Music Theory and White Supremacy

The canonical video on the subject: ▶ this video Some people will naively say "All music has pentatonic! Universal!" but ignore vital cultural context. One example in the video is ragas: they can look a lot like Western scales and modes, but they have a time and context. Western music also has a time and context, but it doesn't stand out as much to us unless someone goes full ham breaking that context like with the Imperial March in a Major mode: link It changes the mood from "this is the bad guys!" to something more positive and triumphant.

I grew up in a family of classical musicians, got a degree in music, and was briefly a professional classical musician myself. So my advice may be very out of touch with the experience of someone learning for the first time, but my experiences learning beyond European classical music theory left me feeling insulted. The basics of music theory are presented as though they are the foundations upon which all subsequent music is derived. In fact, teaching scales and chords is like teaching that the electron orbits the nucleus - a 'simplification'. There _are_ real psychoacoustic truths, alongside equally fascinating historical forces, that underpin music theory. Learn the language and idioms of music theory, by all means, but don't think of it as being in any way true. Its a syncretist cargo cult of hacks and rules of thumb handed down by centuries of men with dubious motives. I recommend Adam Neely on YouTube, he illustrates music theory concepts clearly, engagingly, and with an appropriate skepticism for received wisdom. Here's his discussion of some more political criticisms of music theory: ▶ this video I recommend Sethares' _Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, Scale_ to anyone interested in the underpinnings of why some notes sound good together and others don't. [2] link

There's a very good video on the way too narrow view many people in the west have of music. ▶ this video I know the title will set people off in a place like this, but it's not a 2014 Tumblr-level "kill white people" style analysis. Totally worth the time.

> pop music lacks musicality, most of what they listed were to do with sonic tricks that are not really tied to musicality or musicianship This is a paradox, though. You’re saying that one of the most popular types of music “lacks musicality”. The only way that can be true is if you start with a narrow and arbitrary definition of what “musicality” is. If you examine the history of ideas of what is “real” or “authentic” or “objectively good” in music, who has been a proponent of those ideas through history, and why, you will find is that a lot of it is rooted in white supremacy. The idea is that a certain style of white European music is the only true music, and that other music is only valuable to the extent that it happens to fit within the theoretical frameworks developed around those styles. I guess what I’m saying is, please watch this excellent video, “Music Theory is Racist” by Adam Neely: ▶ this video

I don’t think you can really throw music theory out because so much of it is inate to humans hearing and culture, and it’s largely a formalization of such. However, the rub is that what most people consider music theory is western classical theory. There’s a lot of different music theories around the world , with different scales, structures etc… Here’s a video you might find interesting of a microtonal guitar link Also a really good video on why “music theory” is often largely paired to western music ▶ this video while there’s so many alternates out there

And if anyone has time for a longer explanation, Adam Neely did a great video about "music theory" - sorry, I mean "the harmonic style of 18th century European musicians". It's worth watching. ▶ this video

> Does it refuse to get rid of dialect and variation if the race of the person processed is white? If it doesn’t it doesn’t make it white. For it to remove any dialect, it has to consider some dialect as standard. Think about it. > I’m not reading the whole crazy pointless long article about more fake problems, the abstract is ridiculous enough. Well if you're going to question-beg, then you can't really complain can you. The rest of what you said is a different complaint than the one I answered, so you're moving the goal post but then setting up a straw man of what that person wrote when you say such music can't be made on it. They were specific in what they said and it didn't exclude the possibility of making some of it with it. This subject is definitely something that's been discussed a lot in music lately, so apparently it's not that meaningless to many people. Adam Neely has a popular video on what people are talking about if you're curious. [1] 1. ▶ this video

A generous reading makes me think that his music department is just widening their program to incorporate more non-western content. They asked him to change his course material in a way he doesn't like. If that's the case, it's something many arts departments around the world have been doing in the last few years. You can call it a product of "wokeness", but it's also a product of globalisation. > He said that music departments could stop teaching Beethoven and Wagner because their compositions were produced during a time of empire “in the frankly insane belief that doing so will somehow materially improve current living conditions for the economically, socially, sexually, religiously, or racially underprivileged”. They're never going to stop teaching Beethoven and Wagner and it sincerely sounds like he's misunderstanding the goals with most music departments' changes. On the other hand, there _are_ genuine issues with how music theory and history are taught today: ▶ this video He's a professor of music history and theory. He edits a book series called "Music in Context". He's written about homosexuality in the world of opera. He doesn't seem like at outright conservative reactionary and I'd really like to understand what his grievances with his department are.

See: Music Theory and White Supremacy by Adam Neely[0] [0] ▶ this video The TL;DR for people who will be immediately triggered by the title and not bother to view is that Western music theory was intentionally designed around white supremacist ideals. It is exclusionary of the ideas and contributions of non-European cultures, and purposely so, as it deems them inferior.

> As if some patriarchal conspiracy was forcing classical composers like Mozart and Beethoven down people’s throats... No, but patriarchal and racial structures in society have historically suppressed artists who weren't white and male. Adam Neely has a good video on how the term "music theory" here in the West is essentially just "the harmonic style of 18th century European musicians" [1]. It's worth a watch if you're interested in music. [1] ▶ this video

Yup! Adam Neely has a great video[0] talking about how serious of a role any theoretical framework has on understanding the music itself -- and how in the US at least, we very often prescribe European standards of harmony on music. [0] ▶ this video

I'd like to highlight Adam Neely's video on the subject [1] (also pointed out by user guerilla), where he argues quite convincingly that 'music theory' is not the theory behind music but theory behind the particular subset of Western music. That doesn't make it any less useful for creating this type of music, but it's in no way a universal theory, or arguably, a theory at all. More a collection of rules and conventions used in Western music. [1] ▶ this video