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Performance Analysis and Popular Music
The world of music is constantly changing, and the crossroads of performance analysis in
music remains an interesting yet unexplored topic. The analysis article “Performance Analysis
and Popular Music: a Manifesto” by Phillip Auslander, seeks to explore this topic further. This
essay will discuss the article's purpose, the studies and experiments conducted, what could have
been done better, and much more regarding the research article.
Research, Overview, Design, and Conclusion
For this essay. I chose to read, review, and write about. The analysis article “Performance
Analysis and Popular Music: a Manifesto” by Phillip Auslander. This article has much to offer
and be explored. The article's main purpose is to discuss and explore music and more specifically
how performance studies typically have the tendency to ignore music performance in the study
realm. The author of this article attempts to shed light on just how important music performance
is 1by sharing through the medium of research. This article reviews existing works. Within the
article, author Philip Auslander reviews several different works of literature and research related
to the history of music performance. He then goes on to discuss various opinions and
perspectives that are related to the topic of neglect in music performance within performance
studies. The author states “As sophisticated a performance analyst as PatricePavis more or less
throws in the towel when it comes to this form” In this quote the author is talking bout a man by
the name of Patrice Pavis. He goes on to critique Patrice Pavis for being narrow and only
focusing on opera within the realm of music and performance analysis. Auslander critiques
PAvis’s oversight of the diversity of the music performance world and highlights the importance
of a broad spectrum of many musical genres and other performance styles. The author regularly
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shares his own opinions, critiques, and motives throughout the entire article. This includes his
insight into the limitations some of these preexisting works face. Another example of this is
when the author discusses Simon Frith’s "Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music
(1996)," Here, Auslander claims that Frith’s work provides a framework for a new idealogy
surrounding popular music as performance within the discipline of performance studies.
Throughout the remainder of this research article, the author continues to regularly discuss
preexisting research such as Simon Frith’s work. Through discussing these preexisting works of
research and literature, Philip Auslander begins to build a structured and detailed argument that
forms his analysis. By building his article with the information required from other works of
literature, Auslander builds his own credibility and a deep understanding and knowledge of
performance studies, which he then uses to persuade the reader. This makes his own research
seem more credible. This is one of the many reasons why reviewing previous works of literature
is so detrimental when conducting research. The specific art that is discussed in “Performance
Analysis and Popular Music: a Manifesto”, is the performing arts. The article has a particular
emphasis on the importance of music performance within the topic of performance studies, and
how it is typically ignored. He discussed the need for a greater recognition and appreciation of
musical performance. Finally, Philip Auslander concludes that the way that different performers
present themselves to their audience, and that music plays a huge role in how a performer is
presented.
Limitations and Future Research
While this is a great article and there is a lot to be learned from Auslander’s research
methods, like most research and studies, it has its limitations. The author of this article does not
shy away from this, he comes right out and identifies a few limitations in the research design.
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The limitations included solely focusing on only popularized music. Auslander comes right out
and acknowledges this fact and states that he is restricted to only speaking for popular music and
how it should be discussed in performance studies. In the latter half of the article, the author
discussed how future research could prove to be a potentially useful tool. The potential future
research could include, but not be limited to, how signifies and frames are related to one another
in the context of one performance, and possibly discuss another genre of music.
Original Summary
This article was written by Philip Auslander. The article discusses music performances
and the critical role they play in performance studies. The author begins by explaining how
important music performance is to performance study and highlights the fact that while this may
be true, music performance is often swept under the rug. He then goes on to discuss how
performers use music in various ways, stating it is important that performers create somewhat of
a musical persona. By creating a persona using music, performers can put forth into the media
who or what they would like to be portrayed as. The author reviews several preexisting works
and pieces of literature to argue his case and to provide credibility and sources. He discussed his
opinions on music performance and concluded that Music plays a huge role in how a performer
presents themselves, through art, expression, and by appealing to their audiences.
Methodological Differences and Alternative Designs
This article was very different from the two other articles that I read for this class. A few
examples of this include that this topic on music performance was much more abstract and broad
than the humanities and science articles. Secondly, I feel like this article left much more to be
explored than the other two articles. The science article and humanities articles felt as if they left
much less room for further research while this one seemed like an open-ended discussion.
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Finally, it appears to me that this article was written on a much more personal bias and
experience than the other two. The other two articles sought to find the answer to a question,
while this article seemed to discuss the general feeling and importance of music performance,
rather than its effects.
I think that the sound arts would be a good alternative arts-based research method for this
research topic. The reason is that this article’s topic surrounds music performance. I think that
this method would benefit the study by showing how much of a big art music really does play in
performance studies. I believe this article could also use a new type of media research. This
could merge crucial parts of arts research into a new topic and media of research. Sound arts and
music performance arts would create an efficient way to explore the topic and improve the study.
I would suggest attempting to gather more information by using suitable testing and making sure
to have diverse perspectives on the topic. This would be very useful and effective in finding out
if music performance truly does shape the audience's view of a performer, and explore how
music affects a performance alone. Using other methods of research could prove beneficial in
gathering more data efficiently.
Conclusion
This article was written by Phillip Auslander and used a creative arts-based research
method to discuss music performance in performance studies. The author discussed his views on
how music performance gets neglected in performance studies and discussed how music can
shape a performer's persona, energy, and the way an audience views the performer. I would
recommend this article to future students because it was interesting to read, and there is always
much to be learned from research articles.
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