Popular music plays a significant role in the lives of most adolescents. The central question explored is whether three groups of adolescents (psychiatrically ill, depressed, and non-clinical adolescents) differed on self-reported data on: (a) the role of popular music in their lives, and (b) in their emotional reactions to music. The next question is whether the developmental issues of gender and personality consolidation, age, and school commitment simultaneously influence how the three groups of adolescents use music in their lives and in their emotional reactions to music. The last question is whether the three groups have significantly different music preferences in the five genres of popular (rap, pop/dance, heavy metal/hard rock, classic rock, and alternative). There were 126 subjects employed in this research. I created the Walker Music Questionnaire (WMQ) to explore the role and importance that music plays in the lives of the adolescents. A factor analysis found five factors (Introspection, Identity-Music, Discerning Music Identity, Fantasy-Rebellion, and Identity-Self). The Adolescent Semantic Differential Scales (ASDS) measured the adolescents’ emotional responses to 10 pieces of popular music representing the five genres described above. These scales are well known measures of emotional response and I added eight adjectives that represented adolescent issues. This measure was also factor analyzed and the three factors of Evaluation, Romance, and Potency emerged. Preference for the five genres was determined from the Adolescent Semantic Differential Scales. MANOVAS were done with both sets of factors derived from the WMQ and ASDS simultaneously using the developmental variables of age group, gender, personality, and school commitment. Psychological health was found to be a significant variable. Specifically, the role of music for the depressed group was significantly different from the other two groups of adolescents. The developmental issues that remained significant were personality and school commitment. Furthermore, the psychiatrically ill group reacted more emotionally to the music than the other two groups and this remained significant even when the developmental variable of personality was considered. The three groups were not differentiated by their preference ratings on the ASDS.

The use of keyboard percussion instruments in choro, one of the earliest forms of Brazilian popular music, is a relatively recent phenomenon and its expansion into university music programs and relocation from small clubs and private homes to concert halls has changed the way that choro is learned and performed. For many Brazilians, this kind of innovation in a “traditional” genre represents a challenge to their notion of a Brazilian cultural identity. This study examines the dynamic relationship that Brazilians have with representations of their culture, especially in the area of popular music, through an in depth discussion of the use of keyboard percussion instruments within the genre of choro. I discuss the implications of using keyboard percussion in choro with a detailed description of its contemporary practice and a critical examination of the sociological and academic issues that surround choro historically and as practiced today. This includes an historical overview of choro and organology of keyboard percussion instruments in Brazil. I discuss multiple perspectives on the genre including a consideration of choro as part of the “world music” movement and choro’s ambiguous relationship to jazz. Through an examination of the typical instrumentation and performance conventions used in choro, I address the meanings and implications of the adaptation of those practices and of the various instrumental roles found in choro to keyboard percussion instruments. Solutions to problems relating to instrumental adaptation are offered, with particular attention to issues of notation, improvisation, rhythmic approach and the role of the cavaquinho. I also discuss the significance of rhythmic feel and suingue (swing) in relation to the concept of brasilidade (brazilianness) as informed by and expressed through Brazilian popular music.

Popular music plays a significant role in the lives of most adolescents. The central question explored is whether three groups of adolescents (psychiatrically ill, depressed, and non-clinical adolescents) differed on self-reported data on: (a) the role of popular music in their lives, and (b) in their emotional reactions to music. The next question is whether the developmental issues of gender and personality consolidation, age, and school commitment simultaneously influence how the three groups of adolescents use music in their lives and in their emotional reactions to music. The last question is whether the three groups have significantly different music preferences in the five genres of popular (rap, pop/dance, heavy metal/hard rock, classic rock, and alternative). There were 126 subjects employed in this research. I created the Walker Music Questionnaire (WMQ) to explore the role and importance that music plays in the lives of the adolescents. A factor analysis found five factors (Introspection, Identity-Music, Discerning Music Identity, Fantasy-Rebellion, and Identity-Self). The Adolescent Semantic Differential Scales (ASDS) measured the adolescents’ emotional responses to 10 pieces of popular music representing the five genres described above. These scales are well known measures of emotional response and I added eight adjectives that represented adolescent issues. This measure was also factor analyzed and the three factors of Evaluation, Romance, and Potency emerged. Preference for the five genres was determined from the Adolescent Semantic Differential Scales. MANOVAS were done with both sets of factors derived from the WMQ and ASDS simultaneously using the developmental variables of age group, gender, personality, and school commitment. Psychological health was found to be a significant variable. Specifically, the role of music for the depressed group was significantly different from the other two groups of adolescents. The developmental issues that remained significant were personality and school commitment. Furthermore, the psychiatrically ill group reacted more emotionally to the music than the other two groups and this remained significant even when the developmental variable of personality was considered. The three groups were not differentiated by their preference ratings on the ASDS.

The use of keyboard percussion instruments in choro, one of the earliest forms of Brazilian popular music, is a relatively recent phenomenon and its expansion into university music programs and relocation from small clubs and private homes to concert halls has changed the way that choro is learned and performed. For many Brazilians, this kind of innovation in a “traditional” genre represents a challenge to their notion of a Brazilian cultural identity. This study examines the dynamic relationship that Brazilians have with representations of their culture, especially in the area of popular music, through an in depth discussion of the use of keyboard percussion instruments within the genre of choro. I discuss the implications of using keyboard percussion in choro with a detailed description of its contemporary practice and a critical examination of the sociological and academic issues that surround choro historically and as practiced today. This includes an historical overview of choro and organology of keyboard percussion instruments in Brazil. I discuss multiple perspectives on the genre including a consideration of choro as part of the “world music” movement and choro’s ambiguous relationship to jazz. Through an examination of the typical instrumentation and performance conventions used in choro, I address the meanings and implications of the adaptation of those practices and of the various instrumental roles found in choro to keyboard percussion instruments. Solutions to problems relating to instrumental adaptation are offered, with particular attention to issues of notation, improvisation, rhythmic approach and the role of the cavaquinho. I also discuss the significance of rhythmic feel and suingue (swing) in relation to the concept of brasilidade (brazilianness) as informed by and expressed through Brazilian popular music.

Country music, considered a uniquely American musical genre, has been relatively under-researched compared to rock and rap music. This thesis proposes research into the topic of country music, specifically the ways which country music songs portray gender. The thesis uses Billboard chart data to determine commercially successful songs, and performs a content analysis on the lyrics of these songs. I will select songs from a fifty year period ranging from 1955 to 2005, so as to allow for a longitudinal study of potential changes in presentation. Attention will be focused on the lyrical descriptions of men and women and how their roles are described in the songs.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 261-280).

This dissertation aims to find further understanding of how people with special interest in a certain artist utilise music and the fact that they are fans in their everyday lives. I have opted to study two fans included in each group selected for this study: Kiss, Status Quo and Lasse Stefanz, one male and one female fan belonging to each respective group. I have worked according to grounded theory as a method, and through an analysis of their musical life stories, I have attempted to identify why they became fans and how them being fans has affected them in their lives. Four categories, fandom as: a marker of identity, socialisation, a form of self therapy and a pseudo religion and the core category authenticity usage show the results of the study. The categories show that to a large extent it all comes down to the musical identity of these people, i.e. the identity of being a fan, and their experiences of being fans. They have been socialised into a specific genre, which has meant increased interest in a specific artist. Family, media and friends have all played a part in this socialisation. The informants have developed cultural competence as concerns their idols, although they have also gained the subcultural capital resources required in order to come across as credible fans. Various kinds of experiences offer meaning and nourish the fans. Security and stability in everyday lives are also contributing factors to them being fans and the music offers them something that they are unable to acquire from elsewhere. They have established different strategies in order to be able to be fans, one of these being legitimacy. A vital part of this legitimacy consists in them viewing the bands as authentic, i.e. important. / <p>Eva Kjellander är också affilierad med Linné-universitetet</p>

This thesis provides an initial inquiry into the acoustics of Chinese identity, or Chineseness, in the emerging studies of Sinophone and Sinophonicity through the study of three well-known Sinophone musicians -- Teresa Teng, Leehom Wang, and Jay Chou. As critics such as Ien Ang and Rey Chow have reminded us, it is becoming increasingly urgent to reexamine the plurality of Chineseness with the rise of China. Truly, the umbrella term "Chinese pop" or "Mandopop" has become an inadequate common denominator in terms of the multilinguistic and multicultural elements in popular music produced in overseas Chinese communities such as Hong Kong and Taiwan or what Shu-mei Shih calls the "Sinophone" communities. In short, Sinophone studies explore the relation between the Chinese mainland and these Sinophone communities in a set of conditions (geographic, ethnic, linguistic, political, etc.). This thesis will explore the ways in which Sinophone musicians exhibit and perform Chineseness, the reason for its manifestation, and the implications and consequences for these types of articulations. / text

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Philosophy

The way a city sounds has something to do with how its residents move around and interact. It also has to do with the decisions made by the local government, as it tries to eliminate “harmful” and “unnecessary” sounds. This dissertation discusses how residents of São Paulo deal with noise conflicts and the sound-politics these mediations entail. The concept of sound-politics, which I develop throughout the dissertation, intersects with other concepts such as body politics and space politics and as such it denotes controversial sounds as instantiations of individual or collective differences. Here I focus on how state agents mediate controversial sounds. The narrative draws heavily on actor-network theory, which investigates social interaction as an open-ended and localized network made of humans and non-humans. The first part of the narrative discusses São Paulo’s spatial organization, noise legislation, and the enforcement of this legislation. Drawing from ethnography at meetings designed to review noise measurement standards, and at São Paulo’s anti-noise agency, I show the series of negotiations that accompany the identification and prosecution of noisemakers in the city. The second part of the dissertation looks closely at street parties that take place in the suburbs of São Paulo. Known as pancadões (“big thumps,” in reference to the loudness), these parties feature funk carioca and funk ostentação, two styles of popular music, among lower class teenagers in São Paulo’s suburbs. Based on fieldwork among youth, community meetings, and on interviews with police officers, I show how these parties have gone through noisification processes since they first emerged around 2008. / text