There is a secret history to popular music which does not often get told. This alternate universe of popular music has been there from the very beginning, and it easily disguises itself. It can and does appear in any genre: rock, soul, disco, Latin, electronic, alternative and so forth. (Although I have not ever found it in country; draw your own conclusions.) It runs alongside its much more well-known twin, the vast majority of popular music, but it is quite different. In order to understand this alternate universe, we first have to understand what normal popular music does.
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John Ahern
John Ahern is a graduate student pursuing a PhD in musicology from Princeton University. He is a substitute organist for the Princeton University chapel on occasion. He loves his wife and son, and they all frequently sing, to greater and lesser degrees of success, Renaissance bicinia over dinner.
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