| dc.description.abstract | Music analysis is an established, yet continuously evolving aspect of music research and study. However, with its focus on well-established theories and analytical concepts, music scholarship often leaves little room for developing the skills needed to approach any music—familiar or unfamiliar—tending to prioritise specialisation over holistic understanding. While ideas promoting global perspectives on music and its study have contributed to a broader understanding of musicology, long-lasting practical solutions for overcoming the narrowing of repertoire according to subfield divisions remain underexplored.
In this thesis, I question how familiarity influences analysis of sampled music, which—though often associated with hip-hop—draws on music from a wide range of forms, genres, and cultures. The concepts of familiarity and unfamiliarity in relation to musical perception, as understood by Henry Stobart, guide the selection of case studies in the form of three hip-hop tracks: ‘Worldwide’, ‘She Don’t Mean It’, and ‘Infinity Bars III’. These pieces, created by a Nigerian producer, Kolo Gana, sample music by Georgian, Slovak, and Nigerian artists, and respectively align with my three levels of (un)familiarity, as analytical starting points: 1. cultural and academic familiarity, 2. cultural familiarity and academic unfamiliarity, 3. cultural and academic unfamiliarity. To analyse these case studies, I draw upon Judith Lochhead’s approach to music analysis as the structuring of musical time, applying the three steps she outlines: beginning with an investigation of micro- and macroperceptions, followed by their mapping and visualisation, and concluding with interpretative speculations.
As digital music practices continue to develop the relevance of genre-specific analytical models diminishes in relation to the growing number of culturally varied musics and their new combinations. In this thesis, I offer an analytical approach that supports engagement with musics, regardless of their expected categorisation within musicological subfields. By examining how varying levels of familiarity with certain musics and their associated scholarship influence and shape analytical processes, I aim to highlight the critical role subjective perception plays in music analysis as a form of creative activity. This mindset seeks to encourage both individual and collective growth as specialised, yet broadly informed music scholars who are equipped to approach any music, whether familiar or unfamiliar to them. | |
