Review of Allan Moore, Song Means: Analyzing and Interpreting Recorded Popular Song (Ashgate, 2012)

[1] Allan Moore takes little time getting to the central point of Song Means, presenting in the second paragraph the two questions the book attempts to answer: "What meanings can experiencing a song have, and how does [the song] create meanings?" (1). Moore focuses not on the song itself, but rather the experience of the song. Rather than center around a supposedly inherent meaning of or within a song (the "what"), he examines "how [songs] mean and the means by which they mean [sic]" (1). He focuses throughout the discussion on the tools we can use and the process by which we arrive at conclusions regarding personal interpretations of recorded popular songs.[2] Interpretive analyses of music-popular or otherwise-often concentrate on the meaning of a piece of music. These theories are developed to find answers to questions. That is not Moore's immediate concern here, however. Rather than present a theory proper, he presents a methodology for determining meaning, a process he describes as "interrogative," with the purpose of accruing "a bank of questions to employ" during the interpretation of a song (9). We, the listeners, determine songs' meanings for ourselves by asking questions of the song or by investigating questions that the song presents to us. This book describes the process of discovering the connections between the elements of the song and the listener's personal experiences. (This, to me, is reminiscent of mathematics, where "the work" is just as important as the answer itself.) Ultimately, by employing this methodology and accumulating these questions, we not only learn more about the song, but we also learn about ourselves. This is a point to which I will return at the end of this review.[3] In the introductory chapter, "Methodology," Moore offers his reasons for writing the book, along with an overview of its structure. The order in which he summarizes the chapters is out of sequence (2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 7, 9, 5); I find this interesting because the order in which the chapters are organized makes logical sense in terms of Moore's "reasonably strict distinction between analysis and interpretation" (7). To use Moore's vocabulary, Chapters 2-6 make up the "Means" half of the book ("analysis"), and Chapters 7-10 comprise the "How" section ("interpretation").[4] For Moore, a song is a particular amalgamation of lyrics, harmonic progression, metric structure, and melody. A performance is different in that it is a collection of details (instrumentation, tone, tempo, style) regarding the execution or delivery of song in general. A track is a specific performance or recording of a particular song. If we think of these three in terms of a Venn diagram, "song" and "performance" would be independent circles and "track" would be the section of overlap between the two. Moore compares four versions of the song "All Along the Watchtower" in Chapter 1-Bob Dylan's original, as well as covers by Jimi Hendrix, U2, and Richie Havens-in order to illustrate clearly what a song is and how it is different conceptually from a performance and a track. All four versions share approximately the same melody, lyrics, chord structure, and metrical organization. This is how we know we are listening to the song "All Along the Watchtower." The performance details, however, vary from track to track. Each performance delivers the song differently, using unique combinations of vocal timbre, guitar tone, tempo, and instrumentation.[5] The explicit definition of "song" and its differentiation from "performance" and "track" is one of the book's key theoretical takeaways. Based on Moore's criteria, "song" takes on a much broader meaning: It becomes a general conceptual framework of musical ideas involving a singer and lyrics instead of merely a specific collection of notes and words in a particular context. This definition of "song" generalizes it by taking out considerations of performer, genre, and style. This provides a less specific analytical starting point, which thereby affords the listener a better opportunity to focus on the process of listening instead of only the eventual interpretive outcome. …