166 research outputs found
Introduction: the mediations of music and alcohol
No full textThis is the introduction to a special edition of Popular Music focused on the theme of 'Popular Music and Alcohol' edited by Keith Negus and John Street
Creativity, Communication and Musical Experience
No full textCreativity is one of the most important yet unexplored issues in the study of popular music. Its significance is routinely noted, usually in passing, and its value often taken for granted. Its conceptual status in music studies is that of an unquestioned commonplace. Most of all, it is raised in reference to what is taken to be in opposition to it, to what is held as restricting or obstructing its realisation and potential. This may be the obtuseness of executive managers, the interference of moral guardians, the financial imperatives driving the global entertainment industry, or any number of other factors or forces. Creativity is then invoked as a lucky talisman in a critical argument about something else. What it involves in its own right or what meanings it is made to carry are seldom subject to any critical attention. This neglect may be due, at least in part, to the difficulties associated with the term, for as soon as we start to look at all closely at the idea of creativity, we quickly become aware of a plethora of contradictory images and associations, assertions and judgements. If these are part of the problem, they cannot be negotiated simply by turning away and passing on to what are deemed to be more pressing concerns. In this chapter we want to begin grappling with all that is caught up in the concept of musical creativity, however difficult this may be.
The Work of Cultural Intermediaries and the Enduring Distance between Production and Consumption
No full textThis article raises some critical questions about cultural intermediaries as both a descriptive label and analytic concept. In doing so, it has two main aims. First, it seeks to provide some clarification, critique and suggestions that will assist in the elaboration of this idea and offer possible lines of enquiry for further research. Second, it is argued that whilst studying the work of cultural intermediaries can provide a number of insights, such an approach provides only a partial account of the practices that continue to proliferate in the space between production and consumption. Indeed, in significant ways, a focus on cultural intermediaries reproduces rather than bridges the distance between production and consumption. The paper focuses on three distinct issues. First, some questions are raised about the presumed special significance of cultural intermediaries within the production/consumption relations of contemporary capitalism. Second, how 'creative' and active cultural intermediaries are within processes of cultural production is discussed. Third, specific strategies of inclusion/exclusion adopted by this occupational grouping are highlighted in order to suggest that access to work providing 'symbolic goods and services' is by no means as fluid or open as is sometimes claimed
Bob Dylan
No full textIn this study Keith Negus takes issue with those authors who treat Bob Dylan as a poet and who obsess over his lyrics on the page, and instead treats him first and foremost as a musician and his songs as music – the words sounds, rhythms and tunes in the air. This book explores those dimensions of Dylan songs that are so readily apparent to listeners but which have received little attention, stressing the importance of Dylan’s melodies, rhythms, instrumental textures, and the musicality of his performing voice. The book explores the way Dylan musical sensibility has been shaped by blues and folk ballad traditions, his songs quite often deliberately constructed from existing elements. Although appreciated according to the criteria of rock criticism with its emphasis on the apparent originality of musicians who write their own songs, this book emphasises how Dylan has always followed a songwriting philosophy drawn from folk music, working with and re-using existing songs, forms and styles. Dylan has created a unique performing identity by intensely personalising borrowed musical and lyrical phrases, the tunes and riffs. Negus stresses how performance is central to Dylan’s life as a musician and songwriter, indicating the way Dylan has created distinct musical textures through his arrangements and productions on studio recordings, as well as detailing the way Dylan has treated his songs as continually open to change and re-arrangement in live shows
Music Genres and Corporate Cultures
No full textMusic Genres and Corporate Cultures explores the seemingly haphazard workings of the music industry, tracing the uneasy relationship between economics and culture. Keith Negus examines the contrasting strategies of major labels. Through in-depth case studies of three major genres; rap, country, and salsa, Negus explores the way in which the music industry recognises and rewards certain sounds, and how this influences both the creativity of musicians, and their audiences. He examines the tension between raps public image as the spontaneous `music of the streets' and the practicalities of the market, and asks why country labels and radio stations promote top-selling acts like Garth Brooks over hard-to-classify artists like Mary Chapin-Carpenter, and how the lack of soundscan systems in Puerto Rican record shops affects salsa music's position on the US Billboard chart. Drawing on over seventy interviews with music industry personnel in Britain and the United States, Music Genres and Corporate Cultures shows how the creation, circulation and consumption of popular music is shaped by record companies and corporate business styles while stressing that music production takes within a broader culture, not totally within the control of large corporations
Keith Negus, Bob Dylan
No full textWhen, during a performance in 1964, Bob Dylan was recorded referring to a “Bob Dylan mask”, he provided a perfect soundbite for later critics keen to highlight the artist’s seemingly deliberate manipulation of his audience’s expectations. Keith Negus’s short, lucid analysis of Dylan as popular music icon opens with a discussion of the mask quip, the importance granted to it by previous Dylan commentators and the usefulness of biographical information in explaining the work of public figures. ..
Sydney S. Negus Memorial Lecture: John Clayton (as portrayed by Richard Cheatham)
No full textFor the Negus Lecture, Richard Cheatham portrays the 18th century colonial Virginia Botanist John Clayton, co-author of the Flora Virginica, the first flora of Virginia last published in 1762
Authorship and the Popular Song
No full textWithin the broad field of musicology and music criticism the author as creative originator and authority remains a central figure. Yet sociologists have been sceptical of the emphasis placed on authorship in the arts and humanities, and argued that creativity, artworks and artistic reputations are produced through social processes and struggles. Meanwhile, a strand of cultural theory has followed Barthes’ pronouncement of ‘the death of the author’ and deemed authorship irrelevant to critical debate about meaning and value. In this article I advocate an intermediate or mediating approach, attuned to the insights from both musicology and sociology, and suggest ways that concepts drawn from the study of fictional narrative can be used to ‘unbundle’ the author. Through this I open up a series of questions about how authorship is constructed, conveyed, communicated and contested through the mediations of pop songs and identities of songwriters
Musicians on Television: Visible, Audible and Ignored
No full textMaking use of material from the BBC Archives, this article focuses on the dilemmas, problems and possibilities experienced by practitioners and programmers as musicians appeared on BBC television broadcasts from 1936.
This is an edited and slightly revised version of an article that started life as a public lecture at Goldsmiths, University of London (‘Shot From Both Sides: Musicians on Television’, 1 February 2005). It was then developed further and published in the Journal of the Royal Musical Association as ‘Musicians on Television: Visible, Audible and Ignored’ (Vol 131 No 2, 2006). For the original published article follow this link - http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1093/jrma/fkl005 I have edited out what I now consider to be some unnecessary theoretical waffle, and added a few details. If anyone spots any errors, or has any suggestions for improvements please email me at [email protected] All BBC Archive material is cited with permission
Bob Dylan's Phonographic Imagination
No full textIn this article I emphasize the deliberate and reflexive way that Bob Dylan has approached studio recording, sketching features of a phonographic aesthetic, to highlight a neglected aspect of Dylan’s creative practice and to counter the view of Dylan as primarily a ‘performing artist’, one who approaches the studio in a casual manner as a place to cut relatively spontaneous drafts of songs that are later developed on stage. Drawing on Evan Eisenberg’s discussion of the ‘art of phonography’, and the way recording radically separates a performance from its contexts of ‘origin’ (allowing recordings to be taken into a private space and subjected to intense, repeated listening), I argue that studio practice, a recording aesthetic and the art of phonography are integral to Dylan’s songwriting. The process and practice of songwriting is realised through the act of recording and informed by listening to songs and performances from recordings, regardless of how much time is actually spent in the studio. Exploring how Dylan’s phonographic imagination has been shaped by folk, blues and pop sonorities, along with film music, I argue that recording should be integrated into discussions of Dylan’s art, alongside the attention devoted to lyrics, performance and biography
- …
