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Past
Activities
Popular Music and
Song and National Identities
About the Project
This research project was a joint initiative of the French,
German and Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies (SPLAS) sections of
the School of Modern Languages and the
International Centre for Music Studies
(ICMuS) at Newcastle. A
number of researchers in the School of Modern Languages and ICMuS at Newcastle
had already developed research interests in various aspects of the social,
cultural, political and economic significance of popular music in France,
Germany, Spain and Portugal and in other Francophone, Hispanic and Lusophone
countries, and therefore a collaborative, interdisciplinary and comparative
programme of research seemed a fruitful way of capitalising on expertise in the
SML and Arts faculty. The issue of national identity is of particular relevance at
the turn of the century as postmodern theorizing engages with the simultaneous
yet seemingly paradoxical processes of cultural homogenization and cultural
heterogenization that characterize interactions in transnational global markets.
Popular music is perhaps the cultural product which most easily crosses national
boundaries whilst perversely defining the local space. It is a marker of
collective identity in that it is a cultural activity through which social
groups come to know themselves as groups. However, listening and performing
music as experiential processes are inextricably bound up with subjective,
individual responses that may not correspond to social categories such as class,
race and gender. The dialectic between personal response and the material
conditions of production and consumption of popular music make this a
particularly rich field for the exploration of the construction of social
identities and cultural narratives.
Dissemination
The Research group organised a number of conferences in
Newcastle. There were two conferences in September and November 2000 which
brought together contributors to the project from all the languages/cultures.
These resulted in the outputs: Hugh Dauncey
and Steve Cannon (eds.), Popular Music in
France from Chanson to Techno: Culture,
Identity and Society (London: Ashgate, 2003) and
Ian
Biddle and Vanessa Knights (eds.), Between the Local and the Global: Popular
Musics and National Identities (forthcoming, 2007). The Centre for Research into
Film also hosted a conference on film adaptations of the Carmen narrative in
March 2002. In July 2002, the International Centre for Music Studies hosted the IASPM
UK and Ireland biennial
conference.
A selection of papers
given at 'See/Hear' have been published with papers given at the Royal Musical
Association's annual conference 2001, whose subject was Music and
Film, in Changing Tunes: The Use of Pre-existing Music in Film (2006),
edited by Phil Powrie and Robynn Stilwell.
Seminar Series
2001-2002 (organised by Ian Biddle & Vanessa Knights)
19 October: Theorising the
popular voice and vocality
- 'Voicing the Subject:
Psychoanalysis, Cultural Theory and Popular Song' Ian Biddle, University of
Newcastle
- 'Yummy down on this "white
boy": degradation and reclamation in alternative rock songs'
Freya Jarman and Alice Carr,
University of Newcastle
22 March: Popular musics and
gender/sexuality (in conjunction with the
Centre for Gender and Women's
Studies at Newcastle)
- 'Tears before Bedtime?:
Performance of Gender in the Caribbean Bolero' Vanessa Knights, University of
Newcastle
The Caribbean bolero is commonly
conceived of as a genre privileging unrestrained romanticism and
sentimentality. However, the desire expressed tends to be categorised as
masculine (and heterosexual). Elsewhere I have argued that the bolero can
provide a space in which women can transgress gender boundaries to openly
express sexual desire and deconstruct traditional roles. In this paper I will
focus on the contradictory aspects of the construction of masculinities
through a brief examination of bolero lyrics, vocality and performative style.
This will involve a listening exercise by the audience!
- 'Creativity, Gender and the
Professional Musician' Marion Leonard, Institute of Popular Music,
Liverpool
This paper will concentrate on
the way in which the well-worn concept of the 'creative artist' can be seen to
have material consequences for professional musicians. To refer to a
professional musician as an artist has become so commonplace that it barely
seems worth a mention. However, this label carries with it a set of
assumptions concerning creative production and social persona which can have a
determining effect on how an individual is conceptualised and treated within
the context of the music business. In particular this paper will explore how
the figure of the creative artist is tied into certain constructions of gender
and how this can affect professional working relationships.
- ' "Love me for a Reason": the
transgressive masculinity of boy band pop OR why Gareth couldn't win' Diane
Railton, University of Teesside
'Boy band', teenybop pop music
challenges ideas of what it is to be masculine. It does so by providing ways
of being male that are based on the needs and desires of young women. In this
paper I will use the example of the recent Pop Idol TV series to argue that
the threat to hegemonic masculinity posed by this type of performer is
neutralised by situating it within the genre of 'manufactured', commercial
pop. The contempt in which this type of music is held by critics and 'serious'
music fans alike serves to render the challenge of 'teenybop' harmless. Even
in as 'manufactured' and 'commercial' a setting as 'Pop Idol' issues around
hegemonic and transgressive masculinity play a central, defining role in
matters of taste and judgement.
17 May: Popular musics and
technology
- 'From compositional
interiority to irresistible fetishism in ‘Music’ Stan Hawkins, University of
Oslo and City University, London.
In considering the intricacies of
compositional design and gesture in the track ‘Music’ by Madonna, this paper
seeks to open up the debate surrounding pleasure and fetishism in pop music.
Extravagance and the gratuitousness of sampling and editing techniques
contribute to an overwhelming sense of pleasure for the fan. Musical features
of excess in the production of this track therefore provide a compelling
platform for critical reflection. What role does virtuosity play in the
efforts of Madonna to maintain her position in the pop world? With a strong
emphasis on new technology and creative plundering, her tracks can be
experienced as a fascinating trajectory of developing trends in contemporary
music. A central aim of this investigation, then, is to utilise the track
‘Music’ as a porthole into an inquiry into stylistic eclecticism through
production in pop music.
- 'Internet, Popular Music and
the Public Sphere: Case Study of a Portuguese Online Forum' Pedro Nunes,
University of Stirling
The participation of Pedro
Nunes is sponsored by Centro de Língua Portuguesa / Instituto Camões at
Newcastle
The online Forum Sons was created
as a complement to a column in the Portuguese Friday music supplement, Sons,
which covers news, interviews, articles and reviews on popular music. The
column aimed to stimulate the exchange of ideas and arguments between
journalists, artists and readers. According to one of the journalists
involved, the idea was somewhat idealistic but succeeded to an extent. The
need for a more interactive debate on particular, rather than general, topics
led to the creation of an on-line forum supposedly organized around specific
issues raised by the team responsible for the music supplement. However, since
it was launched in the on-line version of the daily newspaper, Forum Sons
became progressively self-managed by its participants. What started as a
public space for debate, where journalists would be heading interactive
arguments and readers with an interest in popular music issues would be able
to express points of view, soon became a private community with only one
journalist as a regular participant and a group of about 15 to 20 readers
contributing regularly, almost on a daily basis. With a recent change of
format that made it more accessible, the core of participants has increased to
about 40 and the forum seems more pluralist than ever before. This paper
assesses the contribution this forum can bring to arguments regarding the
notion of public sphere (Habermas) by relating the discourse found in the
forum with that of the music supplement which launched it. A case-study of
Forum Sons would address the following questions: a) Is there space for
rationality in discussions in popular music? b) What can on-line forums do
about it? c) More broadly, does on-line communication marginalize or bring
taste cultures to the public sphere? d) How can Forum Sons give a positive
contribution to the public sphere?
- 'Electronica: Form + Function
= Tranquility' Matthew Sansom, University of Newcastle.
What is Electronica? Circulating within
post-rave sensibilities and late-twentieth/early-twenty-first subjectivities,
what does this music speak to and of? Is it balm for the ongoing ideologies
brought to the fore during eighties and nineties (in particular, Possessive
Individualism and Ecstasy-induced visions of community), functioning as some
kind of cure for or companion in the tensions of an 'ideology-hangover'? More
explicitly, in what ways might it be understood to mediate contemporary
negotiations of social identity that reflect and shape post-modern
subjectivities? Following a discussion of a T-shirt, an image, the formula of
the paper's title, the author's compositional process, and a musical example,
this paper discusses these ideas in relation to selected musical
characteristics of Electronica and its cultural and historical
location.
Occasional
Seminars 2003-4
Seminars run in
conjunction with the International Centre for Music Studies:
Full possession of our musical heritage: Authenticity and the English Folk
Revival
Georgina Boyes (National Centre for English Cultural Tradition, University of
Sheffield)
9th October 2003
When a journalist sang: Burton Crane, the first successful American singer in
Japan
Harumichi Yamada (Tokyo Keizai University)
30th October 2003
"Impassioned by song." Shepherds, nationalists, world music, and the evolution
of polyphonic singing in Corsica
Caroline Bithell (University of Wales)
5th February 2004
Music in Afghanistan in the post-Taliban era
John Baily (Goldsmiths College, University of London)
19th February 2004
Music Listening and Television
Keith Negus (Goldsmiths College, University of London)
4th March 2004
Film music and the musical icon
Michael Chanan (University of West of England)
18th March 2004
Additional seminars:
Contemporary Trends in
Urban Andean Popular Music in Peru
José Antonio Llorens
23 January 2004
Conferences
Popular Music and National Identities
(organised by Ian Biddle, Hugh
Dauncey & Vanessa Knights)
On Monday 11 and
Tuesday 12 September 2000, the School of
Modern Languages and the International
Centre for Music Studies of the University of
Newcastle hosted an international and interdisciplinary conference on
popular music and national identity (partly subsidised by the Society for French
Studies). The conference examined popular musics and
song from all over the world in their social, musical and political contexts.
Thirty speakers contributed to the discussions, with papers ranging from
analyses of the cultural and ideological implications of 'collaboration'
by popular chanteurs during the Nazi Occupation of France to studies of
the social significance of Banda music in Los Angeles, Brazilian Samba
and the enduring fascination of the Moorsoldatenlied sung by labour-camp
workers in Nazi Germany. Ten papers dealt specifically with France,
three with Spain, five with Germany, and a dozen considered various
manifestations of popular music in Latin America. The Plenary discussion
which closed the conference identified a number of interesting themes
which had arisen during the two days of discussions, including: the
problem of interdisciplinarity and finding a common discourse or
vocabulary for talking about music; the need to restore discussion of
the national within debates about globality; popular music as a
contested terrain for the production of meaning mythology and the
musical tradition; the difficulty of deconstructing whilst strategically
using terms such as authenticity, identity, and the popular, and debates
around structural analysis.
See/Hear: Film and Music
(organised by Vanessa Knights
& Phil Powrie)
On Thursday 9 and
Friday 10 November 2000, the Popular Music and Song project and the
Centre for Research into Film
(Newcastle University) hosted a conference on the theme of music and film
entitled See/Hear: Music and Film. The conference covered many areas of
music and film, both from scholars working in film studies with an
interest in the interface between music and film, as well as musicologists with interests in
film.
IASPM UK and
Ireland Conference
In July 2002, the International Centre for Music Studies hosted the IASPM
UK and Ireland biennial
conference.
Popular Musics of the
Hispanic and Lusophone Worlds (organised by Ian Biddle and Vanessa
Knights)
14th-16th July 2006, the network hosted
a conference on popular musics of Hispanic and Lusophone worlds. Some
80 delegates from all over the world delivered papers on popular music
in Spanish, Portuguese and English. Click here
for our new conference 2006 pages.
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