Music Theory and White Supremacy
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN recommends it as the canonical video on how music theory is really the theory of one Western tradition, with the raga example.
What it is
Adam Neely examines Phil Ewell's paper arguing Western music theory is framed by a white racial perspective. He covers North Indian theory, alternative frameworks, Schenker and responses to the paper.
Recommended by 11 HN commenters across 11 different months, 2020 to 2024.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec tobr · 2020-09 · on “Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?”
> 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 valua
Strong rec Kye · 2021-03 · on “Music Software and Bad Interface Design: Avid’s Sibelius (2018) [video]”
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.
Strong rec shirleyquirk · 2023-03 · on “Ask HN: Tools to Learn Music Theory?”
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
Strong rec Kye · 2024-07 · on “Tritone Substitutions”
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.
Recommends Pyramus · 2021-02 · on “Basic Music Theory”
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]
Recommends peterkos · 2021-03 · on “Deriving Keys from Chords in Music”
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]
Recommends DavidVoid · 2021-04 · on “Sisters with Transistors”
> 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]
Recommends krapp · 2021-06 · on “Stop overstimulating your mind with digital entertainment”
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.