It sounds bad to me too, especially since the subject starts with the word “A”, which can only be used with a singular noun. Since it’s a headline in an advertisement, I’d suggest they just drop the verb “await”: “A world of pristine music” sounds just fine by itself in that context.
I’m familiar with the concept, though forgot the terminology. I didn’t think “world” would be usable notionally, though – which WotNot seems to be agreeing with me on.
I am, of course, not a Brit, though, so I would bow to those with greater expertise if they say you can use “world” thusly.
I guess my confusion goes back to the lessons I missed in grade 10…
In the (poor) ad tagline, could the subject of the sentence be considered ‘styles’? If so, would it be considered collective, as in, “(a world of different types/styles of) music await”?
While this certainly wouldn’t be the first time incorrect gramatical structures had been foisted upon us by marketing professionals, I wonder if this discussion had occurred in their offices and been approved.
I think that British usage is for singular nouns that mean a group of people, e.g., a team or government. I haven’t seem it used for other kinds of groups, like this one, where the “world of music” is an object that presumably contains many musical items.
Collectives, them. [ETA: teach me to compose a post while working.)
I think “pristine” makes for terrible copy in this context, regardless of questionable grammar.
In the strictest sense, a world of “pristine” music would be… what? Rythmic grunting and stone percussion?
Even if you’re a dirty descriptivist, what are they saying? It’s brand new music? Nah.
The most sense you can make of it is that they promise not to subject the listener to any arrangements of original work - just directly as set down by the original composer.
(Or, I guess, “This music is unspoiled by kazoos or electric guitars,” which is pretty meaningless.)
Anyway, I hope they didn’t pay too much for that work.
I presumed pristine was a reference to the sound quality, as in “clean” (since Creative makes audio players and peripherals). Odd usage, but not nonsensical.
No, the subject is still “world.” The “of whatever” is a group which acts as an adjective of “world,” it modifies “world.” And in both of your examples, there’s actual adjectives which have similar meanings (but whose use sounds more snobbish):
“A musical world awaitS…”
“A stylistic world awaitS…”
I didn’t think that it sounded right, but gave the benefit of the doubt to the marketing team of a multinational corporation (also given the different language ;)). I guess someone didn’t get it approved through proper channels.
In my mind, since the subject is “world” and “a world” is singular (to me) it should be “awaits”. “Music” even if used as a collective is an object of an adjective preposition describing “a world” so it has no bearing on “await”. If you can think of a way to justify “a world” as a collective, then some dialects allow for plural forms of the predicate. It sounds jarring to me, but then again it might still be correct.
A group of bored students await you in the other room. That sounds okay to me, I just have a hard time seeing “A world” as being collective.
