What is music? Anything can be music
Frank Zappa's theory of art
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7356221 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Elliot Marlow-Stevens (0000-0002-4623-6081, Durham University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 37-55 |
| Publication date | 2022-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Popular Music (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0261-1430 • E-ISSN: 1474-0095 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0261143021000714 |
| OpenAlex | W4221131090 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 7 |
This paper presents an analysis of Frank Zappa's aesthetic values, drawing on two examples: his writing and his music. This paper examines Zappa's musical techniques and contextualises them within art criticism; Zappa's discussion of his own music and theories of art in The Real Frank Zappa Book (1989) further help align his work with contemporary aesthetic theories, namely those of Levinson ( Music, Art, and Metaphysics, Oxford University Press, 2011) and Berleant (‘Further ruminations on music’, New Sound International Journal of Music, 50/2, pp. 129–37, 2017). Together, Zappa's techniques and his own testimony suggest an aesthetic standpoint underpinning his discography that emphasises referentiality as well as subjectivity and the role of the public in the musical experience. Indicating a more sympathetic view of popular opinion, distinct from the Adornian condemnation of mass culture with which Zappa is often attributed, this analysis of Zappa's aesthetic beliefs subsequently indicates a position sympathetic to both popular and avant-garde musics
Aesthetics · Art · Contemporary classical music · Criticism · Epistemology · Literature · Musical · Popular music · Subjectivity · Visual arts · History · Music History and Culture · Music Technology and Sound Studies · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Philosophy
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |