ABSTRACT
Close analysis of popular music has come in for some criticism in recent years. As Allan Moore points out, ‘The last two decades in particular have sown poststructuralist doubts deep within the close reading of music of all kinds, doubts which are directed not only at the authority of the composer but, perhaps even more strongly, at the identity, the coherence, the autonomy of the individual piece, work, song (however we choose to label it)’.3 Such reservations have tended to undermine attempts to analyse popular music recordings, even before these truly achieved the status of ‘text’ by becoming the primary focus of analysis. This study seeks to revisit these issues: it aims to demonstrate the central position that recordings and modern music technology should hold in the study of popular music; provide an overview of existing approaches to the close analysis of popular music recordings; review the methodological issues raised; and posit a theoretical framework of creativity to support various approaches to analysing recordings of popular music.
