• What is popular music?• The challenges of genres• Production and discourse• Rules for Archival Description• Scope and Content

genres locate music but they need qualification

What is popular music?Enjoyed by a large group?Representative or ‘of’ the people?No consensus but popular music has both musical and socio-economic characteristics

British LibrarySearching the Sound Archive catalogue for popular musichttp://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/sound/popular/searching/searching.htmlAccessed 12 May 2012

The challenges of genres

Genres are musical conventions based on the principle of repetition.

They are not absolute but they provide a frame of reference for composition, identification and consumption of popular music.

Genres locate music, but they need to be qualified.

How?

2 aspects of genre theory

Production Discourse

ProductionCompositional elements and song

writing conventions

DiscourseReception – the relationship between music and listeners

Rules for Archival Description• Archival descriptive standard developed by Canadian Council on Archives

• Used in Music Division of Library and Archives Canada

• General and special format rules• Last updated in 2008• Applies to collections (mixed provenance)

two observations• Custodial history is relevant to the collection but not the releases

• Scope and Content is underused.

Why Scope and Content?• Catalogues are textual representations that provide access

• Scope and Content addresses content, internal arrangement and transactions

• Appropriate for genre qualification.

The Imagined Village “Always Remember”Production:

LandscapeInstrumentation

Traditional songs

Production:Remix as a song

writing convention

Feeding FrenzyDiscourse:

Parrot HeadsMargaritavill

e

Genres provide access• RAD is an effective descriptive standard for ‘nuts and bolts’ characteristics

• Genres need to be included in descriptions

• Genre qualifications are suited to Scope and Content .

Delaina Sepko

D.Sepko.1@research.gla.ac.uk