Developing Understanding of 20th and 21st Century Music: SQA Higher Music Technology overview

The 20th and 21st century music topic is the knowledge-and-listening half of SQA Higher Music Technology. Where the skills topic is about making audio, this topic is about understanding the music that technology made possible, and being able to recognise it by ear. It has two strands: how technology shaped the music, and listening (recognising genres and styles, and identifying music concepts). This page is the index for the module; the dot points below cover each part in depth.

The two strands

Explaining how technological developments relate to the music. New tools created new sounds and new genres: recording and amplification, the electric guitar, the synthesiser, multitrack recording, sampling and drum machines, MIDI, the DAW, and digital distribution. You explain the link between a development and a musical change.

Developing listening skills. Recognising genres and styles across the period, and identifying music concepts by ear:

• Genres and styles, covered in four dot points: early 20th century (ragtime, blues, jazz, swing, big band); rock and pop (rock 'n' roll, rock, pop, soul, funk, disco, reggae, punk, new wave, indie); electronic and contemporary (synth pop, house, techno, dance/EDM, hip hop, drum and bass, R&B); and Scottish and world music.
• Music concepts: the vocabulary of melody, harmony, rhythm and tempo, timbre and dynamics, and texture and structure used to describe what you hear.

How technology and style connect

The thread through the whole module is that technology and musical style develop together. The electric guitar gives rock its voice; the synthesiser gives synth pop its timbres; sampling and drum machines give hip hop and dance their loops; the studio's multitracking gives disco and pop their layered productions. Hearing a style and knowing the technology behind it are two sides of the same understanding.

The skills examiners reward

The listening questions test recognition and precise description:

1. Identify the genre and justify it. Name the style and back it with audible features (rhythm, instrumentation, production) that distinguish it.
2. Name concepts, do not describe them. Use the correct technical term (riff, syncopation, pedal, homophonic) for what you hear.
3. Link technology to music. Explain how a development changed how music was made or heard, and the style it enabled.
4. Hear the groove and the timbre. Identify the rhythmic pattern and the sounds, which often pin down the genre faster than melody.

How to study this module

The listening topic rewards wide, active, labelled listening.

1. Listen across the genres. Build a playlist and note each style's defining features.
2. Learn the concept vocabulary. Drill melody, harmony, rhythm, timbre and texture terms until labelling is instant.
3. Tie each style to its technology. For every genre, know the tool that made it possible.
4. Practise timed listening questions. Genre plus three features, and concepts by area, against the clock.

For the official course specification

The SQA publishes the full Higher Music Technology course specification, specimen and past papers, and marking instructions at sqa.org.uk. Always revise from the current specification and SQA past papers, because the assessment is board-specific.