On Apple’s Use of the Word “Musicologist”

Yesterday, Apple announced the HomePod, a speaker which incorporates microphones to access Siri. And as part of that presentation, they used the word “musicologist,” in a way that makes no sense.

Musicologist

It seems that Apple is using the word to mean “DJ,” perhaps riffing on the word “mixologist,” the hipster word for bartender.

It’s frankly stupid. Apple could easily have found out exactly what this word means:

Musicologist2

Pianist Andy Lee found this a bit disturbing:


It’s a bit odd that Apple would take a word with a very clear meaning and twist it in this way, just to sound hip.

6 thoughts on “On Apple’s Use of the Word “Musicologist”

  1. Given my musical tastes (early classical music), having a “musicologist in the box” could be a very handy thing. “Siri, tell me about the successors to Corelli in Rome before 1700, and play some of their music.” 🙂 🙂

  2. Given my musical tastes (early classical music), having a “musicologist in the box” could be a very handy thing. “Siri, tell me about the successors to Corelli in Rome before 1700, and play some of their music.” 🙂 🙂

  3. This is typical of the way people use words without thinking about what they mean. Like Humpty Dumpty, a word means what they choose it to mean. There’s no excuse for this, as there are plenty of free online dictionaries.

  4. This is typical of the way people use words without thinking about what they mean. Like Humpty Dumpty, a word means what they choose it to mean. There’s no excuse for this, as there are plenty of free online dictionaries.

  5. This is the worst thing to happen to the field since Prince issued an album entitled “Musicology.”
    But, seriously, what do you expect from a company that refers to any musical track, including individual movements of symphonies, as a “song”?

  6. This is the worst thing to happen to the field since Prince issued an album entitled “Musicology.”
    But, seriously, what do you expect from a company that refers to any musical track, including individual movements of symphonies, as a “song”?

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