Deciphering the specific social characteristics of music has lagged behind the analytical dissection of musical composition and biographical musicology. These essays address the issue. The sociology of music as examined here is an investigation into the ways in which social formations come together in musical structures. The essays specifically address the problem of our neutralized musical consciousness, the separation of music from its social context and the artificial insulation of musical understanding from social significance. A particular theme in this work concerns the struggle against ideological distortions arising from the insulation of music from its sociological context. The author argues that there is a stronger connection between music and society than is generally assumed.