Song, Arrangement, Track

When we hear a music record, we experience both song and arrangement of a song through the sounds of a track. (Zak, 2001, p.24). The track is a recording itself and it cannot be changed once it is recorded. Although track, depending on format or digital compression, can sound different, softer or sharper, when it is streamed or distributed. According to Zak (2001), track is a layer that represents the finished musical work – the song and its arrangement. For example, we have discussed four different tracks of Feeling Good and each of them represent four different sound settings of the same song.
When it comes to analyzing academic music, all the terms and conditions are on the plate, but when it comes with analyzing popular music, it gets very complex. It can be simple as Zak (2001, p.24) suggests, it is useful to think of a recording as containing three distinct compositional layers: the song, the musical arrangement, and the track, which is recording itself.

…