Song structure (popular music)

A song is a relatively short musical composition for the human voice (possibly accompanied by other musical instruments), which features words (lyrics). It is typically for a solo singer, though may also be a duet, trio, or for more voices (works with more than one voice to a part, however, are considered choral). The words of songs are typically of a poetic, rhyming nature, although they may be religious verses or free prose. Songs can be broadly divided into many different forms, depending on the criteria used. One division is betwe ...

Including:

• Song - Cultural types
• Song - Art songs
• Song - Popular songs
• Song - Folk songs
• Song - Song forms

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Song - Art songs. Art songs are songs created for performance in their own right, or for the purposes of a European upper class, usually with piano accompaniment, although they can also have other types of accompaniment such as an orchestra or string quartet, and are always notated. Generally they have an identified author(s) and require voice training for acceptable performances. The German word for song, "Lied" (plural: "Lieder"), is used in French and English-speaking communities to refer to the serious ...

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Song, Song - Cultural types, Song - Art songs, Song - Popular songs, Song - Folk songs, Song - Song forms

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Forms and formal detail may be described as sectional or developmental, developmental or variational, syntactical or processual (Keil 1966), embodied or engendered, extensional or intensional (Chester 1970), and associational or hierarchical (Lerdahl 1983). Form may also be described according to symmetries or lack thereof and repetition. A common idea is formal "depth", necessary for complexity, in which foregrounded "detail" events occur against a more structural background. For example: Schenkerian analysis. Fred Lerdahl (1992), among oth ...

See also:

Musical form, Musical form - Descriptions of musical form, Musical form - Formal structures, Musical form - Single-movement forms, Musical form - Multi-movement forms

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In classical and popular music, there are many labels applied to forms, abstract formal designs, as contrasted with the principals and procedures of combining materials: form. Musical form - Single-movement forms. In a sectional form, the larger unit (form) is built from various smaller clear-cut units (sections) in combination, sort of like stacking legos (DeLone, 1975): Strophic form (AA...) Binary form (AB) Ternary form, less often ...

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Musical form, Musical form - Descriptions of musical form, Musical form - Formal structures, Musical form - Single-movement forms, Musical form - Multi-movement forms

Read more here: » Musical form: Encyclopedia II - Musical form - Formal structures

The relationship (particularly, the relative value) of classical music and popular music is a controversial question. Some partisans of classical music may claim that classical music constitutes art and popular music only light entertainment. However, many popular works show a high level of artistry and musical innovation and many classical works are unabashedly crowd-pleasing. The elevation of classical music to a position of special value is closely connected to the conce ...

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Popular music, Popular music - Definitions, Popular music - Theories of popular music, Popular music - The nature of popular music, Popular music - Popular music as a business enterprise, Popular music - Performance of popular music by amateurs, Popular music - Form, Popular music - Performers, Popular music - Genres, Popular music - Genres that are not popular music, Popular music - Classical music and popular music, Popular music - Complexity, Popular music - Influences between classical and popular music, Popular music - A List of Albums Generally Considered to be a Band's Magnum Opus, Popular music - Sources

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Popular music dates at least as far back as the mid 19th century. Below is a list of genres. Different genres often appeal to different age groups. These often, but not always, are the people who were young when the music was new. Thus, for instance, Big band music continues to have a following, but it is probably a rather older group, on average, than the audience for rap. For a few of the genres listed below (for instance, Ragtime), the original target gener ...

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Popular music, Popular music - Definitions, Popular music - Theories of popular music, Popular music - The nature of popular music, Popular music - Popular music as a business enterprise, Popular music - Performance of popular music by amateurs, Popular music - Form, Popular music - Performers, Popular music - Genres, Popular music - Genres that are not popular music, Popular music - Classical music and popular music, Popular music - Complexity, Popular music - Influences between classical and popular music, Popular music - A List of Albums Generally Considered to be a Band's Magnum Opus, Popular music - Sources

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Many people play popular music together with their friends, often in garages and basements, on a casual amateur basis. This activity is one of the most widespread forms of participatory music-making in modern societies. As participatory music, "garage bands" are in a sense a resurrection of the old tradition of folk music, which in premodern times was composed and performed by ordinary people and transmitted exclusively by word of mouth. The difference between the old folk music and modern amateur performance of popular music is that the participants in the latter genre are well acquainted with the expert ...

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Popular music, Popular music - Definitions, Popular music - Theories of popular music, Popular music - The nature of popular music, Popular music - Popular music as a business enterprise, Popular music - Performance of popular music by amateurs, Popular music - Form, Popular music - Performers, Popular music - Genres, Popular music - Genres that are not popular music, Popular music - Classical music and popular music, Popular music - Complexity, Popular music - Influences between classical and popular music, Popular music - A List of Albums Generally Considered to be a Band's Magnum Opus, Popular music - Sources

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The term "popular music" is used in broad and narrow senses. At its broadest, it refers to all music other than classical music, also known as art music. In the early 19th century, the traditional songs of the common people were referred to as "popular songs." By the late 19th century these songs were referred to as "folk songs." At that time, a distinction was made between folk music and more recently developed urban popular music. Today, popular music is distributed via mass media such as recordings and radio (as classical music is now also). Popular music forms part of popular culture. For specific varieties of ...

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Popular music, Popular music - Definitions, Popular music - Theories of popular music, Popular music - The nature of popular music, Popular music - Popular music as a business enterprise, Popular music - Performance of popular music by amateurs, Popular music - Form, Popular music - Performers, Popular music - Genres, Popular music - Genres that are not popular music, Popular music - Classical music and popular music, Popular music - Complexity, Popular music - Influences between classical and popular music, Popular music - A List of Albums Generally Considered to be a Band's Magnum Opus, Popular music - Sources

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Among scholars in the humanities, a broader range of definitions have been proposed. Frans Birrer (1985, p. 104) gives four conceptions or definitions of "popular" music: Normative definitions. Popular music is an inferior type. Negative definitions. Popular music is music that is not something else (usually 'folk' or 'art' music). Sociological definitions. Popular music is associated with (produced for or by) a particular social group. Technologico-economic definitions. Popular music is ...

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Popular music, Popular music - Definitions, Popular music - Theories of popular music, Popular music - The nature of popular music, Popular music - Popular music as a business enterprise, Popular music - Performance of popular music by amateurs, Popular music - Form, Popular music - Performers, Popular music - Genres, Popular music - Genres that are not popular music, Popular music - Classical music and popular music, Popular music - Complexity, Popular music - Influences between classical and popular music, Popular music - A List of Albums Generally Considered to be a Band's Magnum Opus, Popular music - Sources

Read more here: » Popular music: Encyclopedia II - Popular music - Theories of popular music

Fred Lerdahl (1992), for example, claims that in comparison with classical music popular music lacks the structural complexity for multiple structural layers, and thus much depth. However, Lerdahl's theories explicitly exclude "associational" details which are used to help articulate form in popular music, while Allen Forte's book The American Popular Ballad of the Golden Era 1924-1950 analyses popular music with traditional Schenkerian techniques. (Middleton 1999, p.144) P ...

See also:

Popular music, Popular music - Definitions, Popular music - Theories of popular music, Popular music - The nature of popular music, Popular music - Popular music as a business enterprise, Popular music - Performance of popular music by amateurs, Popular music - Form, Popular music - Performers, Popular music - Genres, Popular music - Genres that are not popular music, Popular music - Classical music and popular music, Popular music - Complexity, Popular music - Influences between classical and popular music, Popular music - A List of Albums Generally Considered to be a Band's Magnum Opus, Popular music - Sources

Read more here: » Popular music: Encyclopedia II - Popular music - The nature of popular music