Response Paper: What Is Sociological About Music?
Response Paper: What Is Sociological About Music?
In their article, What is Sociological about Music, Roy and Dowd have discussed about the sociological point of view of music. Music sociology depends upon the foundations that are laid down from social and cultural perspectives and the authors talk about the concept of music by discussing the sociological meaning of music, the importance of music in the society, and the relationship of music with various other aspects of the society like race and gender. Through this important information, the reader gets to understand and acknowledge the sociological aspects of music. The authors have analyzed their experience in order to tell the audience about the sociology associated with music. They also manage to present the relevance of music to the society in general.
With regard to the sociological understanding of music, the authors comment that music is understood as both an object and an activity. By indicating this, Roy and Dowd (2010) introduce the reader to the primary meaning of music. Personally, I feel that they clearly showed how music is used by the populations to earn a living. From a sociological point of view, populations can only appreciate the role of music if they can directly associate with it and use it for their benefit. After all, sociology is defined by the people, is for the people and with the people.
They then proceed to informing the reader about the importance of music in the society. In my opinion, I feel the authors would have placed emphasis on how the populations benefit directly from music. For example, they would have explained the social, economic, cultural, environmental and political benefits of music. All these dimensions are vital to the wellbeing of a society. Although they deeply explain how the populations use music, a more direct straight forward and clear approach to explain the facts would have been beneficial for a better understanding of the role of music in the society. Nonetheless, I was moved by their explanation regarding how music informs populations about their identity and also it is important to understand that through music, both individuals and groups are able to develop their identity and identify themselves from other groups in the society.
I am impressed by the way the authors approached the relationship of music to different social distinctions. Besides telling us that individuals use music to construct and identify their racial and cultural positions in the society, the authors indicate that music is also used to bridge the social and cultural differences within a particular group. In my opinion, I feel that this is a critical and more direct approach to the issue under review. Through this, the reader is able to understand both the negative and positive aspects of musical social position.
Finally, the authors successfully inform the reader about the sociological concept of music. With respect to the sociological meaning of music, Roy and Dowd (2010) indicate that music is both a commodity and an activity. As it has come out from the study, this approach allows readers to associate music more closely with their normal lifestyles. They also inform the audience about the importance of music. Although they do not approach this directly and categorically, they provide a convincing explanation about how populations use music to create their social identity. Finally, they give an bright, clear, objective and critical review about the relationship between music and social distinctions.
