Style and genre as a mode of aesthetics

Abstract

This paper discusses the need to draw distinctions between musical experiences,
and to group them in terms of degrees of similarity. It argues against the currently
dominant paradigm whereby consideration of genre has assumed priority, and
develops previous work on the orthogonal relationship between style and genre,
proposing that just as idiolect has a privileged position within the analysis of style,
form occupies a similar position within the analysis of genre.