The Song is Ended
POSSIBLE INTROS

In “The Song is Ended,” the writer Roger Scruton, uses the country wide celebration of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee , to explain why he believes just “how small a part music now plays in the social life of ordinary people.” He claims that “the music we hear is not listened too but just overheard.” Just as the entertainment, The Hot Tomatoes Band, begins playing, Scruton complains about how, “they played a grotesque rendering of the national anthem.” He then went on to compare the sound of their electric guitar to the sounds of what could be amplified ghost whispers. Sharing what he observed as, “wobbling protruding guts and the wiggling of arthritic hips,” during their performances playing popular songs from his past like artist as Little Richard, Elvis, The Beatles, and the Rolling Stones.
Scruton uses his witness of the, The Hot Tomatoes Band to further more …..

Author and philosopher, Roger Scruton, was motivated to compose the article “The Song Is Ended” in the 2002 National Review, upon attending the Queen’s Jubilee celebration in 2002.

Scruton condemns the honoring of men that refuse to let go of their youthful egos, as he states, “Far from normalizing rock, forcing rock to be a part of the establishment and to honor the old geezers who invented it just gives an important connection with the hormones of the youth and that is obviously ridiculous as the lingua franca of mature middle age.” He also stating that, “the modern rock star does not attempt to grow up,”, as well as “if a pop star grows up at all it is not up but sideways,” indicate that they stay childish and growing sideways by trying to keep their everlasting youthful beauty. He speculates that if they do grow up that they are always craving the attention, waiting for the other shoe to drop and be back in the lime light and if they do come back their performances are not as lively as they once were. Scruton explains it as, “adding wrinkles to the music to match the wrinkles on the face.” His focus is to cleverly
Scruton expresses his opposing argument at the beginning of paragraph five, where he states, “he reflected on how little pop has developed since those days and how insulated it has become from the rest of our musical culture.”

Scruton assumes his readers’ are low to middle class with an education and are old enough to recognize some of the past musicians say around middle-age and are music enthusiast.

by using how music have changed over the generations while implying that the music of today has perished. Which I have to disagree, modern music of today has not perished, and just because it is different from music over the years, like anything and everything, music has evolved, artists have experimented with different sounds and textures over the generations to create music that will speak to everyone.

Scruton suggested that “the music we hear is not listened too but just overheard.” I was not sure what he was implying with this statement and why does he not think that this generation actually listens to music?

He uses the best metaphor I’ve ever heard by saying the music is piped into our lives by the DJ’s who control the “musical diet” of mankind, and who are busy replacing the “solid protein of hymns and folksongs with the sugar, starch and glutamate” of pop. Even though his delicious humor made me chuckle I do not like that he states the DJ is controlling what I or anyone else at listens to, we listen because we enjoy it.

Scruton demonstrates no viable creditability, but with his opinion of the past and current music genres, he is able to
Scruton wrote an argument using deductive reasoning

Quotes from Kamien….
“Like most other things, musical styles change from one era in history to the next and these are continuous.” (Kamien 66)

“Our response to a musical performance or an artist is subjective and rooted in deep feeling.” (Kamien 2)

Most of the important musicians were priests. An important occupation in thousands of monasteries was liturgical singing. For centuries only sacred music was notated. Most medieval music was vocal chanting. The church frowned on instruments because of their earlier role in pagan rites. (75)

Works Cited

Scruton, Roger. “The Song Is Ended – Analysis of Pop Music Today.” 2002. Print

Scruton, Roger. “Roger Scruton.” Roger Scruton. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 June 2014. <http://www.roger-scruton.com/>.
“The 2012 Diamond Jubilee Honours List, 13 September 2012.” . The Royal Household © Crown Copyright, n.d. Web. 24 June 2014. <http://www.royal.gov.uk/LatestNewsandDiary/Pressreleases/2012/The2012DiamondJubileeHonoursList13September2012.aspx>.

Kamien, Roger. Music: an appreciation. 10th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. Print.
Writer
What is the writer’s background?
BorRoger is a writer, philosopher and public commentator. He has specialized in aesthetics with particular attention to music and architecture. He engages in contemporary political and cultural debates from the standpoint of a conservative thinker and is well known as a powerful polemicist . He has written widely in the press on political and cultural issues. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a fellow of the British Academy.

Degrees and diplomas:
• B.A. Cambridge 1965 in Moral Sciences (=Philosophy), double first.
• M.A. Cambridge 1967.
• Ph. D. Cambridge, in philosophy, with thesis on aesthetics, 1972.
• Bar Part 1, Inns of Court, London, 1975 (Struben Prize, Profumo Prize, second in order of merit).
• Bar Part 2, Inns of Court, London 1976 (called to the Bar 1978).
Honorary Degrees:
• Honorary Doctorate, Adelphi University, New York, 1995
• Honorary Doctorate, Masaryk University, Brno, 1997
How does the writer’s background affect the content of the argument?
He has credibility for his knowledge of the art of music.

What preconceptions about the subject does the writer seem to have?
That no one just sings or really listens to music any more.

Purpose
Does the writer state his or her purpose directly, or is the purpose implied?
The writer implies his purpose.

Is the writer’s purpose simply to convince or to encourage action?
NOT SURE. Convince this readers that current pop music has decayed and to encourage to listen to “sophisticated composers, with an incalculable debt to the classical tradition”

Does the writer rely primarily on logic or on emotion?
Both. He reaches out to the readers using (pathos) emotion then uses (logos) logic to show evidence.

Does the writer have a hidden agenda?
NOT SURE

Audience
Who is the writer’s intended audience?
Middle aged – they would have to be old enough recognize these names. (Mick Jagger, Gershwin, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington)

Does the writer see the audience as hostile, friendly, or neutral?
Friendly – or he would not be able to be so sarcastic with them.

What values does the writer think the audience holds?
NOT SURE

Does the writer see the audience as informed or uninformed?
They would have to be informed so when he is describing musical terminology they will understand.
(rhythm, instruments, melodic phrase, core tonal harmonies, synthesizers, Rhythm machines, & what a Percussion is)

Topic
What is the topic of the argument?
How little pop has developed since it was introduced and how insulated it has become

Why did the writer decide to write about this particular topic?
In the 1st paragraph he notes how bad an older band sounds trying to keep up with current music.

Has the writer developed the argument fully enough for the topic?
No. I CAN NOT FOLLOW

Content
What situation (or situations) set the stage for the argument?
At a celebration and In the 1st paragraph he notes how bad an older band sounds trying to keep up with current music.

What social, political, and cultural events triggered the argument?
Cultural event was the celebration or could also be the nostalgia in the 2nd paragraph

What historical references situate this argument in a particular place or time?
Queen’s Golden Jubilee Honours: 2002 The Queen celebrated fifty years of reigning