Semiotics as a Method for the Study of Popular Music
Author(s): Peter Dunbar-Hall
Source: International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Dec.,
1991), pp. 127-132
Published by: Croatian Musicological Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/836920
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SEMIOTICS
AND POPMUSIC,IRASM22 (1991)2, 127-132
P. DUNBAR-HALL:
127
SEMIOTICSAS A METHOD FOR THE STUDY
OF POPULAR MUSIC
UDC: 78.01:78.03
PETERDUNBAR-HALL
OriginalScientificPaper
Izvorniznanstvenirad
Received:May 15, 1991
Primljeno:15. svibnja1991.
2, 1991
Accepted:October
2. listopada 1991.
PrihvaCeno:
Sydney Conservatoriumof Music,
University of Sydney,
Macquarie St., SYDNEY,
NSW 2000, Australia
Abstract - Resume
This article examines the role of semiotics as a method for studying popular music. It
is based on the premise that current studying
of popular music lacks both musicological
depth and a suitable analytical method. Semiotics, because of its historical development in
two broad streams similar to etic and emic levels, offers a solution to these problems. Its further application to the area of style analysis related to coding is considered both for its
relevance to popular music specifically, and
music in general.
Since its entry into thinking about music as a form of analysis and criticism in the 1970s, semiotics has developed its own, albeit comparatively
small, 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 popular
music, 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 medium
of 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 attention to popular music.<<(p. 172)
128
P. DUNBAR-HALL:
SEMIOTICS
AND POPMUSIC,IRASM22 (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 an
analytical method. That traditional analysis is unsuitable for this music is
discussed by a number of writers besides McClary and Walser (TAYLOR,
1985; WICKE, 1982; RAOIC, 1981), while MIDDLETON (1990) demonstrates
a variety of alternative approaches. The premiss behind this opinion is
that popular music, being inherently different to art music, does not respond to a system of analysis based on functional tonality, in which melody 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 past
two 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 theorists of semiology,<<(p. 23)
these can be classified into two broad streams depending on their aims and approaches, and represented by groups of writers: (1) an analytical style (MOLINO, 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 musical workings of a piece of music, thus to arrive at a statement of the meaning
of 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, in
this 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 absolute 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 of
art 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:
SEMIOTICS
AND POPMUSIC,IRASM22 (1991)2, 127-132
P. DUNBAR-HALL:
129
>This is a level of analysis at which one does not decide a priori whether
the results generated by a specific analyticalproceedingare relevant from
the esthesic or poietic point of view.< (p. 13)
In principle, this is in line with the view of music that sees it as expressing
itself.
InterpretativeSemiotics
Interpretativemusical semiotics focuses on linking musicalevents to extramusical concepts. Noske's tracing of melodic and rhythmicmotives in the operas of Mozart and Verdi, and their alignment to dramaticideas, in this way
their interpretationas dramaturgicaldevices, is an example of this style. In it
the components of the model centralto the presenceof basic semiosis, the signifier and the signified, are equated with a musical event and what it represents,
and music is seen as a system symbolic of something else. This is a referentialist view of music.
Semiotics and Popular Music
The existence of both an analytical and an interpretativestyle of musical
semiotics provides a reason for the viability of semiotics as a way of studying
popular music. The Nattiez/analytic style, because it is not based on hierarchised traditional analysis, allows analysis to be adapted to the prominent
features of any style, in the case of popular music rhythm, timbre,repetition,
etc, not only providing a necessary analysis model, but one that can be adapted to the music under examinationthroughits abilityto focus on the prominent
parameter/s of the music. Because this concentrateson the music for itself and
not on pre-ordained genres and styles, it provides what the study of popular
music has always lacked, the possibility of proper musical analysis. This has
been a concern of writers for some time. FRITH,for example, discussing one
form of popular music, stated in 1978that:
>Rock,despite the millions of words devoted to it, is seldom subjectto musical analysis.<(p. 176)
This method of analysis can be used to define the semioticcode that works
in popular music.
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), and
considers the definition of such codes a majorpart of his semiotic theory (see
ECO,1979,Chapter2). It would not be wrong to suggest that what gives meaning to a musical event (seen as a signifier) and its signified (either musical or
extra-musical meaning) is the context in which the event takes place, and in
popular music context can be equated with sub-style.Thatsub-stylesof popular
music exist can be shown by comparativeanalysis of examples of hip-hop, juju,
130
AND POPMUSIC,IRASM22 (1991)2, 127-132
P. DUNBAR-HALL:
SEMIOTICS
Motown, Soul, reggae, pink, or heavy metal, to list only a few. It is the existence of sub-styles that the neutral level analysis can be used to formulate, and
it is these sub-styles, through their use of specific musical events, such as rhythmic cells, harmonic motives, types of bass lines, musical processes, or specific
timbres, which in turn give meaning to the events. A popular sub-style is to be
seen 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 an
area of popular music requiring research: the way in which style evolves, is
conventionalised, and, bearing in mind popular music's self-reflexivity, how
these sub-styles interact and influence each other. The role of semiotics, in this
area, has extended beyond our original analytical and interpretative acts to
consideration of how sub-styles (seen as semiotic codes) develop and influence
each 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 characteristics of a sub-style, the Noske/interpretative style can be used to study the
received meaning of popular music. This is a broad area covering, among others, historical, sociological, and political considerations, and is based on the assumption 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 TROITSKY'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, and
HALL 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 laden tool, often with an antiauthoritarian implication.
In this style of semiotics, pieces of music are seen as representing substyles, and these in turn are seen as signifying lifestyles, and then beliefs, in a
series of overlapping denotations and connotations common to semiotic reduction. 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 represent only one of an infinite set of meanings that can be given to a piece of
music.
ANDPOPMUSIC,
IRASM
22(1991)2, 127-132
SEMIOTICS
P. DUNBAR-HALL:
131
This particular set of denotations and connotations depends on the relevant
sub-style being identified and recognised, thus is culture-specific, or an emic
view 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 study
of music as a whole is an accepted fact, MEYER(1956, p. viiff), for example, discusses music as consisting of both its abstract theory and its historical and sociological applications, and translated into etic and emic levels, the analytical and
interpretative styles of musical semiotics become a possible model for the study
of popular music.
Conclusion
The study of popular music currently suffers from the lack of musical analysis, and a method to carry it out. Semiotics, through its development as two
broad streams covering an analytical and an interpretative approach, and providing a means to examine music both etically and emically, can be both a
method and a model to solve these problems. While analysis and interpretation
could be seen as a primary application of semiotics to popular music, a secondary level develops from Eco's theories relating to codes, in which the link between a musical event and its significance is examined. This may prove to be
the more important aspect of musical semiotics in that it questions how signification takes place, providing information on popular music specifically, and
music in general.
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Sazetak
SEMIOTIKA
KAOMETODAZA PROUtAVANJEPOPULARNE
GLAZBE
Prihvacanjesemiotikekao metode za proucavanjeglazbejognijepotpuno.Istodobno,ozbiljno
proucavanjepopulame glazbe tek sto je polelo i pati od pomanjkanjaanaliti&emetode.Moglo bi se
pokazatida je semiotikaprikladanpristuppopularnojglazbiiz vise razlogas obziromna naine kako
se razvijalau glazbenojmisli. Ukratko,semiotikaglazbepostojiu oblikudvijeSirokestruje:analitiEkoj,
koju je zorno prikazaoJean-JacquesNattiez (1975/1982)analizomVareseovekompozicijeDensity
21.5 istralujuciglazbeno djelosamo u njegovimglazbenimkvalitetama,i interpretativnoj,
kojuje pokazao FritsNoske (1977)razmatranjemglazbenihznakovau Verdijevimi Mozartovimoperama.Ove
struje, shvacene kao izjedna6avanjeeti0kog i emi6kog stupnja, donose sredstva za proucavanje
popularne glazbe, osobito nudenjem analitickogmodela koji nije izveden iz tradicionalnetonalne
analize. TeorijakodiranjaUmbertaEca (1979)takoderje uklju6enajer se krece s onu stranupuke
analizei sugeriranadineispitivanjaprocesaglazbenogznacenja.