Abstract
This article addresses innovation and creativity in compositional practice and music production by focusing on the creative processes exemplified in popular songwriting. It does so using a cross-disciplinary approach that encompasses the perspectives of psychological, sociological and popular music studies. The research on which the article is based is an ethnographic study of contemporary western popular music songwriting using participant observation, artefact and document analysis, and an extensive set of interviews with local, national- and international-level songwriters. It examines one confluence model of creativity developed within the discipline of psychology at Chicago University, that is, the systems model of creativity that the author considers to be similar in some significant and primary ways to the ideas on cultural production developed by the empirical sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. The study concludes that the author/genius model of creativity is highly problematic and provides evidence to suggest that the creativity involved in songwriting comes about from the confluence of a domain of knowledge, a field or a social organization that understands and uses the domain of knowledge and an individual person who makes novel variations to domain information.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
