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Semiotics as a Method for the Study of Popular Music

Author(s): Peter Dunbar-HallSource: International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Dec.,1991), pp. 127-132Published by: Croatian Musicological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/836920

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P. DUNBAR-HALL:EMIOTICS ND POPMUSIC, RASM 2 (1991)2, 127-132

SEMIOTICSAS A METHOD FORTHE STUDY

OF POPULAR MUSIC

PETERDUNBAR-HALL UDC: 78.01:78.03

Sydney Conservatoriumof Music,University of Sydney,MacquarieSt., SYDNEY,NSW 2000, Australia

Original cientificPaperIzvorniznanstveniradReceived:May15, 1991

Primljeno: 5. svibnja1991.

Accepted:October, 1991PrihvaCeno:. listopada1991.

Abstract - Resume

This article examines the role of semiot-

ics as a method for studying popular music. Itis based on the premise that current studying

of popular music lacks both musicologicaldepth and a suitable analytical method. Semi-

otics, because of its historical development in

two broad streams similar to etic and emic lev-

els, offers a solution to these problems. Its fur-ther application to the area of style analysis re-

lated to coding is considered both for itsrelevance to popular music specifically, andmusic in general.

Since its entry into thinking about music as a form of analysis and criti-cism in the 1970s, semiotics has developed its own, albeit comparativelysmall, corpus of literature and thought, though as McCLARY and WALSER(1990) state:

>There is still considerable resistance to semiotics in musicology.< (p. 283)

Another area they discuss, one they see as neglected, is that of popularmusic, on which they comment:

>traditional musicology refuse(s) to acknowledge popular culture.< (p. 280)

It would seem doubly perilous, given these opinions, to propose that the

musicological study of popular music could be achieved through the mediumof semiotics, however, some work has been undertaken in this area, even

though, as MIDDLETON (1990) points out:

>Unfortunately, the science of music serniology... has paid virtually no at-tention to popular music.<<(p. 172)

127



P. DUNBAR-HALL:EMIOTICS ND POPMUSIC,RASM 2 (1991)2, 127-132

His 'unfortunately' would imply a suitability of semiotics to the study of

popular music, a suitability that an examination of the development of musical

semiotics, and its scope of approaches to music, can demonstrate.

One of the problems of the study of popular music is the lack of ananalytical method. That traditional analysis is unsuitable for this music isdiscussed by a number of writers besides McClary and Walser (TAYLOR,1985; WICKE, 1982; RAOIC, 1981), while MIDDLETON (1990) demonstratesa variety of alternative approaches. The premiss behind this opinion is

that popular music, being inherently different to art music, does not re-

spond to a system of analysis based on functional tonality, in which melo-

dy and harmony are hierarchised at the expense of other parameters;rhythm and timbre, for example, might be more logically the focus of

popular music analytically. To demonstrate how semiotics redresses this

problem it is necessary to understand how it has developed over the pasttwo decades.

The term 'musical semiotics' is used to refer to a number of activities, and

while NATTIEZ (1989) states that:

>there can be as many musical semiologies as there are theories and theo-

rists of semiology,<<(p. 23)

these can be classified into two broad streams depending on their aims and ap-

proaches, and represented by groups of writers: (1) an analytical style (MOLI-

NO, 1975/1990; RUWET, 1966/1987; NATTIEZ, 1975/1982, 1990; POPLE,

1983; YORK, 1985), and (2) an interpretative style (NOSKE, 1977; TARASTI,1979, 1986; LEWIS, 1982).

Analytical Semiotics

This style is exemplified by Nattiez' analysis of Varese's Density 21.5

(1975, revised and translated, 1982), which attempts to discover the innate mu-

sical workings of a piece of music, thus to arrive at a statement of the meaningof a piece of music as music. This is attempted through structuralist processes of

segmentation of material, tabulation, and interpretation of data. This process

occurs at what is called the 'neutral level', one of the three levels at which, inthis style of musical semiotics, a work is seen to exist, one which is divorced

from the composer's intent (the poietic level) and that of the work's reception(the esthesic level). At the neutral level a work is seen as immanent, capable of

expressing its own system. This bears striking similarity to the definition of ab-solute music put forward by DAHLHAUS (1989) as music that 'represents itself'

(p. 7), and explained by him (1982) as:

>The idea prevailing almost undisputed in recent decades, that a work ofart must be understood on its own terms and judged according to its own

inner measure, which it shares with no other work.<<(p.

90)

Compare this to NATTIEZ' (1990) definition of the semiotic neutral level:

128



P. DUNBAR-HALL:EMIOTICS ND POPMUSIC, RASM 2 (1991)2, 127-132

>This is a level of analysis at which one does not decide a prioriwhetherthe results generatedby a specificanalyticalproceedingare relevantfromthe esthesicor poieticpoint of view.<(p. 13)

In principle,this is in line with the view of music that sees it as expressingitself.

InterpretativeSemiotics

Interpretativemusical semiotics focuseson linkingmusical events to extra-musical concepts. Noske's tracingof melodic and rhythmicmotives in the op-eras of Mozart and Verdi, and their alignment to dramaticideas, in this waytheir interpretationas dramaturgicaldevices, is an example of this style. In it

the componentsof the model centralto the presenceof basicsemiosis,the signi-fier and the signified, are equatedwith a musicalevent and what it represents,and music is seen as a system symbolicof somethingelse. This is a referential-ist view of music.

Semiotics and PopularMusic

The existence of both an analyticaland an interpretative tyle of musicalsemiotics provides a reason for the viabilityof semioticsas a way of studyingpopular music. The Nattiez/analytic style, because it is not based on hier-

archised traditionalanalysis, allows analysis to be adapted to the prominentfeatures of any style, in the case of popularmusic rhythm,timbre,repetition,etc, not only providing a necessaryanalysis model, but one thatcanbe adapt-ed to the music underexaminationthrough ts abilityto focuson the prominentparameter/s of the music. Because this concentrateson the music for itself andnot on pre-ordainedgenres and styles, it provides what the study of popularmusic has always lacked, the possibility of propermusical analysis. This hasbeen a concern of writers for some time. FRITH, or example, discussing oneform of popularmusic, statedin 1978that:

>Rock,despite

the millions of words devoted to it, is seldomsubject

o mu-sical analysis.<(p. 176)

This method of analysiscanbe used to define the semioticcode thatworksin popularmusic.

ECO (1979) defines the link between a signifier and its signified, the

'something' that gives meaning to semiosis, as a code (pp. 3-8, passim),andconsiders the definition of such codes a majorpartof his semiotic theory (seeECO,1979,Chapter2). It would not be wrong to suggest that whatgives mean-

ing to a musical event (seen as a signifier)and its signified (eithermusical orextra-musicalmeaning) is the context in which the event takes place, and in

popularmusic contextcanbe equatedwith sub-style.Thatsub-stylesof popularmusic exist can be shown by comparativeanalysisof examplesof hip-hop,juju,

129



P. DUNBAR-HALL:EMIOTICSND POPMUSIC, RASM 2 (1991)2, 127-132

Motown, Soul, reggae, pink, or heavy metal, to list only a few. It is the exi-stence of sub-styles that the neutral level analysis can be used to formulate, andit is these sub-styles, through their use of specific musical events, such as rhyth-

mic cells, harmonic motives, types of bass lines, musical processes, or specifictimbres, which in turn give meaning to the events. A popular sub-style is to beseen as a code, giving sense to the relationship between a musical event and its

significance. The definition of sub-styles as codes is only the beginning of anarea of popular music requiring research: the way in which style evolves, is

conventionalised, and, bearing in mind popular music's self-reflexivity, howthese sub-styles interact and influence each other. The role of semiotics, in this

area, has extended beyond our original analytical and interpretative acts toconsideration of how sub-styles (seen as semiotic codes) develop and influenceeach other, and has moved beyond consideration of the definition of semiotic

occurence to the study of the processes of musical significance.While the Nattiez style yields analytical data about how a piece of popular

music works as a piece of music and how it can be used to extrapolate charac-teristics of a sub-style, the Noske/interpretative style can be used to study thereceived meaning of popular music. This is a broad area covering, among oth-

ers, historical, sociological, and political considerations, and is based on the as-

sumption expressed by MIDDLETON (1990) that:

>At the level of popular assumption, the belief that music produces sense,or conveys meanings, is unquestioned.<<(p. 172)

It provides the basis for STREET's(1986) and DENSELOW's (1989) work,both of which discuss the political meaning of popular music, and for TROIT-SKY's (1987) examination of rock music in Russia. It is also included in WILLI's

(1978) study of the lifestyles of London bike boys and hippies in the 1970s, andHALL and JEFFERSON's(eds, 1975) study of youth culture in post-war Britain.The underlying idea in all of these is that popular music acts as a meaning la-

den tool, often with an antiauthoritarian implication.In this style of semiotics, pieces of music are seen as representing sub-

styles, and these in turn are seen as signifying lifestyles, and then beliefs, in a

series of overlapping denotations and connotations common to semiotic reduc-

tion. This interpretation of music is shown in the following way:

music - denotes -> syle

connotes -> sub-culture

denotes -> lifestyle

connotes -> beliefs

in which music is traced through a number of dependent interpretations to rep-

resent only one of an infinite set of meanings that can be given to a piece ofmusic.

130



P.DUNBAR-HALL:EMIOTICSNDPOPMUSIC,RASM2(1991),127-132

This particular set of denotations and connotations depends on the relevant

sub-style being identified and recognised, thus is culture-specific, or an emicview of popular music. In contrast, the neutral analysis of popular music is an

etic study. That consideration of both the emic and the etic is made in the studyof music as a whole is an accepted fact, MEYER(1956, p. viiff), for example, dis-cusses music as consisting of both its abstract theory and its historical and socio-

logical applications, and translated into etic and emic levels, the analytical and

interpretative styles of musical semiotics become a possible model for the studyof popular music.

Conclusion

The study of popular music currently suffers from the lack of musical anal-

ysis, and a method to carry it out. Semiotics, through its development as twobroad streams covering an analytical and an interpretative approach, and pro-viding a means to examine music both etically and emically, can be both amethod and a model to solve these problems. While analysis and interpretationcould be seen as a primary application of semiotics to popular music, a second-

ary level develops from Eco's theories relating to codes, in which the link be-tween a musical event and its significance is examined. This may prove to bethe more important aspect of musical semiotics in that it questions how signifi-cation takes place, providing information on popular music specifically, andmusic in general.

REFERENCES

DAHLHAUS,C., (1982)EstheticsfMusic,Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress.(1989)The dea.ofAbsoluteMusic,Chicago:Universityof ChicagoPress.

DENSELOW,R., (1989)When heMusic'sOver: hestoryofpolitical op,London:Faberand Faber.

ECO,U., (1979)A Theory fSemiotics, loomington:ndianaUniversityPress.

FRITH, ., (1978)TheSociologyfRock,London:Constable.

HALL,S., & JEFFERSON,., (eds) (1975)ResistanceThroughRituals:youthsubculturesn postwarBritain,London:Hutchinson.

LEWIS,G., (1982) PopularMusic:symbolicresourceand transformer f meaning n society',Inter-

nationalReviewof theAesthetics nd Sociology f Music, 12, 2, pp. 183-189.McCLARY,.,&WALSER,R.,'StartMakingSense MusicologyWrestleswithRock',n:S.FRITH&

GOODWIN,(eds), On Record:ock,pop,and the writtenword,London:Routledge.MEYER,L., (1956)Emotion ndMeaningnMusic,ChicagoUniversityPress.

MIDDLETON, .,(1990)StudyingPopularMusic,Ballmoor,Buckingham:Open UniversityPress.

MOLINO, .,(1975, ranslated1990) MusicalFactand theSemiologyof Music',MusicAnalysis, , 2,pp. 105-156.

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NOSKE, F., (1977) The Signifierand the Signified: tudiesin theoperasof VerdiandMozart,The

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(1986) 'Music Models Through Ages: a semiotic interpretation', nternational eviewof theAesthetics nd Sociology f Music,17, 1, pp. 3-28.

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WICKI,P., (1985) RockMusic:a musical aestheticstudy',PopularMusic,2, pp. 219-243.WILLIS,P., (1978)ProfaneCulture,London:Routledgeand KeganPaul.

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Sazetak

SEMIOTIKA AOMETODAZAPROUtAVANJE OPULARNE LAZBE

Prihvacanjeemiotike kao metode za proucavanje lazbejognijepotpuno.Istodobno,ozbiljnoproucavanje opulameglazbeteksto je polelo i patiod pomanjkanjanaliti&emetode.Moglobi se

pokazatida jesemiotikaprikladanpristuppopularnoj lazbi z viserazloga obziromnanaine kakose razvijala glazbenojmisli.Ukratko,emiotikaglazbepostojiu oblikudvijeSiroke truje: nalitiEkoj,koju je zorno prikazaoJean-JacquesNattiez (1975/1982)analizom VareseovekompozicijeDensity21.5istralujuciglazbenodjelosamou njegovimglazbenimkvalitetama, interpretativnoj,oju e po-kazaoFritsNoske (1977)razmatranjem lazbenihznakovau VerdijevimMozartovimoperama.Ove

struje,shvacene kao izjedna6avanjeeti0kogi emi6kog stupnja,donose sredstva za proucavanjepopularne glazbe, osobitonudenjemanalitickogmodelakoji nijeizveden iz tradicionalne onalneanalize.TeorijakodiranjaUmbertaEca(1979)takoderje uklju6ena erse kreces onu stranupukeanalize sugeriranadineispitivanjaprocesaglazbenogznacenja.

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