Friday, January 1, 2010

Vernacular music

Vernacular music functions to inscribe a people within a particular culture. It sets a worldview into resonance, which helps both to create and sustain the boundaries of that worldview. “What” music is in the vernacular is predominantly the same from culture to culture: a single melody with a simple relationship to a fixed tonal center unfolding in cyclic metrical units.

The “pop song” has so far for the most part shared these qualities but functions as a force of deterritorialization for capital.Interestingly, as a deterritorializing force, it has the potential to deterritorialize itself. This can already almost be seen in some of today’s DJ music.

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