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Articles

Music and Personal Association

by Gordon Giles

If I were to announce at the outset that what we call popular music is not art, I could expect two reactions. Some people might say that the idea is absurd – of course pop music is art, how could it be anything else? However, some people might be rather pleased at the notion that pop music is not art. Thus we might be divided into two camps. It is probable that those who object to the possibility that pop music is not art tend to listen to, and enjoy such music. Those people who tend to a preference for non-popular music (let us call it classical music, in deference to the managers of record shops – even though such a classification is technically inaccurate), believe that what they listen to certainly is art, and it would therefore be rather convenient if we could somehow set pop music apart in some way – even better if we could show that it isn’t even music.

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