Popular Music Genres Research Articles

Shameful Specters: Remembering Spanish Slavery in Àngels Aymar’s La Indiana

Abstract This article reveals a new figure in the contemporary Spanish imaginary, the indiana, and a new literary mode, the indiana melodrama. It argues that the incarnation of the indiana as a virtuous, melodramatic heroine in Àngels Aymar’s 2007 play La indiana rebukes Spanish participation in transatlantic slavery and counters the historical amnesia that Spanish culture frequently displays toward its colonial past. An early forerunner in Spain’s long-delayed path to recognizing its history of slavery, La indiana forms part of activist efforts in Catalonia, the autonomous community in which the play premiered. Applying theories of memory and melodrama, the article explains how many factors in the play—the actors, their voices, the stage space, the soundscape, and the mixing of the Catalan and Spanish languages—transmit memory across racial, temporal, and spatial boundaries. This effect, “theatrical postmemory,” minimizes the distance between past and present, Cuba and Catalonia, memory and history. The article focuses on Aymar’s transformation of two symbols of Spanish (post)imperial nostalgia, the indiano home and the Catalan habanera, a popular musical genre. La indiana deconstructs the melodramatic convention of a happy ending and the concomitant restoration of innocence.

Some Characteristics in Light Music Performance Towards Sustainable Development in Vietnamese Cultural Identity

Objective: The goal is to introduce readers to the characteristics of pop music performances, to clarify more about pop music singing (mainly Rock-Pop), the differences compared to normal singing, in this article the author wants to introduce some characteristics in the way of performing pop music songs. Method: The study uses two main groups of methods: theoretical research and practical research to evaluate the overall data. In which, the focus is on observation and pedagogical experiments. Results: Research results have shown that, with special attention to novelty, uniqueness, and strong impression on the audience, since its inception, light music (Rock-Pop) has had a special appeal to the audience, especially the young. As a popular music genre, highly entertaining, paying important attention to the cyclical rhythm, often associated with dance music, musical language, singing style, performance, and use of the orchestra of light music have many different characteristics compared to classical music and popular music. Bringing positive values in the sustainable development of Vietnamese national culture Contribution: Understanding the characteristics of singing light music is one of the necessary things for singers and light music teachers at vocal training facilities to promote advantages and limit disadvantages.

Youth Identity Development on the Basis of Traditional Kazakh Folk Music

This study strived to determine the most popular music genre among young Kazakhs in the context of personal, social, and national identity development, specify the relationship between musical preferences and personality type, and disclose the level of influence of traditional Kazakh folk music on the identity of the Kazakh youth. The authors conducted a survey and a test by taking advantage of such research methods as sociological survey, statistical analysis, social phenomena cognition (assessment, analogy tracking, comparison), psychological and typological concepts of Jung, as well as Abulkhanova-Slavskaya’s methodology for revealing personality traits. As a result of the investigation, hip-hop and rap were identified as the most popular music genres among the respondents (42.2%). Analysis of the data obtained in accordance with Abulhanova-Slavskaya’s personality typology revealed that 89% of the respondents preferring blues/jazz, classical music, and folk music demonstrated personality traits corresponding to the reflexive personality type; 91% of punk/rock and heavy metal fans showed conformity to the contemplative personality type; 87.5% of pop-music lovers were attributed the harmonious personality type; 93.5% of hip-hop and rap music fans – the productive personality type; 84% of traditional music fans – the performing type; and 96% of fans of pop with folk tunes – the functional type. It was also uncovered that 89% of the respondents who preferred traditional music belonged to the sensitive personality type characterized by impressionability, openness, empathy, alertness, firmness, conscientiousness, and, at the same time, inferiority complexes, and a tendency to psychogenic depressions and phobias.

From Tradition to Innovation: The Incorporation of Trumpet in Bɔbɔɔbɔ (Borborbor) Dance of The Ewe People

This article explores the emergence and evolution of bɔbɔɔbɔ (borborbor), a distinctive Ewe dance that originated in mid 20th century British Togoland (now the Volta Region of Ghana) and French Togoland (now Togo). Initially rooted in traditional kokomba dance forms, particularly tuidzi and akpese, bɔbɔɔbɔ rapidly integrated European military brass band instruments, notably the bugle and later the trumpet, influenced by the burgeoning popular music genre of highlife in Ghana. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in Ewe communities in Ghana, this paper examines the transformative role of the trumpet within bɔbɔɔbɔ ensembles. It investigates how the trumpet’s adoption led to its unique interpretative functions, including improvised obbligatos, sampling of familiar tunes, and enhancing the rhythmic and percussive dynamics of performances. Ultimately, this study illuminates the process of indigenization of the trumpet within bɔbɔɔbɔ, highlighting themes of adoption, assimilation, and reinterpretation in the evolution of this vibrant musical tradition

From rhymes to revelation:A qualitative study of listeners’ meaning-making of hip-hop music

Hip-Hop as a music genre is a popular music genre both in commercial success and global impact and there is a variety of academic studies on the origins, creation, effects, and uses of hip-hop. What remains understudied, yet fundamentally important, is a perspective that takes hip-hop consumers and the way they give meaning to hip-hop as a musical genre. The current in-depth interview study (N = 20) aimed to understand how hip-hop listeners came to give meaning to hip-hop music in their own words and from the perspective of their everyday lived experiences. Results outlined four themes that are relevant in the meanings constructed around hip-hop music, 1) how listeners define hip-hop, 2) how they experience listening to hip-hop, 3) how hip-hop is used as a source in identity-formational practices, and 4) how listeners employed a societal perspective in evaluating hip-hop as a musical genre. As such, the current study provides a balanced empirical perspective on hip-hop music and sheds light on the meaningful role it has in the lives of its listeners.

1960년대 한-일 대중음악에 나타나는 비틀즈의 영향을 통한, 대중음악의 수용의미 분석 - 1960년대 양국 밴드 음악의 비교를 중심으로

Since the Beatles’ arrival in New York on February 7 th , 1964 was broadcast, they have shaken up not only the United States but also the world’s popular music market. Korea and Japan, which were strongly influenced by American pop culture at the time, were also influenced by British-style band music including the Beatles. Based on this cultural phenomenon that Korea and Japan experienced simultaneously in the 1960s, this study examined the patterns of cultural spread in the Anglo-American region between the two nations via a comparison of the music of the two countries at the time. This study compared Korean and Japanese 60s popular music in terms of melodies and harmonies that were influenced by British-style band music represented by the Beatles. As a result, the band music of both countries exhibited similarities and differences in musical aspects. A common factor is that the band music of both countries follows the Beatles’ band formation and arrangement method; however, differences were also observed. In the case of Korean bands, excluding their adapted songs, the musical influence of the Beatles is not easy to find. Korean band Add4’s songs were made using pentatonic scales, which give the feeling of Korean folk music. The band Keyboys wrote songs in the trot genre. In the case of Japan, other examples can be found. The band The Spiders and The Dynamites used music as similar to the Beatles as possible, thereby reflecting the Beatles’ melodic and harmonic characteristics as much as possible. Jackey Yoshikawa and the Blue Comets showed enka tendencies. Based on our results, Korea’s 1960s band music localized new English-American music and accepted it in a compromise manner. Japanese band music also attempted to localize, but attempted to copy the trend of English-American music represented by the Beatles. It was confirmed that attempts had also been made. Based on these differences in cultural acceptance between the two countries, the patterns of cultural transmission at the time in the Anglo-American world can be summarized as follows. 1. The public’s level of exposure to Anglo-American culture was different in the two countries. 2. The music production companies of the two countries had different approaches to the newly forming English-American music. Thereafter, Korean and Japanese popular music in the 70s and 80s took different paths. This difference can be viewed as the result of the two countries’ different acceptance of Anglo-American music from the 50s, 60s, and 70s, which are considered a time of differentiation in Anglo-American popular music genres such as rock, rock‘n’roll, and R&B. The occurrence of the phenomenon of cultural acceptance influencing later generations of music is believed to be repeating with the birth of K-pop. Accordingly, the formation of modern K-pop and its differences from J-pop can be considered as future research tasks.

Bentuk Interaksi Parasosial pada Penggemar K-Pop Melalui Media Sosial X

The Korean wave has become very popular, especially in the field of music often referred to as “Korean pop” or “K-pop”, which is a fusion of various popular music genres from South Korea. With the internet and social media being easily accessible, K-pop in Indonesia is growing very fast. This research looks at the phenomenon of fan behavior towards their idols on social media, which leads to parasocial interactions because the ease of social media makes fans feel close to their idols. In parasocial interaction, a person acts towards media figures as if they are where they are. Parasocial interaction has forms including task attraction, identification attraction, and romantic attraction. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to find out how the form of parasocial interactions carried out by K-pop fans on X social media. This research uses a descriptive methodology that uses interviews and observations to collect data. The results showed that all informants actively engage in parasocial interactions with their idol, NCT, through social media X. This shows that the type of parasocial interaction that K-pop fans do on social media X. This shows that the types of parasocial interactions that occur in NCT fans through social media X are task attraction, identification attraction, and romantic attraction.

Viral sexualities, viral songs: Queer musical interventions in the AIDS crisis in Turkey

The AIDS crisis was a global phenomenon, but the ways individuals responded to the crisis reflected local histories and sociopolitical dynamics. This was particularly true for musical productions. Turkey’s first high-profile HIV patient Murtaza Elgin’s albums demonstrate how queer cultural producers and their allies used stigmatized popular music genres to intervene in the AIDS crisis. The albums show how such collaborative projects become a site for artists diagnosed with HIV to resist criminalization and abjection, build artistic, social, and economic solidarity, mobilize affect for sociopolitical change, and develop a broader critique of homophobia and transphobia.

Historical Glimpse of Music in Yemen in the 1930s: A First Approach to the Cylinders Recorded by Hans Helfritz

The 102 cylinders recorded by Hans Helfritz in Yemen in 1930–31 and held by the Berlin Phonogramm-Archive represent a precious asset for the study of music of this country. They are the first large number of recordings of Yemenite music carried out in the field, just before the beginning of the first commercial recordings in Aden a few years later. Unlike the Aden recordings, Helfritz's represent mainly popular musical genres from the different tribes from the Highlands and Hadramawt, soldiers' songs, work songs, women's songs, and Jewish songs. As a first approach to this collection, I re-documented an anthology of a dozen of these recordings. I brought together as much information as possible from different sources in order to contextualize this music and its collection: Helfritz's biography, his books, his two main travels to Yemen and how he recorded music, and some considerations about Helfritz's contribution to the knowledge of Yemenite music. I consider the ambiguities of his orientalist vision and approach as an explorer more than as a musicologist, which contributed to the form and content of the collection itself. Finally, I bring up a few ethical considerations about these "captured sounds" and the future of this collection.

ИННОВАЦИОННЫЕ ПРОЦЕССЫ В МУЗЫКАЛЬНОМ ФОЛЬКЛОРЕ НАРЫМСКИХ СЕЛЬКУПОВ

The article discusses the processes of development of modern musical folklore among the Narym Selkups based on the analysis of the publication “Ob tunes of Narym Selkups” (compiled by V. Tuzakova and I. Korobeynikova, Tomsk, 2015). Russian folklore and Soviet mass song are influencing the modern musical folklore of the southern Selkups, and the creativity of amateur Selkup composers (melodists) is developing. In the works of modern musical folklore, the main marker of national identity is the Selkup language. Manifestations of the “Selkup” musical style (scale, organization of melodic movement) are partially preserved, but new stylistic features come to the fore: arrangements defining the musical style of new songs, instrumental accompaniment, square structural constructions peculiar to modern music and other means of popular musical genres. Onomatopoeia of the voices of animals and birds, which are associated with the traditional taiga landscape for the Selkups and bring the “image of a place” to modern compositions, are widely used in modern folklore works. This allows us to consider the modern musical folklore of the Selkups in the light of the concept of the sounding landscapes of the Arctic.

Lexical and contextual meaning in Eminem's song lyrics: An analysis of three songs from encore

This study examines the lexical and contextual meanings in three songs from Eminem's album "Encore": "Mockingbird," "Love You More," and "Mosh." Using a qualitative approach, the research analyzes various types of lexical meanings (synonymy, antonymy, polysemy, hyponymy, and connotation) and contextual factors (situation, purpose, mood, and speaker). The findings reveal Eminem's sophisticated use of language, demonstrating how he employs different linguistic techniques to suit various themes and purposes. Synonymy and antonymy are found to be the most prevalent lexical types, while context of purpose is consistently important across all songs. The study highlights the interplay between lexical choices and contextual factors in creating multi-layered meanings. This analysis provides insight into Eminem's lyrical craftsmanship, explaining how he addresses complex themes within the constraints of song structure. The research contributes to the field of lyrical analysis by demonstrating the value of combining lexical and contextual approaches. It also offers a framework for future studies on linguistic complexity in rap music and broader popular music genres.

Re-enacting the Trauma: Ritualising Turbo-Folk

Turbo-folk, a popular music genre originating in 1990s’ Serbia, still enjoys an immense popularity among Viennese residents with origins in the former Yugoslavia. The pilot study outlined here attempted to determine why a 25-year-old repertoire of songs is of such central importance to many listeners in the Austrian capital. As the research showed, informants view the interaction with turbo-folk as an experience outside their everyday lives requiring a particular time and space in order to unfold. To channel and express the strong emotions elicited by turbo-folk, actors employ a variety of strategies, one of which is singing along to the music. This practice is interpreted here as a ritual aiming to process the collective trauma constituted by a double loss of home. This ritual results in the construction of a collective “Yugo” identity that at the same time enables and ensues the process in a circular manner.

Menelusuri Gejolak dan Antusiasme Tren Pencarian Genre Musik di Indonesia dari 2018 sampai 2023

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to analyze the search trends of music genres in Indonesia in the period of 2018-2023. In this study, four popular music genres in Indonesia were used as analysis samples, namely; Islamic music, jazz music, rock music, and dangdut music. Method: The method used is a qualitative type, which acts to describe the data narrative read from the google trends tool which also functions as a data analysis instrument. Result and Discussion: The results of this research found; that (1) The search trend for dangdut was very popular in the duration of 2018-2023 beating the three other music genres, even the search trend for dangdut music dominated in almost every province in Indonesia (2) The search trend for jazz music and rock music competed fiercely in the period 2018-2023, overtaking each other in that period. (3) In terms of graphical appearance, the trend of Islamic music does not seem to increase much compared to the search trends of the other three music genres throughout the last five years (2018-2023) (4) Central Java and Lampung provinces always appear in the top five provinces in the search trends of Islamic music, jazz music, rock music, and dangdut genres. Conclusion: The conclusion obtained in this study is that the search trend for certain music genres is strongly influenced by the culture or group of people who have an attachment to it. The more the music genre can enter many groups of society, the more fans there will be and of course this will increase the search trend for the music genre on social media, as discussed in this study.

1980년대 일본 시티팝의 특성 고찰

This research examines the characteristics of Japanese City pop music from the 1980s, which encapsulates the urban sensibility of the era. In essence, it aims to elucidate the significance and implications of 1980s City pop as a popular music genre. The 1970s, which is closely associated with the emergence of City pop, marked a turning point from counterculture to commercial culture, representing a period where the existing musical identity evolved into a new form of music. This transformation can be observed in the music of ‘Happy end’, which captured the fading image of old Tokyo due to Japan's economic development, and it further evolved into Japanese AOR, New music, and eventually City pop. Notably, 1980s City pop can be seen as music that is rooted in the sensibilities of the city and reflects the image of Tokyo during the economic bubble era. This study holds significant importance in examining the birth of City pop influenced by western urbanization in 1980s Japan and its distinctive characteristics as popular music.

Popular music as living heritage: theoretical and practical challenges explored through the case of Slovenian folk pop

ABSTRACT Produced, distributed, and consumed in a de-territorialised way, modern popular music presents a set of challenges to cultural heritage policies which largely rely on spatial frameworks, as needs for the preservation of local, regional, or national cultural heritage are typically highlighted. Moreover, certain popular music genres dating back to the mid-20th century are both representations and re-inventions of local and ‘folk’ or ‘traditional’ music and have become a part of many living heritage practices. Slovenian folk-pop (FP) music is a case in point: a modern genre in terms of history and production conditions, nationally registered as intangible cultural heritage. This article offers an analysis of how FP music is integrated into authorised heritage discourse in Slovenia, foregrounding the results of extensive interviews with 14 heritage gatekeepers, such as organisers of FP festivals and curators of thematic museums. The article discusses how operational definitions of FP as heritage, used by various gatekeepers that operate locally, regionally, and internationally deviate from the definition provided in the national intangible heritage register. The analysis traces how discourses about national and cultural identity get intertwined with music and establishes that gatekeepers’ understandings of culture as either territorialised or dynamic significantly impact their heritage activities.

Negotiating body, sex, and self-fashioning in Fújì music

A growing body of literature interrogating the voluptuous rendering of human sexuality in popular culture has focused on sex scripting in Western films and the commodification of women and their representations in popular media. However, exploration of how linguistic metaphors and innuendoes are deployed to affirm or contest expressions of desires that are sacred, sensitive, or taboo in Fuji music has received little scholarly attention. Of what significance is contesting social structure on sexuality to Fuji as a Nigerian popular musical genre? This empirical study explores this question while drawing on an ethnographic and interpretive literary analysis. Drawing from Hakim’s notion of ‘erotic capital’, the analyses and discussion operationalize the sexual scripting framework, Black feminist thought, and African/Black revolutionary art. I argue that sexual narratives and connotations in Fuji performance are often generated as powerful resources to contest sexual sensitivity and push back on silence on sexuality, negotiate and solicit artistic identity, and exact influence on public conversations on sexuality. By and large, this article affirms the engagement of sensual lyrical content as constitutive of revolutionary art and a social transformative site in which the body is negotiated as a catalyst for sexonomics in the contemporary ‘ear-tearing pant-and-bra’ musical evocations.

When Vulgarism Comes through Popular music: An Investigation of Slackness in Zimdancehall Music

In Zimbabwe, popular music, particularly the Zimdancehall music genre, has become a cultural site where Shona moral values clash with explicit sexual lyrical content despite a censorship regime in the country. This article examines the nature and cultural consequences of the moral decadence that emerges in popular Zimdancehall song lyrics by several musicians. The article illustrates how vulgar language popularises Zimdancehall songs in unheralded ways that foster identities laced with cultural ambivalences that may portray the artists as both famous and depraved. This qualitative study does textual and content analysis of 11 purposively sampled songs with sex terms to elucidate the cultural inconsistencies in Zimdancehall song narratives. Analysis is informed by the Neuro-Psycho-Social theory, which recognises how socio-cultural restrictions are challenged by an emerging ghetto culture like new wine in old bottles. Alternative unsanctioned new popular music genres can be used to permeate the sociocultural system.

You don't know a person('s taste) when you only know which genre they like: taste differences within five popular music genres based on sub-genres and sub-styles.

A representative German sample (N = 2,086) was surveyed on their musical taste with a questionnaire that asked about their liking not only of a number of genres, but also of relevant sub-genres and -styles. Using Latent Profile Analysis to analyze sub-genre liking patterns, four to six distinct taste classes were found within groups of those n = 1,749 people who liked either European classical music, electronic dance music, metal, pop or rock based on their sub-genre ratings. Across genres, two types of taste classes emerged: one with three classes that differed in the degree of liking all sub-genres, another with one to three classes that were biased in their liking or disliking of easier and more mainstream variants of a genre as compared to harder and sophisticated ones. Logistic regression models revealed meaningful relationships of genre fan groups and within-genre taste classes with sociodemographic variables and BIG-5 personality traits. In sum, our results demonstrate meaningful taste differences within genres and show that these translate to differences in person-related variables as well. These findings challenge earlier genre-based conceptualizations of music tastes, since we find similar structures already on the sub-genres level. It also suggests that different reasons and factors underlie tastes for genres and sub-genres. Future studies should therefore ask about taste in a more nuanced way.

Abraham Zwi Idelsohn ve Robert Lachmann: İsrail Ulusal Ses Arşivi'nin Entelektüel ve Pratik Kurucuları

The field of Jewish Music research originated at the beginning of the twentieth century, when Abraham Zwi Idelsohn came to Jerusalem and began to document oral traditions of Jewish oriental communities in music transcriptions and sound recordings. Idelsohn's pioneering work set the ground for further research and recording of Jewish music. In 1935 a German-Jewish musicologist, Robert Lachmann, continued Idelsohn's work, and recorded the traditions of Jews, Arabs, and other communities living in Jerusalem and Palestine at the time. The emphasis of both of their work was on liturgical, traditional music transmitted orally and reflected ancient Jewish music. In 1965, the National Sound Archives was established in the National Library of Israel, and researchers continue to record traditional music along with popular music and other genres of music. In this paper, I claim that, despite the developments in technology and the production of popular music, the center of the National Sound Archives’ work remained loyal to its intellectual and practical founders.

She’s ‘sexssertive’ and she knows it!: a postfeminist reading of African femininities in Afrobeats music videos

ABSTRACT This paper engages a (post)feminist-aligned critical reading of women’s gendered performances in Afrobeats music videos to highlight—in the visual culture of this popular African musical genre—the visibility of sexually assertive black African women who variously subvert heteropatriarchal moral public scripts about “respectable” African womanhood and expression of their sexualities in relation to black African men. In my considerations of postfeminist sensibilities, I align with Simidele Dosekun by regarding postfeminism as a transnational cultural sensibility with flexible contours that render it analytically applicable and valuable as a scholarly lens in an African popular cultural landscape. I deploy a multimodal discourse analysis of five Afrobeats music videos (derived from a larger corpus of videos from my PhD study), their storylines, plot progressions, and the accompanying lyrical contents, to advance my arguments. The article draws significantly on postfeminist literature and key perspectives from bodies of feminist critiques of popular culture to demonstrate inflections of feminine subjectivities that I theorise as “sexssertive,” given their active constructions of counter-narratives in relation to conservative and restrictive meanings of black African womanhood. I conclude by considering the implications hereof for broader feminist efforts towards the just treatment of women across diverse African contexts in the domains of sexuality and sexual expression.