ABSTRACT
Countless words are both written and spoken concerning contemporary music. In this chapter, the author examines how such discourse might affect the nature of musical production. He argues that the central role of discourse about music, then elaborates upon various examples of how this process can operate. The author focuses on the discourse that exists in the wider musical infrastructure rather than that specifically within musicology itself. He proposes the alternative model for relating discourse to the infrastructure of music-making. A form of discourse goes on continually, in both verbal and written forms, amongst all those individuals involved in the administrative and promotional side of the music business. The power of pro-'entertainment' rhetoric begets a false dichotomy which seems to exist within English-language discourse about contemporary music, between 'entertainment' music on one hand, and self-consciously 'musical' work to be appreciated in a purely analytical or technical sense, on the other.
