ethomusicology

Ethnomusicology
Student’s Name
Institution’s Affiliation
Lecturer
Date
Spoken Word-African American
Harry Baker, “Jayz’s 99 problems.”
Spoken word is a type of music based on words. It is entirely an oral art that lays focus on wordplay aesthetics for example intonations and inflections of voice. It is just a type of poetry that is loudly recited to an audience. What brings a difference between spoken word and written poetry is sound. There is less interaction with book pages because its presentation is verbal. It is phonaesthetic. According to Merriam’s model of ethnomusicology, this music genre is defined in three ways; how it is done based on sound, what the music is about and other features answering the remaining 4Ws. In the sound, behavior and the conception of the music.
Sound
Some people would say the spoken word is not a musical performance it is one kind of music of nature ever performed by many artists worldwide. It is impossible to say that all that is sang around the world is a complete spoken word; of course, people sing poetry only instruments make it sound musical. In this case, the music into consideration is Harry Baker’s “JayZ’s 99 problems”. Yes, it is not there to be heard however it is performed in the line of music. In this spoken word performance, sounds are replaced by words and that brings it to verses that have no words. This fades away the difference between literary composition and musical composition.
Behavior
The song “Jayz’s 99…