Principles of Modern Music (Rough)

I. Harmony
II. Structure (ABABC etc. or verse chorus bridge blah blah blah)..also including development which is one of the most important ideas in the construction of classical music...when a main theme is torn apart and changed, distorted (as in manipulated, not like the guitar-effect)...often, the main melody is used in a fugue or canon during this section...which often leads to new melodies that can be further disfigured...then that usually culminates in some sort of return to the original idea, a recapitulation.
rock music has barely touched the surface in this area...and jazz only does during improvisation solos...because most rock and jazz are primarily song-based, but classical can be song or it can be a larger piece
III. Sound Texture - not arrangement...like...a guitar sound or a collective studio...as in the texture of Loveless by MBV or Siamese Dream by SP or Selected Ambient Works, Vol. 2...or Night Ripper by Girl Talk or The Avalanches record...these recordings all have very distinct textural elements that make them unique compared with other sound textures...Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys is another good example..I also think that records need to be more diverse in sound texture...why can't there be a single song that goes through the texture of Loveless to a 4-track elliott smith's first two records-type texture, to something almost electronic, like 1999 or dirty-mind era prince...
IV. Dynamics - soft, normal, loud...most rock music and electronic music is very mono-dynamic...jazz is somewhere in the middle, "classical" is the most completely dynamic
V. Articulation - How a note is played...a strong accent, lightly...slurred...in rock and electronic music, most notable when in reference to a vocalist...but rock music doesn't have the detail in articulation that jazz and classical do (not yet)
VI. - Arrangement - Instrumentation and Effects (distortion, phaser, etc.) - Effects achieve the same thing that, for instance, a mute in a trumpet would achieve, but more intensely.
VII. Shape - Melodic contour...how a melody is created and manipulated...or counter melody...or in counterpoint...shape, along with rhythm, is extremely important in the concept of development
VIII. Rhythm - Rhythm
IX. Space - How sounds are arranged in a recording...panning plays a part in this, and microphone placement...