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In the field of performance studies, surprisingly little is said about
musical performance. Due to the neglect in this field, it is necessary to find a
remedy that understands music as a valid type of performance and seeks to
study it in appropriate ways. This study begins by looking at the state of
performances studies in relation to music. The study defines performance
analysis, discusses how it has primarily focused on theatre arts rather than
music, and provides examples of musical performance as performance.
Using characterization primarily in addition to genre and socio-cultural
context, the author discusses dimensions which may be observed in the field
of performance analysis. The conclusion of the study is that there are several
schema for interpreting popular music as performance, namely the socio-
cultural conventions, the musical genre conventions, and the signifieds of
the performer, performance persona, and character. Additionally is the
means of expression which the performer uses, and how the audience and
performer are in communication with each other.
II. Article Analysis
The article being discussed here is “Performance Analysis and Popular
Music: A Manifesto,” by Philip Auslander. His goal in writing this article is to
“make a small contribution to bridging the divide between the study of music
and the study of performance by encouraging close readings of
performances by popular musicians, readings that attend to the particulars
of physical movement, gesture, costume, and facial expression as much as
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voice and musical sound.”1 In other words, Auslander hopes to see more
research take place in performance studies and performance analysis that
involve musical performance in general and popular music in particular.
There is a disconnect between the discipline and music, and he seeks to
remedy this in his research. Here Auslander notes some of the literature to
give a review of the state of his topic, referencing Vera Mowry Roberts,
Patrice Paris, Christopher Small, and a few more to explain why he finds a
need for more discussion regarding this topic. By looking at the existing
literature, he observes that there is not a significant amount of musical
performance research, and that some of the research which does exist finds
music not to fall within the realm of performance.
The kind of arts-based research method which Auslander employed
seems to be a kind of performance analysis, not quite fitting into the creative
arts categories outlined by Hark but better into the category which the
author himself stated.2 The overall field fits into performance studies, but
Auslander is specifically working in analysis here rather than praxis. The
conclusion of the article is that music performance ought to be studied in the
context of sociology-cultural norms, musical genre conventions, and persona.
The performer in this is understood to have three sorts of faces: that of
performer, which is the sense in which the performer exists as a person; that
1 Auslander, Philip. "Performance Analysis and Popular Music: A Manifesto." Contemporary Theatre Review 14,
no. 1 (2004): 3.
2 Ibid 4.
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of performance persona, which is sort of their “star personality,”3and the
character which they portray themselves as in any given performance.
The author did not mention any limitations to this study, possibly
because he was simply trying to remedy an issue rather than give an in-
depth analysis. Most of the article really is geared toward the expectation
that future research is needed and is an attempt to provide understanding
for how research should take place. The author is not mainly proposing a
new idea, but proposing a way in which this kind of musical performance
research can take place. In this way, the Auslander sees himself as paving
the way for future research.
III. Methodological differences and Alternative designs
I analyzed two previous articles before analyzing Auslander’s, a
science article and a humanities article. The sciences article was titled
“Integrating Cognitive Linguistics Insights into Data-Driven Learning: Teaching Vertical
Prepositions,” by Abdurrahman Kilimci. This creative arts article differs from the
science article because the science article is primarily quantitative while this
article is more qualitative. This also differs because while there is generally
an experimental design for scientific research, the creative arts article was
more pragmatic in using what method worked to analyze performances.
Additionally, the sciences article simply used much more technical language
and acronyms, somewhat assuming a familiarity with reading scientific
research while the creative arts article was much simpler to read.
3 Ibid 6.
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There was another article analyzed, in humanities, titled, “What is
there between Minneapolis and St. Andrews? a Third Way in the Piper-Wright
Debate,” by Michael F. Bird. The creative arts article differed from the
humanities article in more subtle ways. The main difference was the subject
matter, as the humanities article dealt with ideas and writings while the arts
article dealt with musical performances, almost having more interpretive
work than humanities. This may lead into another distinction, as while both
Bird in his humanities article and Auslander in his arts article deal with
disagreement, art is generally understood to be somewhat more objective
while Bird assumes that his subject is a matter of finding the correct and
incorrect solutions. The creative arts article was also more consciously
focused on method, referencing performance studies and performance
analysis while Bird analyzed with a flexible emergent design.
Personally, I have no idea in what other arts-based method this project
could have been done. I have read the chapter from Hark ten times and,
though I may study multiple dead languages, I cannot exegete this chapter
properly enough to see where she describes much other than practical
research; almost all of the research methods she suggests for creative arts
involve making art or a product. Nearly all of the methods she suggests
involve “creating a prototype or sample, and then actual implementation and
delivery,” and as far as I can tell this seems to be what she is intending to
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communicate for the whole chapter.4 Auslander does not here interpret art
and then make art; he interprets art and then offers a suggestion for how
others may interpret art. Another possible way of constructing this research
would be to do similar research, but then finish by creating a piece of music
that exemplifies performance art, playing off of his paradigms of character,
social context, and musical genre. That would be performance studies
proper, according to Hark, who says that when researchers do this they
observe and reenact “culturally situated communicative acts.”5 As far as
Hark is concerned, this may just be a creative arts literature review. This
article would adapt well to a humanities research design, using an emergent
design method, and the research method used may already be closer to
what Hark identifies as humanities already than it is to a creative arts
research method.
Bibiography
Auslander, Philip. "Performance Analysis and Popular Music: A Manifesto."
Contemporary Theatre Review 14, no. 1 (2004): 3.
Bird, Michael F. "what is there between Minneapolis and St. Andrews? a Third Way in the
Piper-Wright Debate." Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 54, no. 2
(2011): 299.
4 Hark, Kristen. Research across the Disciplines: An Introduction. 2nd ed. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt, 2019, 160.
5 Ibid 166.
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Kilimci, Abdurrahman. "Integrating Cognitive Linguistics Insights into Data-Driven Learning:
Teaching Vertical Prepositions." The Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies
13, no. 2 (2017): 681-719.
Hark, Kristen. Research across the Disciplines: An Introduction. 2nd ed. Dubuque, IA: Kendall
Hunt, 2019, 106-107.
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