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The purpose of this paper is to review the current state of knowledge about the links – metaphorical and real – between cultural and biological diversity.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review the current state of knowledge about the links – metaphorical and real – between cultural and biological diversity.
Design/methodology/approach
By way of approach, the paper focuses on language and music cultures, two areas of intangible cultural heritage whose diversity has come under threat in recent decades.
Findings
The paper suggests some ways in which recent advances in the fields of ecolinguistics, biolinguistic diversity, and music sustainability continue to further knowledge of the links between cultural diversity and biodiversity.
Practical implications
Metaphorical parallels between biodiversity and cultural diversity (such as the interconnectedness of the various forms of intangible cultural heritage, as in a biological ecosystem) may, to some extent, be able to inform the development of models for supporting intangible cultural heritage, such as language and music. Moreover, the very real interconnections between these two kinds of “diversities” holds implications for cultural heritage management, since efforts to safeguard cultural diversity will be impacted by the successes and failures of efforts to protect biodiversity, and vice versa.
Originality/value
For this reason, the issues explored in this review hold implications for policy‐makers, governments, non‐governmental organisations, culture‐bearers themselves, and other stakeholders in the viability and diversity of cultural heritage.
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María del Mar Bernabé and Vladimir Martinez-Bello
An analysis of the images in music education textbooks for primary education has shown how the images do not fully reflect the human diversity present in the classroom and…
Abstract
Purpose
An analysis of the images in music education textbooks for primary education has shown how the images do not fully reflect the human diversity present in the classroom and, therefore, continue to perpetuate positions that can lead to racism. The purpose of this paper is the analysis of the images to carried out has demonstrated how little progress has been made in the representation of diversity and how, in the 21st century, stereotypes continue to persist in the representation of cultural diversity.
Design/methodology/approach
The quantitative and qualitative data collected after analysing more than 2,600 images have shown that despite the considerable increase in the use of images in music textbooks, typical clichés about what instruments are played in the world and how those who play them are represented are still present.
Findings
The results also show how the images reflect the migratory flows experienced in each country. All of this has led to important conclusions, among which the importance of human diversity in images for students to normalise cultural diversity from and with musical educational materials should be highlighted.
Research limitations/implications
The analysis of the 2,686 images showed how the use of the human figure has evolved up to the last educational reform. Firstly, the analysis of images focused on the evolution (year) of the presence of diversity (ethnicity) in the musical groupings represented (orchestra, band, choir, soloist or chamber group), as well as the evolution with respect to the type of instrument represented.
Practical implications
With the aim of analysing the evolution in the representation of diversity in music textbooks, the authors searched the most important publishing houses in Spain. To analyse the evolution of the visual depiction of diversity in music education textbooks in light of legislative and social changes related to race, the authors constructed several variables under the category labelled “Ethnicity”.
Social implications
The images analysed, especially those included under the Organic General Law on the Educational System of 4 October 1990 and the Organic Law 2/2006 on Education of 3 May, tended to pair certain instruments with people with physical characteristics associated with particular ethnic profiles. In terms of musical activities, the main results can be summarised as follows: although the completely homogenous depiction of White Europeans in musical activities has given way to modestly more diverse representation, images of composition are still dominated by this group.
Originality/value
The authors’ analysis has led to the following conclusions, which demonstrate the need to continue the progress seen in the past several decades. The representation of human diversity in music textbooks can be considered a reality, not only in terms of the instruments with which they are represented but also in terms of their representation in other situations depicted in these textbooks. The progressive increase of images in music textbooks reflects the culturally diverse society of the national territory. However, the increase in this representation is not as considerable as might be expected. The typified representation of instruments associated with certain physical characteristics is starting to wane.
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Giacomo Negro, Balázs Kovács and Glenn R. Carroll
Using a novel measure incorporating stylistic and acoustic data on recorded music from 1967 to 2017, we search for trends in the evolution of musical diversity in 125,340 albums…
Abstract
Using a novel measure incorporating stylistic and acoustic data on recorded music from 1967 to 2017, we search for trends in the evolution of musical diversity in 125,340 albums. We find that temporal patterns of diversity differ for stylistic and acoustic data. We also find that the patterns differ dramatically by genre. Some genres, such as blues, jazz, and pop-rock, decrease in diversity over time; most other genres increase in diversity. The causes of these different trends present a puzzle for future research. We also find different patterns for recordings that made the Billboard 200 charts compared to all recordings, suggesting an association between selection processes driven by consumer popularity and diversity. Moreover, associations of diversity and industry structure found in prior research do not hold when we analyze data beyond the smaller sample of the more popular recordings found in Billboard. These findings have implications for many prior studies based exclusively on best-selling recordings
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John R. Baldwin and Phil Chidester
Milton Nascimento is one of the most prolific Brazilian singers and songwriters of all time, an artist who has formed friendships and made songs with a host of Brazilian artists…
Abstract
Milton Nascimento is one of the most prolific Brazilian singers and songwriters of all time, an artist who has formed friendships and made songs with a host of Brazilian artists, with international stars from Latin America, and with artists abroad. Milton’s repertoire has made its way into the fabric of musical compilations of Brazilian music for international listeners. Perhaps unbeknownst to these international listeners, Milton, as an Afro-Brazilian artist, reflects a complex and paradoxical relationship to “race” in his music – at times openly touching upon racial themes, even during an area when the government forbade open discussion of racial tension in Brazil – but at times signifying race more subtly, either through subtle references to diversity in Brazil or through the very elements of his music.
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The study of markets encompasses a number of disciplines – including anthropology, economics, history, and sociology – and a larger number of theoretical frameworks (see Plattner…
Abstract
The study of markets encompasses a number of disciplines – including anthropology, economics, history, and sociology – and a larger number of theoretical frameworks (see Plattner, 1989; Reddy, 1984; Smelser & Swedberg, 1994). Despite this disciplinary and theoretical diversity, scholarship on markets tends toward either realist or constructionist accounts (Dobbin, 1994; Dowd & Dobbin, forthcoming).1 Realist accounts treat markets as extant arenas that mostly (or should) conform to a singular ideal-type. Realists thus take the existence of markets as given and examine factors that supposedly shape all markets in a similar fashion. When explaining market outcomes, they tout such factors as competition, demand, and technology; moreover, they can treat the impact of these factors as little influenced by context. Constructionist accounts treat markets as emergent arenas that result in a remarkable variety of types. They problematize the existence of markets and examine how contextual factors contribute to this variety. When explaining market outcomes, some show that social relations and/or cultural assumptions found in a particular setting can qualify the impact of competition (Uzzi, 1997), demand (Peiss, 1998), and technology (Fischer, 1992). Constructionists thus stress the contingent, rather than universal, processes that shape markets.
Isabella Oliveira Medeiros, Simone Evangelista and Simone Pereira de Sá
The paper aims to discuss the tensions between rock and pop genres at Rock in Rio, the most significant music festival in Brazil (which also has had international editions in…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to discuss the tensions between rock and pop genres at Rock in Rio, the most significant music festival in Brazil (which also has had international editions in Portugal, Spain and the USA), analyzing the construction and consolidation of Rock in Rio as a rock-related brand and mapping the disputes, negotiations and controversies between rock and pop music fans.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors analyze those facts from a framework composed by discussions about musical genres (Frith, 1996; Blacking, 1995), social constructions about rock and pop, as well as debates about taste as performance (Hennion, 2007) on digital platforms. The corpus consists of 58 posts published between 2018 and 2019 in the period prior to Rock in Rio 2019, analyzed qualitatively.
Findings
By recalling the history of Rock in Rio, the authors demonstrate that the discourses and strategies involving the festival are contradictory, which reflects on disputes about the meanings of festivals on social media. A diverse set of controversy was found, such as discussions about the artists' authenticity as well as arguments that refer to the social constructions linked to certain musical genres.
Originality/value
The paper analyzes the Rock in Rio music festival from a perspective that is not observed very often, offering insights about the relevance of music genres as mediators of the perception of the festival as a brand and the controversies involving fans and anti-fans.
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J. Duncan Herrington and Louis M. Capella
Discusses many of the empirical studies relating to the effects ofbackground music on a wide range of consumer behaviours and outlines therelevant features and limitations of…
Abstract
Discusses many of the empirical studies relating to the effects of background music on a wide range of consumer behaviours and outlines the relevant features and limitations of these studies. Suggests that, while research has identified relationships between specific behaviours and specific musical characteristics (e.g. tempo, volume, mode), retailers should practice caution when attempting to manipulate specific aspects of their background music. A safer and potentially more effective strategy would be to select background music that reflects the musical preferences of targeted consumer segments. Presents useful information regarding selection of appropriate background music.
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Timothy J. Dowd, Kathleen Liddle and Maureen
Research on creative workers speaks to the relative lack of job opportunities available, the role that changing production logics play in shaping such opportunities, and gender…
Abstract
Research on creative workers speaks to the relative lack of job opportunities available, the role that changing production logics play in shaping such opportunities, and gender disparities in success. Tracking 22,561 hits found on Billboard's mainstream charts, we examine various factors that may spur or hamper the success of female recording acts. We find that the expanding logic of decentralized production eliminates the negative effect of concentration on the success of female acts and that the presence of successful female acts in one period bodes well for subsequent female acts, until a glass ceiling of sorts is reached.
I don’t remember exactly when I began to be interested in music, but my mother and godmother would laughingly recall when they knew I would be musically inclined. Though I was…
Abstract
I don’t remember exactly when I began to be interested in music, but my mother and godmother would laughingly recall when they knew I would be musically inclined. Though I was then in diapers, whenever Tommy Dorsey's recording of Boogie Woogie was played, I would immediately begin to pat my feet. My first conscious memory of reacting to music when I was very young were the times my father would sing little ditties and play his banjo. He could carry a tune, and he played the banjo quite well. His greatest musical feat, however, was as a whistler, and I would try to imitate his whistling style, without success as I grew older. Then too, my siblings and I would sing and recite little nursery rhymes before our parents, and I would compose songs for my sisters to sing. Before he died an early death at 37 my father gave me a mouth harp and a harmonica which I kept for many years; I later misplaced it while in college. I later bought another harmonica which I kept throughout my years in the U.S. Army, my travels throughout Europe, and throughout my years in graduate school. How and why we each possess the talents and skills we have are questions I’ve never fully understood. So I’ve concluded that we just have them, and we’ll never be able to explain it. Throughout this chapter four reference points will be used to explain my exposure to music and my music biculturality: schools, churches, home, and my neighborhood. If I make very few references to whites, it is simply because during my early life my contact with whites was minimal, and white individuals played a minor role in my life, as at home my world centered around my parents and godparents, siblings, and other family members, and neighborhood friends; at school my world was a completely black world. The first white I got to know outside of my early work experiences was the white Presiding Bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church who visited St. John's Episcopal Church at least six or seven times a year.