Popular Music
Why We Listen To It

I used never to weep at Great Art, at Couperin or
Kirkegaard, maintaining it was too multi-dimensional
for the specific of tears. I wept at the rapid associative
revelations of a Piaf, or at Lana Turner's soapy
dilemmas.  Crying was caused hence by entertainment,
not masterworks.

Today tears dictate my first judgment of any works, their
levels be damned.  What counts is to be kinetically moved.
And who says Edith and Lana aren't art—or, if they are,
that Kierkegaard is more so?

 Ned Rorem, 20^th Century American Composer

I believe Mr. Rorem's statement above gets right to the heart of the issue.  We listen to popular music because it moves us.  It affects us in a very personal way that "classical" music rarely achieves (at least for many of us). Why is this the case?   One reason is that popular music meets our needs.   In a society where nearly everyone (96%) reports feeling thrills from musical passagesą it is obvious that music is prominent in people's lives.  The stresses that we experience in our daily existence are not necessarily greater than those experienced by our forebears one hundred years ago, but they are certainly intense and unrelenting. Music, and especially popular music, provides a means to ease much of that stress.

The social anthropologist, A.P. Merriam, has listed ten functions that music plays in our lives.˛ They are emotional expression, aesthetic enjoyment, entertainment, communication, symbolic representation, physical response, enforcing conformity to social norms, validation of social and religious rituals, contribution to the continuity and stability of culture, and contribution to the integration of society.  At least eight of these functions, with the possible exceptions of aesthetic enjoyment and validation of social and religious rituals, are clearly met through popular music. If music's importance can be exemplified by the variety of functions it serves, it should be obvious that popular music matters to us.

The popular music, or as it is sometimes labeled, "music of the people," that we will perform in tonight's concert ranges from the very beginning of the 20^th Century to just two years before its completion.  The changes that have taken place in our society during those one hundred years are enormous, and our popular music has often reflected those changes, in ways both subtle and obvious.  Therefore, in a world yet untouched by global war we could sing simple and naive songs such as Let Me Call You Sweetheart and By the Light of the Silvery Moon. The Great Depression of the 30s could lead a nation to try to forget its troubles in a bouncy and optimistic song like 42^nd Street. The separation of loved ones during World War II helped make a song entitled I'll Be Seeing You into a personal statement of love, devotion, and yearning.  In the late 50s and early 60s, larger than life performers such as Ray Charles and Elvis Presley captivated new generations with songs like Hallelujah, I Love Her So and Can't Help Falling in Love. These songs would be forever bound to both the performers who sang them and to those for whom they sang.  A short decade later would find The Carpenters crooning For All We Know in a style and harmony that will always be associated with the 70s. These are but a few examples of the selections to be performed this evening, and the entire program will still provide only a taste of what the 20^th Century offered in the way of popular music.  We apologize in advance should your favorite song, performer, or composer not be represented, but we hope that what you hear will help you recall memories of days long past. In the process, if you laugh a little or even shed a few tears, we will be honored to have helped you take a journey through the world of popular song.  Enjoy!  It's MOS at the POPS!

     Michael O'Neal

ąGoldstein, A. "Thrills in Response to Music and Other Stimuli."  Physiological Psychology 8 (1980): 126-29.

˛Merriam, A.P. The Anthropology of Music. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1964.

Search our site! Enter one or more keywords, and click the Search button.
The Michael O'Neal Singers: P.O. Box 1008, Roswell, GA 30077
Office 770-594-7974, Fax 770-650-5933, e-mail: Staff@mosingers.com
  Privacy Statement