr. Jarman researches how ‘camp’ works, musically. See, […]
Pop music: extant and market taxonomized
Pop music – does it really exist? Yes it does. For a statistical analysis, see: Does pop music exist? Hierarchical structure in phonographic markets by Andrzej Buda of the Uniwesytet Jagielloński w Krakowie, Poland, and reproduced in Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Volume 391, Issue 21, 1 November 2012, Pages 5153–5159 “I find […]
Misheard Song Lyrics (computerised)
As enthusiasts of kissthisguy.com (* see note below) will know, the task of correctly identifying pop music lyrics is not always 100% straightforward. Here’s one to try . . . Difficulties arise not only for human listeners, but also for computerised speech-recognition systems. In spite of, or perhaps because of its inherent complexity, there are […]
Breakthrough in guessing the risk of popping a balloon
A possible huge breakthrough of some sort, yielding important insights of some variety, may be reported in this study in which 64 students (actually it was 66, but “Data from two participants were removed due to a failure to follow instructions”) were asked to guess when a balloon would pop: “Knowing Where to Draw the Line: Perceptual […]
Karaoke Reversal: A technical approach
Daisuke Inoue of Hyogo, Japan, was awarded the 2004 Ig Nobel peace prize for inventing karaoke, thereby providing an entirely new way for people to learn to tolerate each other. For the very few of our readers who might not know what karaoke is – we offer this description : ‘It’s a form of interactive […]