Review of Song Means: Analysing and Interpreting Recorded Popular Song

Allan Moore opens Song Means: Analysing and Interpreting Recorded Popular Song by asking “what meanings can experiencing a song have and how does it create those meanings?” (1). Answering these questions is at the heart of Moore’s text, through a discourse on how we can analyze and subjectively create meaningful relationships with popular music songs. Moore treats analysis and meaning as dichotomous discussions. Throughout Song Means, the role of the listener is acknowledged in the construction of meaning, which is guided by subjective experiences. The role of analysis is approached from a more formalist methodology, in an effort to survey the relationship between instruments, chord progressions, timbres, genre expectations and lyrics.