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The problem discussed is that of simulating human composition of Western popular music by computer and some relevant theories of music and harmony are given. Problems with this kind of program and several schemes that are known not to work are discussed. Several previous computer compositions are discussed, including the ILLIAC Suite. A program to generate short melody fragments was written to simulate some of the aspects of human composition. Five samples of its output are presented and discussed. It was discovered that although the fragments show many of the characteristics of popular melodies, they have a strangely alien sound. It is theorized that this is because the relevant probabilities which would discriminate against unfamiliar sequences were not used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article features the rock band Beatles. It states that the band has inspired the lifestyle of the youth in Europe, U.S., and in Great Britain and makes the most expressive, original, as well as musically interesting sounds in popular music. It also mentions that the Beatles has revived the rock music along with British groups The Animals and The Rolling Stones and moved on innovating the folk-rock hybrid music of Bob Dylan.

The article discusses various letters from different people concerning issues in U.S. in 1973. It highlights U.S. President Richard Nixon's budget recommendations to cut programs for unemployment, education and milk subsidies. It also features the music industry in the U.S. including the rock music and the popular music.

The extent to which even the best educated and artistically aware members of the intellectual community have been isolated from important contemporary developments in music seems discouragingly evident in a recent letter from a Nation reader, an architect living in Boston, Massachusetts. He urges that the author publish a list of available recordings of "good contemporary music," pointing out "there are many who love good music, but who really know very little of what has happened since." The request itself poses an interesting problem. There are no authoritative professional sources from which music teachers, journalists or conductors can acquire reliable information about contemporary music for guidance in their public activities.

The article focuses on the growth of 600 million dollars popular music business in Nashville, Tennessee. As stated, the city is the home of four record pressing companies, 11 talent agencies, and 10 recording studios. The music business is stated to worth about 65 million dollars a year to the city and all this business is directly traceable to one institution, the Grand Ole Opry,a live country music show owned by WSM radio station.

Surveys the history and state of the arts and culture in Mexico City, Mexico. General dullness as cultural center; New Humanism School of painting led by Jose Luis Cuevas; Absence of any major movement in literature; Strict adherence to non-form in music; Local popular music; Mexican film industry; Television soap operas; Materialism of talented Mexicans; Overlooking of Mexico's Indian heritage.

Reviews several music releases. "Lyrichord," by Franz Schubert; "Das Lied von der Erde," by Gustav Mahler; "La Traviata," by Giuseppe Verdi.

Profiles American musician Jack Teagarden. Career background; Biography; Musical style and influences; Other musicians associated with Teagarden such as Louis Armstrong; Ability to take a group of notes in three simple progressions; Assertion that his singing voice goes best with the Blues.

Presents an analysis of the state of Ragtime music in the U.S. Uniqueness associated with the antiquity and the evolution of the type of music; Comment on the existence of Ragtime music by American schools; Characteristics of Ragtime music; Adaptability of the music to various compositions that fall in the category of Ragtime music.

Focuses on developments in popular songs and ballad recordings. Characteristics of ballads popular in the present era; Songs included in the "Ballads and Songs of the Shanty-Boy" compiled by Professor Rickaby; Criticism of the treatment of popular songs by folklore scholars; Composers featured in the collection "Blues: An Anthology".

Focuses on the efforts of popular jazz and serious musical art in the United States to effect a junction and a marriage. Effect of the application of the fastidious selective formula of modern impressionism on the rhythms of popular music; Artistic development of jazz that the career of entertainer Paul Whiteman exemplifies; Critique of composer Deems Taylor's piece "Circus Day," which makes use of jazz material.

The article reports on the reasons why the U.S. does not have a major song yet for its involvement in World War II in July 1942. It says that there has been no major U.S. victory enough to bring out a dynamic war spirit, which in turn would lead to the creation of a war song. The author adds that popular music is a result of mental association if the marketing conditions and the stylistic changes can be correlated. The historical background of major songs associated with major U.S. wars is also discussed.

Most talented young people who decide to make a career of music today seriously consider becoming Pop musicians. Many of the most creative do enter the field. On both coasts, Pop has captured large portions of the FM listening market. It has succeeded jazz and folk as the music of the campus, and the serious magazines are tripping over one another to get into the business of Pop criticism. According to popular mythology, the Beatles are responsible for Pop's new found respectability. But while it is true that their straightforward behavior and good-humored, innocent appeal have had much to do with the attention being paid popular music by the mass media and others over 30, the real innovating has gone en elsewhere.

Focuses on the popularity of country music in the U.S. Number of copies of Art Satherley's love song "Rosalita" sold in the country; Performance of country bands and musicians in theatrical plays and concerts; Factors that contribute to the popularity of the music in the country according to Satherly.

The article profiles singer Bing Crosby. He admits his laziness and he hates work. His salary in doing a movie is based on the number of weeks occupied on shooting. His radio program is one of his publicity outlets. He has sold 5,000,000 records in 1941 in the U.S. Crosby has never taken advantage of his rights in his contract with Paramount according to studio executives.

The article profiles Mitchell Miller, artists and repertoire director of Columbia Records. He bought a parrot for $150 and named it Lorenzo the Magnificent. Miller, an oboe player and record producer, finds songs, selects the artists and supervises the actual recording at Columbia. His record-produced albums have proven to sell well, with a total of 80 million popular music albums sold in the U.S.

The author offers insights on having a musical career as a tenor. There was no musical talent on either side of his family and he took vocal lessons before he joined the Metropolitan Opera. The tenor cites that volume and range are the major differences between classical and popular singers. Instead of force-feeding methods, a child should be exposed to good music to stimulate his desire to play or sing.

This article presents information on Dick Clark, the television host of programs like "American Bandstand," and "The Dick Clark Show." The new production "Dick Clark's World of Talent," may become a giant enterprise. The show will mark an effort to fascinate "adults," an audience which he so far has reached only as a by-product of his teen-age-angled television performances. According to Clark, as far as the kids are concerned, rock 'n' roll is just a portion of their musical knowledge. Youngsters today have a widely varied musical background.

The article presents a discussion on a popular-record business. Today the popular-record business has gone topsy-turvy, and the $150 million-a-year single- disc field, specifically the 45 rpm discs that sell for an average of ninety-eight cents is dominated by the smalls and the unknowns. Nobody is quite sure where or how the record revolution started, but some of the most people believe that it was started by a young singer, Elvis Presley, who later became a rock legend. Today 70 to 80 percent of the hits are being turned out by youngsters you never heard of a month or two ago, and who may disappear from the public scene just as abruptly as they came.

Focuses on the development of ragtime music in the U.S. Evolution of the jazz idiom from the rhythmic jungle chants of the descendants of Africans; Decline of the jazz music started with the inception of the Whiteman recordings; Difference between swing and jazz.

Presents information on several pop musicians in the U.S. Aretha Franklin; Tiny Tim; Herb Alpert.

Focuses on the popularity of folk music in the U.S. Consideration of folk music as an urban art; Influence of folk music on the popular music field; Excitement found by folk music in the songs written by composer Bob Dylan; Demand of people for more of a folk singer.

The article profiles Joseph Lawton Collins, chief of staff of the U.S. Army. It says that the chief of staff is brusque to officers who fail to meet his standards. He brings home a brief case full of paperwork and he usually works until midnight. Collins is assumed to be the only top military leader who appreciate good music and poetry.

The article focuses on the developments of disc jockeys and the kind of music they play in different music stations in New York City. It compares the kind of music before, and during the presence of disc jockeys. It discusses the benefits of the new sound brought by disc jockeys to the people. The article features several music stations in New York City and offers information about the songs they played.

The article focuses on the effect of long playing (LP) recording on jazz music. The LP has changed the role of artists-and-repertoire man, a monarchic recording-company figure who often single-handedly chooses musicians and decides on the balance of sound recordings. One of the advantages of LP is its singular handiness of 78-revolution per minute. Among the musical releases that were reissued by Victor company include "The Greatest of Dizzy Gillespie" and "The Indispensable Duke Ellington."

Presents letters to the editor in reference to articles that were published in previous issues. "What Makes Wallace Run?" which discussed the political career of Alabama Governor George Corley Wallace; "Psychoanalysis and Fantasy," which focused on psychoanalysis; "Pop Music: What's Been Happening," which discussed politics and pop music; "Clouds Over the Golden Horn," which focused on the peninsula on the Straits of Babel-Mandeb.

The article presents a list of music bars, discotheques and cabarets in New York including Half Note, which is a lower West jazz haven, Philharmonic Cafe, which features how the jazz guitar can be strong and serene at the same time, the Shepheard's, which features pop performances, the Dangerfield's and the Improvisation.

The article comments on the talk about male supremacy and misogyny in rock that was allegedly inspired by the women's movement in the U.S. in 1971. Key issues discussed include the naive sexism that disfigured American rock music during the late 1960s and the emergence of a more calculated and nearly ideological sexism in rock since that period.

The article presents information about the jazz music in Great Britain. Jazz has never been a popular music. For fifty years, it has gone its iconoclastic, organic, backroom way, piling beauty and unwittingly providing most of the inspiration for American popular music. Richard Gibson, the wealthy Denver businessman and inventor of the World's Greatest Jazzband, has leased the Roosevelt Grill with the laudable, messianic idea of making it an internationally known temple of jazz.

The article reports that the Music Educators National Conference, a large organization of music teachers in the U.S., has announced that it was endorsing the teaching of rock in schools and universities. Thomas MacClusky, a Denver music critic and a member of the faculty of the University of Colorado, points out that rock music is an outgrowth of rhythm and blues and country music. MacClusky observes that a great deal of rock music is not founded on the major and minor scales used in Western music.

The article reviews several music releases including "Funny Girl" by Barbara Streisand, "The Believers: The Black Experience in Song" and "The Single Man" by Rod McKuen.

The article profiles Arlo Guthrie, who wrote and sang the popular song entitled "Alice's Restaurant." The song is actually a story of how Guthrie got arrested for disposing of garbage in the wrong place in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. However, the song ends up as a protest against war and a cry for freedom. Arlo is the oldest of three children as a result of the second marriage of the American folk singer Woody Guthrie.

The article reviews the video recording of the opera "Lucrezia Borgia," featuring the music composed by Gaetano Donizetti and performed by Montserrat Caballé and the music release "Four Melodic Masterpieces of Samuel Barber."

The article discusses the disappearance of rock and roll music in the airwaves of New York City. Critics are irritated by the actions of the broadcasters to go back to find good popular songs. However, during the rock and roll epidemic, it was pleasant to hear the songs of the masters such as Henderson, Donaldson, and Rodgers or other tunes from the golden age such as "Hindustan" and "Under the Bamboo Tree." Meanwhile, composer Jackie Gleason conducts his own music on television.

The article reviews the music release "Satchmo: A Musical Autobiography of Louis Armstrong."