Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music / Edition 1

by Peter van der Merwe, Peter Van Der Merwe

Overview

Analyzing popular music from a musical, rather than a sociological, biographical, or political viewpoint, this book surveys Western popular music in all its forms—blues, ragtime, music hall, waltzes, marches, parlor ballads, folk music—to uncover the common musical language uniting these disparate styles. The author examines the split between "classical" and "popular" music in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, and presents a wealth of musical illustrations from the Middle Ages to the 1920s to trace the tangled roots of today's popular music. His provocative, readable, and comprehensive study will inform anyone with an interest in how music evolves in our society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198163053
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	07/28/1992
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	9.19(w) x 6.13(h) x 0.80(d)
Lexile:	1310L (what's this?)

Editorial Reviews

"Will have reprecussions not only on the study of popular music, but on those debates about cultural identity which are centred on blues and jazz....The range of scholarship here is extraordinary and, in its combination of available materials, unprecedented....A major intervention in the study of American popular music, and should be known not only to musicians and musicologists, but to anyone interested in the sociology of American culture."—Journal of American Studies

"Exposes many fascinating facets of popular music and provides a clear insight into jazz' formative years."—JazzTimes

"Contains a wealth of ingenious speculations....He seems to have an uncanny knack for drawing out musical patterns from an extraordinaryly diverse repertory....Anyone interested in exploring the musical syntax of popular genres would do well to take advantage of the insights presented so cogently here."—American Music

"This ground-breaking study examines the split between 'classical' and 'popular' Western music in the 19th century...and imparts fascinating insights about the derivation of blues types, classic ragtime, and parlor music....A truly original contribution....Strongly recommended for both college and public libraries."—Choice

"What an interesting book! Van der Merwe has raised fundamental questions about twentieth-century music and has dealt with them provocatively, thoroughly, and, in some cases, conclusively. His discussion of the origins of the blues form alone is invaluable."—Martin Williams

From the Publisher