Piiri konstrueerimine ajakirjanduses klassikalise ja popmuusika vahel Sirbi ja Areeni näitel
Date
2012
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
The purpose of this bachelor thesis titled „Construction of Borders between Classical and
Pop Music. The Case of Sirp and Areen” is to analyze differences between the musical
writings in two weekly cultural Estonian newspapers of which state-funded Sirp is
presumably focusing on classical music and Eesti Ekspress´ culture addition Areen
focusing on pop music. Main idea is to find out if music journalism in Estonia
differentiates classical music as something “high” and pop music as something “low” and
therefore applies to the modernist approach on music or not. The work is based on classic
theoretical writings by Pierre Bourdieu and Theodor Adorno as well as more recent
postmodernist works by Herbert J. Gans or Estonian publicists on music classification.
The key question of this paper goes as follows: How Sirp and Areen construct the
border between classical and pop music? This problem is examined by qualitative text
analysis using elements of grounded theory. Sample includes all music-themed articles of
January and two earliest issues of February 2011 from Sirp and Areen. It is supported by
two interviews with music editors from both newspapers. Author tries to analyze attitudes
toward border-building or –braking in music, different viewpoints on music, the style of
writing and compare those aspects between two substantially different newspapers. Prior
to that a small-scale quantitative analysis is added.
Results of this research show that there were very few articles in Sirp involved
with pop-music and only couple of articles in Areen about classical music. Authors in
Sirp show up for their extensive academic education on music. It was difficult to detect
different viewpoints from creator to consumer in every phrase of the articles because they
were often mixed in one sentence. In Areen music is more viewed in the context of
commercialization and distribution and in Sirp the context of musical performance itself,
interpretation is common. That’s because majority of the articles in Areen were record
reviews and concert reviews dominated in Sirp. CD, a record, is clearly more observable
as a product of consumer society than a concert. Object, that is reviewed, creates that
difference.
When writing about creation, the essence of the musical pieces, authors in Areen
stylistically tended to be less formal, slang and colloquialism was often used. Selfexpression
as a motive for writing seems more important in Areen than in Sirp and it was
also supported by interviews´ results. Border-breaking in music as a topic was also more
popular in Areen. The use of words among Sirp authors was often overly expansive.
Classical music was referred to as something grandiose, monumental, deep etc. Although
there was rarely clear, what was being viewed as “low”, such use of words concealedly
considers classical music as something “high”. Professionalism was seen quite differently
when comparing two newspapers. In Sirp it was linked to musical education and
interpretation, the technical instrument-handling skill, but in Areen it was mostly used to
describe the production of music, work in the recording studio. Again, this probably
comes from the difference of objects that are reviewed in both newspapers.
Still, the main aspect that makes Areen and Sirp different is their dissimilar
orientation in music. Classical music by nature is more conservative tied to rules
traditions and modernist values, when pop music seems more liberal and pursues more
postmodernist values. Undoubtedly, the choice of music reviewed in both newspapers has
affected the way music is written about.