ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book argues that prevalent, 'a-social', views of music are inherently problematic, and that these views form an integral aspect not only of industrial man's outlook on the world, but of the political structures within which he lives, and which he largely takes for granted. It shows that the social process which eliminates the problems referred to, and allows for a vital and acceptable social theory of music. If musical meaning is acknowledged to lie within the musical process itself, then in 'giving away' that meaning, a piece seemingly compromises the very being or essence responsible for the meaning in the first place. For by restricting musical significance to the inner, emotional and subjective side of this split, they have in reality failed to transcend the first, interdependent form-and-content dichotomy.
