The concept of transmission in music is how a musical piece is passed on from the performer and learned or interpreted by the audience. Ben Ratliff writes that writes that artists don’t necessarily write songs that give off specific emotions. Instead they write a more “neutral” piece of music and add in different musical elements that transmits to the audience. These musical elements in the piece are what allow the audience to interpret the tone and mood of the song and connect it to a certain emotion. These connections will be completely unique to each audience member. To me, this isn’t the case. I believe the artists write songs that mean something to them and write their songs in a way to convey the emotions that they feel during the song to the audience with the help of each musical element. In the song, “Julia” by The Beatles, when you first listen to it, you do get a sense of neutrality until you get to the parts where he sings straight to the girl “Julia”. Here is where you can sense John Lennon’s love and devotion to this girl in the song even though we don’t know the story behind it. In the beginning of Adele’s song, “Someone Like You”, you hear her sing softly, each note staying around the same range. However, when it reaches the chorus, her range immediately rises giving rise to interpretation of the lyrics so you can determine the meaning she wants to portray to you.
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