MDA as a Research Method of Generic Musical Analysis for the Social Sciences: Sifting Through Grime (Music) as an SFT Case Study

Authors

Monique Charles, Chapman UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-1-2018

Abstract

Using Grime as a case study, I employ the analytical framework I created, that is, Musicological Discourse Analysis (MDA) as a holistic mode of analysis to contextualize Grime sociologically and musicologically. This method retheorizes genre, providing a more specific, useful, and detailed musical classification system; the sonic footprint timestamp (SFT). The MDA framework provides a generic mode of musical analysis for research projects in sociology, cultural studies, and the social sciences fields. This article evaluates key musical influences in the evolution of Grime as both (i) a musical form and (ii) an analysis of influences in relation to its social context. It evaluates the global, local, historical, technological, political, lyrical themes, and sonic properties (sounds) found in Grime. Significantly, this framework is very much concerned with the voices in the Grime scene, and therefore respondent experiences are central to this analytical method—incorporating in-depth interviews, observation (physical and online), and immersive listening.

Comments

This article was originally published in International Journal of Qualitative Methods, volume 17, issue 1, in 2018. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406918797021

Recommended Citation

Charles, M. (2018). MDA as a research method of generic musical analysis for the social sciences: Sifting through Grime (music) as an SFT case study. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 17(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406918797021

Peer Reviewed

1

Copyright

The author

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License