Source Study of 20th Century American and British Music Culture

Abstract

This article considers the peculiarities of audiovisual historical sources in the context of studies of the popular music culture of the US and Great Britain in the twentieth century. The understanding of the peculiarities of audiovisual sources and popular music developed in the fields of audiovisual studies and popular music studies setting the general framework for the source study of audiovisual sources in popular music culture. Considered generally, popular music is a complex of various elements, i.e. lyrics, music form, means of production and recording which are all equal components of popular music. It is important that the analysis of popular music take into account all of these components. Researchers do not only study written sources (scores and transcripts which are not often used in popular music industry), significantly expanding the empirical base of the research, from audio sources and live recordings to musical artifacts (clothes of musicians, musical instruments, and media), and music clubs or recording studios. Accordingly, the specific ‘language’ of audiovisual sources is due to the peculiarities of production (sound recording), presentation (music medium, live concerts) and the distribution of musical products in the cultural industry. Finally, the article points out several stages in the source study of popular music, i.e. the collection of general information about the source (its history; structure; elements of the author’s style; authorship; the features of the record source; socio-cultural context of its creation; reception by contemporaries; forms of distribution); genre characteristics of the source; ‘content’ of the source (lyrics analysis, characteristics of the music form); presentation (artistic design, style of live performance, decor); audience (audience composition, reception).