Each field of music music making has its own specific purposes, practices, goals and values.
Participatory:
This first clip I have chosen represents participatory music. It is a video of the people at my sleep away camp coming together and singing what we call, "Friends, Alma Mater, and Taps." At the end of every evening activity each night, the owner of my camp counts us off and we all wrap our arms around each other and begin to sing. This is an example of participatory music because everyone joins in together no matter your musical talents. Mitch cues the piano and Ira hits the first chord and we all begin singing, "friends, friends, friends." Everyone experiences communitas and a feeling of togetherness. New counselors and campers are invited to join right in by being handed a sheet of paper with lyrics. After about 3 or 4 nights they have every word memorized and no longer need the lyrics sheet.
The potential that this song has is that it has the ability to connect every single person while they are singing it, and for the rest of their lives. Anyone that has experienced singing this at my camp has an eternal indexical relation to this song. The limitations that this song does have, is that there is no room for creativity or adding any instruments or dancing. This song is sung one way and one way only no matter where it is actually being sung. The expectations for this song are always the same and we always are expected to participate and sing it exactly how it is.
There was one instance when I was about 9 years old and we were singing this song after an evening activity and it came to the part where it says "all hail to thee," and I vividly remember the obnoxious older boys behind me who screamed "HAIL TO THEE" immediately following the line in the song. Little did I know that this was extremely disrespectful until after we finished singing and the owner of my camp came over to my section in the amphitheater and screamed at these boys. Ever since that day, every single time that we sing this song my friends and I squeeze each others hands so incredibly hard for fear of hearing the extra "HAIL TO THEE" and then feeling the wrath of my camp owner.
This song is not necessarily supposed to be a form of entertainment, but just as a way of bringing us altogether. Even though most of us value music to be exciting and upbeat, we do not get bored when singing this song because it is of such value to us in a different and completely meaningful and symbolic way.
Presentational:
This next clip that I have chosen is a representation of presentational music. It is a video of half of my jazz production this year at my studio to a Britney Spears mega-mix. This video is an example of presentational music because there is an obvious distinction between the performers and the audience. We also rehearse day in and day out to perfect this routine. Even though we are not responsible for audience participation because we are rehearsed and competing, the audience participation feeds our performance. If the audience is going wild while we are performing, it makes us perform that much harder and that much stronger.
This performance is presentational because we are up there obviously to please the audience, but mainly to please the judges. If we win first place with this dance, (which we did) that means that we successfully provide and sustained the interest of the audience and especially the judges. The standing ovation from the audience AND judges, that we always receive the second we hit our ending pose is also a result of our ability to keep the audience entertained for this long 7 minute dance. We always start this specific routine off with the oldest age group of dancers to get the crowd going, and from that moment on the dance never lost any steam or excitement until we finally walked off the stage.
The potentials that come from this dance are obviously winning and getting a standing ovation from everyone in the room. We are always expected to be perfectly clean/together, exciting to watch, and to give it our all. The values for a dance competition are really only understood specifically by people who judge or participate in the actual dances. The audience doesn't always know all of the hard work and effort or even technicality of the dances. The limitations that come from this dance can be when someone messes up and then that messes up the entire dance which could effect how we place or on how the judges score us.
High Fidelity:
This next song that I have chosen is clearly a high fidelity song. This song was made to get everybody on their feet. The moment you hear the words "Just one night all we got," you immediately want to get up and dance. All of the different instruments are easily heard and it has the power and potential to make you want to dance and sing along to the words and bounce to the beat.
This goes along with the values that people have in our society that the track should sound like and make you feel how it would sound and how you would feel if it were to actually be live. This type of music and thing song too is made with money in mind and made to sell and attract a listening audience.
The limitations that follow this music field are that there is no real connection on a personal level with the performer and the audience because as much as you think that you can feel what they are trying to sing about, you don't actually feel the emotions directly from the artist.
Studio/Audio Art:
This last song that I have chosen is a perfect example of studio/audio art. This song is completely computer generated and could not actually be performed live. The person who makes the song has complete control over what the song is going to be or the final product. The potentials that this field of music has is that it is abstract and unknown therefore it does not have to be authentic.
The limitations that this field of music has is that there is no way for it to be played live and there is no way to connect on an emotional level. It does not necessarily follow the specific things that society values because there is no emotional connection but it does take part in being a money making music field. The ability for this type of music to make money is possible but it doesn't promote the specific artist or his/her talents.
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