Social aspect in any music enables the music to have meaning and to be more enjoyable to the audience and also the performers.
There are a variety of social dynamics of musical groups that can be drawn from these projects. These social dynamics are expressed as a result of variation in volume of sound. Socially, this variation of sounds creates difference acceptance of music by audience. In the group of jazz music, social dynamics portrayed how the group related with audience. Jazz is mainly played by young people who do not think about the audience response to the dynamic of music and therefore they played as fast possible without minding about the audience. According to jazz members they play for audience when they are listening and if they are not listening they just play for themselves without minding whether they are entertaining any group or not. Jazz believes in active participation by audience and that when they play their best.
According to Flairs, the group was mainly composed of social fun loving members who wanted to enjoy themselves, therefore these members produced dynamic music for they use different voices such as bass, tenor and baritone. Their music ranged from popular chart to classic which was liked and attracted many audience (Enrlich, 2000).
The University of Michigan symphony band had a wonderful social dynamic in attracting its audience since it had a ‘kick it up a watch’ when playing for a full house. Since there were many people watching, this encouraged musicians to improve their ability and share music. Performers are less motivated to play for fewer audiences.
There are some sociological differences among the group based on the music that they perform. In the case of jazz group, it does not seem to care about the audience in any way since they play their music fast and when playing, if audiences are not attentive they do not take caution but instead they just play for themselves.
In Flairs, their interest is basically based on attracting their audience to the best of their ability. This starts from the way they introduce their performance and their tone set up also takes care of the interest of the audience. Also they do much of entertainment through their dancing, singing and stage presentation which makes their performance livelier and attracts more audience.
Also, the range of their songs from popular chart to classical music makes it different from others. Socially, this group staged their performance in such as way that it will suit its audience which encompassed on humorous twist of some songs to fit the campus life.
The symphony band used its personal relationship with conductor and this enabled them to work well with people. This music was created mainly through gestures and therefore it did not attract much audience since most of them in campus are young and could mostly prefer when the music is presented in speech form (Bose, 1934).
The Flairs had the best sociological analysis since they socially struggled to do anything it took to win the attention of audience and to ensure that they are fully contented with the kind of music they played.
Their project ensured that the group of audience which was basically campus students was met by giving their music different dynamics. There performance from rehearsal to stage presentation had all the aspects met since their main aim was to build a vocal octet which could produce a divine harmony.
The main project which best portrays sociological analysis is production and presentation of music. This project missed out some of sociological insights especially in jazz and University of Michigan symphony band.
Some of them include:
- Failure to produce dynamics which could attract more audience.
- Ignorance during presentation by not considering the group they are performing for. For example, old people’s music cannot be presented the same way as that of youths.
- They failed to understand the reasons for their presentation by not bothering a lot with audience interest.
These factors if well incorporated in music can produce quality music which will meet the social insight of the music.
Some of the issues that jazz need to take into consideration are means of overcoming the stigma being faced by musicians and understand that every profession had its stigmatizing factor (Thomas, 1974). They should not allow themselves to be looked down upon but instead they are supposed to prove their profession by producing quality music which meets all the challenges stated.
For Flairs, they should pose questions to their groups such as:
- Have we met the goal of building an octet to produce harmony band?
- What challenges are we facing during production and presentation of our music?
Therefore, social dynamics in music helps the audience to appreciate the music being played.
Reference:
Thomas V. Atkin, (1974), A Subject Heading Guide, R. R, Bowker Co: New York.
Sudhindra Bose, (1934), Reality of American Life as seen by India, Bhatt: United State.
Cyril Enrlich, (2000), Music and British Culture, Oxford Uni press: Britain.