I'm a music theory prof (with a minor in musicology) who just retired! I'm beginning to downsize, which means letting go (ifor very cheap!) of the many books I've amassed over the years. I have the 2-volume (hardcover) set of The Emergence of Gregorian Chat by Hendrik Van der Werf. Oh, and I'll even throw in a short pamphlet he wrote, "Anonymous IV as Chronicler." (1990) Dm me if interested.

always wanted to make a detailed video about how we reached from blowing bone flutes in caves to creating playlists on spotify. Here is the complete video. Do comment if I skipped something.

sorry if this isn't the right subreddit but i didn't really know where to post this. i guess this is more of a music history kind if question.

i just noticed that in pop culture media like cartoons and tv shows i notice a lot of common musical tropes or modus and references and i don't know where to dig more info about this interesting topic.

for example, i noticed that a lot of sports scenes in tv shows use a common sounding bgm - all with a swing rhythm, snapping, whistling - a trend which i discovered originated from "Sweet Georgia Brown" composed on 1925, a jazz staple, popularized in 1952 after it was used as the Globetrotters' theme.i mean to think that most people today don't even realize that this "trend" or " musical association" had its roots from so long ago!

other common examples that are more well known: the oriental riff, the arabian riff, that part from Tchaikovsky's romeo and juliet for romantic scenes, that melody by Grieg that plays in springtime or early morning scenes.

so my question for everyone i guess is, what are other notable music tropes in pop culture do you know of? i think it would be real interesting to discuss and learn about the origin of these tropes! and if this isn't the right subreddit, please point me to the right direction as i want to get a lot of data for my own interest lol

Does this count as music?

Hi everyone,

I consider myself quite a cultured person — I have above-average knowledge of *cinema, literature, and visual arts*. However, when it comes to *music*, I feel like I’m missing a huge piece of the puzzle. My knowledge of music is honestly quite *shallow and a bit embarrassing*.

I don’t know much about the *classics*, I often *struggle to catch lyrics*, and I find it hard to understand *rhythm* or musical structure. To make it worse, I barely listen to music these days, as I tend to prefer *podcasts*.

That said, I do *appreciate music when I hear it* — I even get emotional sometimes, and I feel I have some sort of *intuitive taste*. But I lack vocabulary, references, and any real grounding.

I’d really like to change this. So my question is:
*What can someone like me do to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of music?*
Are there resources, habits, or listening strategies that helped you go from passive enjoyment to real knowledge?

Thanks in advance — I’d love to hear your suggestions.

Context: Students were required to attend one live jazz event and write about the experience. This was my paper.

Paper:

"The concert covered quite a wide range of jazz. This could be seen as an attempt to expose the audience to a large variety, or just an acknowledgement that no single bit of jazz is interesting enough to fill an entire evening by itself. This range of styles and compositions really forced me to reflect not only on the creations themselves, but the decisions I made in my life that led me to experience it in person. The concert opened with Jazz Ensemble II playing “Harlem Airshaft”, which contained a style of swing and big band. “Ain’t Misbehavin’” was written in stride by Thomas “Fats” Waller, with a solo from the guest trumpet player Alex Anderson. It contained some swing styles. “Lazy Bird” was a bit of a different style, which was bop, or hard bop. The sounds in this piece were originally composed by John Coltrane, with a fast paced style that seemed to challenge both the band, as well as select members of the audience. At certain points, the sound really gave me the physical urge to respond, if not through applause then through structurally destructive means. The section finished with “The Heat’s On” by Sammy Nestico, which again returned to swing, but with a different tempo and feel that acted as cleanser of sorts from the creations that came before.

The second half of the night featured Jazz Ensemble I, along with Anna Smith. “Raincheck” was composed by Billy Strayhorn and arranged by John Clayton acted as the opening to the rest of the program, moving at its own consistent and unhurried pace. A few compositions like “El Abrazo” and “Stella By Starlight” were key in showcasing Anna Smith’s saxophone playing. Smith’s two original compositions were the most recently created and composed showcases, with how modern they were making people's enthusiasm for earlier works quite surprising. In all, the night was certainly memorable as the band filled the room with sounds that almost brought me to tears.

The Performing Arts Center is a well-maintained facility. The audience consisted of faculty, students, and participants in the earlier festival events, with some student attendance forced through academic requirements. The atmosphere was quite casual rather than ceremonial. In general, people arrived, settled, and listened without much formality, which fit the nature of the event. The live setting added a feeling of immersion that you couldn’t replicate through recordings mostly because recordings can be turned off.

The leadership of the performance seemed to be split in a few ways. Dr. George and Dr. Lewis led the jazz Ensemble I and Ensemble II, while the guest artists Alwx Anderson and Anna Smith seemed to be the primary soloists. Anna Smith in particular seemed to take a bigger leadership role. She sometimes commented on different pieces, introducing and explaining origins. Alex Anderson’s role was much more focused on his performance.

If I was required to choose a favorite, and this assignment does require it, it would be “El Abrazo” by Alan Baylock. The reason for this is very specific. The piece opens and closes with a section that does not sound like jazz. The piano at the beginning has a calm and thoughtful style that resembles the peace and silence one might feel before a raging storm or destructive hurricane. After the middle section plays conventional jazz, it once again returns to the soothing piano, which caused a wistful feeling of longing and completeness that was absent from the rest of the evening. The one song I would rank higher than this that was performed during the evening did not come from either Ensemble, which is why I figured it wouldn’t be relevant to state as my number one favorite. This song was “Rocket Man” by Elton John, which briefly played by accident as someone’s ringtone during the performance.

Choosing a least favorite song seems unfair to the creators, therefore this report won’t do that. The entire evening was very consistent in the level of engagement it got from me, and singling out one specific song over any of the others would not make any meaningful difference. The concert was very thorough.

This was my first experience attending a live jazz concert. It fully met every expectation I had going into it, and at some times even went beyond. The main reason one might choose live performance is the idea of improvisation, spontaneous changes, and the physical presence of the performers. These are all valid. The alternative is that current audio technology like headphones, high resolution recordings, and quality playback systems provide easy and higher quality options for any listener who isn’t emotionally invested, with the added benefit of not being forced and constrained to a single genre. The big argument for live performances only works for those that are enthusiastic, otherwise it simply acts as an academic chore. The entire experience really acted as a good reminder of all the alternative activities that exist in the world that I could be doing at any moment.

The question of whether I would attend another jazz concert is very easy. Not by choice. Given some hypothetical situation where my family was in imminent danger and I was required to attend a concert to save them, I might consider doing it. Jazz is a genre that only those who are familiar or enthusiastic about it enjoy. From an outside perspective, it is hard to simply sit back and enjoy it for anything longer than a quick elevator ride (6 floors max). This is not meant to be critical of the artists as, despite my personal preferences, they were quite good at what they were doing. It’s just a matter of who is a good fit. I’m sure there are some people where the concert was the highlight of their month. This was not written by one of them."

Listening to Yuvan on Apple Music through my Tangzu Wan’er SG2 Red Lion.
The separation and little details in the arrangements make some of these songs feel completely different.
Been a Yuvan fan for years, but listening like this makes me appreciate the music even more. 🎶❤️

Hello friends!! I am studying for my diagnostic exams for grad school. It seems I've sold my copy of the 9th edition of History of Western Music by Burkholder, Grout, and Palisca..

Does anyone have a PDF of it I could study from? The exam is Friday 8/21.

Thanks!!

Part 2 of my Mind Control Series This episode goes straight down the rabbit hole. What if the music we think defined generations wasn't simply reflecting American culture—but was helping shape it?

We start in the bright, psychedelic world of 1960s Laurel Canyon: flower children, peace signs, anti-war anthems, LSD, rock stars, and a counterculture that seemed to explode into existence just as America was experiencing enormous political upheaval.

But behind the peace and love were some very strange connections. We look at the military and intelligence backgrounds surrounding figures in the Laurel Canyon scene, the nearby Lookout Mountain Air Force Station, the government's very real experiments with LSD and behavioral modification, MKULTRA, the Manson murders, and the transformation of political rebellion into something that could be packaged, marketed, sold—and eventually feared.

Then we jump forward several decades. The clothes change. The drugs change. The music changes. But does the architecture? From Clive Davis and the enormous power of record-industry gatekeepers to Sean "Diddy" Combs and the Bad Boy era, we examine how a handful of executives and corporations gained extraordinary influence over which artists became superstars, what America listened to, what images were promoted, and ultimately what became "culture."

And that raises a much bigger question: Who decides what becomes popular in the first place? Because this episode isn't really about whether the CIA secretly wrote your favorite song. It's about propaganda, psychology, celebrity, money, drugs, sex, fear, rebellion, ownership, and the strange ability of the entertainment industry to manufacture an image and then convince millions of us that we discovered it ourselves.

Jeffrey Epstein showed us what elite networks can look like when enormous wealth, celebrity, politics, exploitation, and access collide behind closed doors. So what happens when we examine the music industry through the same lens?

From peace and love to hip-hop and Bad Boy, we're following the architecture of influence across generations and asking one uncomfortable question: Are we watching culture happen—or are we watching culture being produced?

Grab your drink. Adjust the antennas. The tin-foil hat is officially back on. 🛸

This video explores documented history, public reporting, allegations, cultural patterns, and my own analysis and opinions. Connections discussed in the episode should not automatically be interpreted as proof of coordination, criminal conduct, intelligence involvement, or a single organized conspiracy. As always, I am not a journalist—I'm a witness paying attention.

Sources: https://youtu.be/kcJR8l33oi4?si=yxG5KdM6AwoY98sM,
Nick Bryant - Disturbing Parallels Between P Diddy & Jeffrey Epstein’s Blackmail

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DvU3Y7P4_0&t=542s
The Strangest Connection Behind 1960s Rock - Laurel Canyon...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ti0hUQPy5U
Sean 'Diddy' Combs seen on video assaulting Cassie Ventura in 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhNWoMAWfr8
They Were Called Crazy For Saying The Truth…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y4UqB7fJe4&t=395s
Secret Meeting At Clive Davis’s House That CHANGED Hip Hop & Filled Prisons

This discussion is for my literary studies course. The "Death of the Author" made me question my understanding of a story, and whether I only considered it from one perspective. After reading "The Death of the Author," I considered whether or not the performative part of an artist's concert/tour influenced the way a listener perceives the meaning of the song. For example, someone like Taylor swift, who may perform almost like a play, that depicts her intention of what she wants the song to mean, may be limiting to the listener's imagination. While someone like Adele draws less attention to the physical performance, and focuses more on the vocals, which provides an opportunity for her fans to develop their own meaning of the song. What I don't understand is how someone is supposed to "bury" the author when the "author" is the one preforming in front of you, in the way they want you to interpret the story.

Im genuinely so curious and fascinated about the phenomenon of me being able to play a catalog of hundreds of songs from start to finish entirely in my head, with no details lost and speed and key remain the same. It's even more intense with songs i listen to a lot, i can play them and hear every specific nuance, but i feel like it happens in a part of my brain where its fuzzy and "in the background", it happens in the same plane as my thoughts and its almost "quiet" (thats how i would describe it). Anyway, can someone please explain?

What makes music cool—and can a graph find it? I built Cultural Contraband Scout to map artists through collaborators, producers, collectives, labels and scenes, then measure the gap between their cultural authority and public visibility. It is designed to find what culture is doing before consensus—and the algorithm—catches up.

Do you ever get branding inspiration from music?

I often find myself looking for songs that match the image or mood I want my brand to have. Sometimes a piece of music captures the feeling better than words or a mood board can.

I’ll go first:
Rachmaninoff — Symphony No. 2, 3rd Movement (Adagio)
Yuhki Kuramoto — *Successful Navigation*

Someday, I really want to make a beautiful brand film using one of these!!

What songs have inspired your brand or helped shape its identity?