Popular Music - Current Issue

Volume 27 Issue 01

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Popular Music, Volume 27 Issue 01

Popular Music is an international multi-disciplinary journal covering all aspects of the subject - from the formation of social group identities through popular music, to the workings of the global music industry, to how particular pieces of music are put together. The journal includes all kinds of popular music, whether rap or rai, jazz or rock, from any historical era and any geographical location. Popular Music carries articles by scholars from a large variety of disciplines and theoretical perspectives. Each issue contains substantial, authoritative and influential articles, shorter topical pieces, and reviews of a wide range of books.

Sky of blue, sea of green: a semiotic reading of the film Yellow Submarine

Research Articles
MARIANNE TATOM LETTS,
Popular Music, Volume 27 Issue 01 , pp 1-14

Abstract
The Beatles vernacular Yellow Submarine hero from existing Beatles songs. This article discusses how the musical codes that symbolise different groups are used to mediate between divergent elements in both the film and contemporary society, by referring to such elements beyond the film as the Beatles classical vernacular s Lonely Hearts Club Band). The Beatles are able to free Pepperland by manipulating and ultimately uniting the musical codes real world to heed.

Abiding memories: the community singing movement and English social life in the 1920s

Research Articles
DAVE RUSSELL,
Popular Music, Volume 27 Issue 01 , pp 117-133

Abstract
The community singing movement was a distinctive feature of English popular musical life in the mid-1920s. Although initiated by individuals who saw it as essentially educational, it was rapidly appropriated by sections of the press, and especially the Daily Express, as an instrument in the circulation wars of the period. It was typified by a restricted range of music comprising songs, hymns (with the performance of at the FA Cup Final singing particularly important), and songs of the First World War. This mixture and the concomitant neglect of modern popular song reflects the rather nostalgic thrust behind activities, with calls for community singing to recreate a that would heal the deep social divisions of the 1920s. Whether the singers were fully aware of these various musical and socio-political agendas is unclear, but community singing undoubtedly enjoyed a period of considerable popularity, with the music appreciated for allowing displays of individual and collective emotion.

Black, white and blue: the racial antagonism of The Smiths’ record sleeves

Research Articles
ANDREW WARNES,
Popular Music, Volume 27 Issue 01 , pp 135-149

Abstract
As Matthew Bannister has recently suggested in these pages (see Popular Music, 25/1), The Smiths stand at the head of a 1980s Indie canon based on its rejection of a commodification associated with contemporary black US musics. This article argues that this racial understanding has also bled into the band s record sleeves together form a kind of smokescreen, or , which stokes interest in Morrissey s Black Atlantic sources. The pre-immigrant Britain summoned up by these icons, I argue, helps prevent fans and critics alike from grasping that Morrissey s lyrical attempts to find humour and succour by remembering pain is profoundly inspired by the African-American form of the Blues.

2·5×6 metres of space: Japanese music coffeehouses and experimental practices of listening

Research Articles
DAVID NOVAK,
Popular Music, Volume 27 Issue 01 , pp 15-34

Abstract
This article describes a specific history of technological mediation in the circulation of popular music by examining local practices of listening to recordings in Japanese kissaten (often shortened to kissa and meaning, loosely, ). In postwar music kissaten, Japanese listeners were socialised to recordings of foreign music through new modes of hyper-attentive listening. While jazz kissa (though famous as crucibles for radical pro-democracy politics and the explosion of modern urban cool in post-war Japanese cities) encouraged local listeners to develop musical appreciation through the stylistic classification of distant recorded sources, later experimental music kissa helped forge unique local performance scenes by disturbing received modes of generic classification in favour of . I recount the emergence of a genre called in the story of a 1970s Kyoto kissa Drugstore, whose countercultural clientele came to represent as a new musical style in its transnational circulation during the 1990s. This ethnographic history presents the music kissa as a complicated translocal site that articulates the cultural marginality of Japanese popular music reception in an uneven global production; but which also helps to develop virtuosic experimental practices of listening through which imported recordings are recontextualised, renamed and recreated.

Que viva la música popular! International Association for the Study of Popular music, 14th Biennial Conference, 25–29 June 2007, Mexico City

In Brief
Rupert Till, Jan Fairley,
Popular Music, Volume 27 Issue 01 , pp 151-154

Abstract

West Indian Rhythm: Trinidad Calypsos on World and Local Events Featuring the Censored Recordings – 1938–1940, compiled and commented by The Classic Calypso Collective. Bear Family Records. BCD 16623 JM. ISBN: 978–3-89916–229–5

Review Articles
Jocelyne Guilbault,
Popular Music, Volume 27 Issue 01 , pp 155-157

Abstract

Arsenio Rodríguez and the Transnational Flows of Latin Popular Music. By David F. García. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006. xii+210 pp. ISBN 1 59213 386 X (pb)

Book Reviews
David-Emil Wickström,
Popular Music, Volume 27 Issue 01 , pp 159-160

Abstract

Choro, A Social History of a Brazilian Popular Music. By Tamara Elena Livingston-Isenhour and Thomas George Caracas García. Indiana University Press, 2005. 253 pp. ISBN 0-253-34541-3 (pb)

Book Reviews
Jan Fairley,
Popular Music, Volume 27 Issue 01 , pp 160-163

Abstract

The Mediterranean in Music: Critical Perspectives, Common Concerns, Cultural Differences. Edited by David Cooper and Kevin Dawe. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2005. 247 pp. ISBN 0-8108-5407-4

Book Reviews
Catherine Baker,
Popular Music, Volume 27 Issue 01 , pp 163-165

Abstract

The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes from Double-dutch to Hip-hop. By Kyra D. Gaunt. New York: New York University Press, 2006. xv + 221 pp. ISBN-10: 0-8147-3120-1 (pb)

Book Reviews
Dana Baitz,
Popular Music, Volume 27 Issue 01 , pp 165-167

Abstract

Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization. By Ian Condry. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006. 249 pp. ISBN-10: 0-8223-3892-0 (pb)

Book Reviews
Shara Rambarran,
Popular Music, Volume 27 Issue 01 , pp 167-169

Abstract

To The Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic. By William Jelani Cobb. New York & London: New York University Press, 2007. 199 pp. ISBN 978-0-8147-1670-0 (cloth: alk. paper)

Book Reviews
Justin Williams,
Popular Music, Volume 27 Issue 01 , pp 169-172

Abstract

A National Acoustics. Music and Mass Publicity in Weimar and Nazi Germany. By Brian Currid. Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press, 2006. 279 pp. ISBN 0-8166-4042-4 (pb) ISBN 0-8166-4041-6 (hb)

Book Reviews
Ilona van de Bildt,
Popular Music, Volume 27 Issue 01 , pp 172-173

Abstract

Immigration and American Popular Culture: An Introduction. By Rachel Rubin and Jeffrey Melnick. New York and London: New York University Press, 2007. 302 pp. ISBN 0-8147-7552-3 (pb: alk. paper)

Book Reviews
Eric Chong,
Popular Music, Volume 27 Issue 01 , pp 174-175

Abstract

The Musical: Race, Gender and Performance. Short Cuts Introductions to Film Studies 26. By Susan Smith. London and New York: Wallflower, 2005. 130 pp. ISBN 1-904764-37-1

Book Reviews
William A. Everett,
Popular Music, Volume 27 Issue 01 , pp 175-177

Abstract

The New Blue Music: Changes in Rhythm & Blues, 1950–1999. By Richard J. Ripani. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2006. ISBN 1-57806-862-2 (pb)

Book Reviews
Maria Hanáček,
Popular Music, Volume 27 Issue 01 , pp 177-179

Abstract

True to the Roots: Americana Music Revealed. By Monte Dutton. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2006. 211 pp. ISBN 0-8032-6661-8 (pb)

Book Reviews
Richard Elliott,
Popular Music, Volume 27 Issue 01 , pp 179-181

Abstract

White Boys, White Noise: Masculinities and 1980s Indie Guitar Rock. By Matthew Bannister. Aldershot, UK and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2006. 200 pp. ISBN 0-7546-5188-6

Book Reviews
Simon Warner,
Popular Music, Volume 27 Issue 01 , pp 181-182

Abstract

David Bowie: Fame, Sound and Vision. By Nick Stevenson. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2006. 217 pp. ISBN 10 07456-2940-7 (pb)

Book Reviews
Nicholas Greco,
Popular Music, Volume 27 Issue 01 , pp 183-184

Abstract

U2 and Philosophy. How to Decipher an Atomic Band. Edited by Mark A. Wrathall. Chigaco and La Salle, Illinois: Open Court, 2006. 228 pp

Book Reviews
Kimi Kärki,
Popular Music, Volume 27 Issue 01 , pp 184-186

Abstract

Music, National Identity and the Politics of Location – Between the Global and the Local. Edited by Ian Biddle and Vanessa Knights Hampshire, Burlington: Ashgate, 2007. xii+251 pp. ISBN 978 0 7546 4055 4 (hb)

Book Reviews
David-Emil Wickström,
Popular Music, Volume 27 Issue 01 , pp 186-188

Abstract

Sound, text and identity in Korn’s ‘Hey Daddy’

Research Articles
JONATHAN PIESLAK,
Popular Music, Volume 27 Issue 01 , pp 35-52

Abstract
Most of the existing literature on metal approaches the subject from a sociological, anthropological or historical perspective, dedicating more attention to the surrounding musical (sub)cultures and their transformations than to the songs and music itself. This essay addresses this gap in recent metal scholarship by examining issues of sound, text and identity in one of the most influential and popular metal bands of the post-grunge era, Korn. I interpret possible meanings within , a track from Issues (1999), based on the relationships among the music, both as pitch and sound/timbre, and the text. In addition, I explore different processes of identification, offering an assessment of identification in the genre of metal and challenges in respect to listener identity in .

Examining rhythmic and metric practices in Led Zeppelin’s musical style

Research Articles
JOHN BRACKETT,
Popular Music, Volume 27 Issue 01 , pp 53-76

Abstract
In this essay, I examine how aspects of rhythm and metre play a fundamental role in shaping and defining Led Zeppelin s flexible conception of rhythm and metre enabled the band to put their own stylistic on (i) specific musical genres ( and the song Black Dog s ), and (iii) their cover versions ( ). Drawing upon my analytical points, I re-visit the complex issues that persist regarding the possibility that Led Zeppelin even has an or style given their often overt reliance upon earlier musical models and forms. Therefore, in my conclusion, I argue that the development of any artist or group features such as rhythm and metre in novel ways and where issues relating to musical style intersect with influence.

Cliff Richard’s self-presentation as a redeemer

Research Articles
ANJA LÖBERT,
Popular Music, Volume 27 Issue 01 , pp 77-97

Abstract
Although tremendously popular, Great Britain s image such as the (apparently) incorruptible body, the asexuality, and the demonstrative benevolence towards the sick and poor. The combination of these sign-complexes creates a meaningful pattern around the singer that sets him apart as a surrogate saviour.

The medium and materials of popular music: ‘Hound Dog’, turntablism and muzak as situated musical practices

Research Articles
CHARLES FAIRCHILD,
Popular Music, Volume 27 Issue 01 , pp 99-116

Abstract
Popular music studies has rarely exhibited the kinds of disciplinary coherence found in closely related disciplines mostly due to the field popular music Hound Dog turntablism , and the exigencies of Muzak as examples for analysis offering ways in which the aesthetic, material and contextual aspects of popular music can be understood in order to incorporate the actual sound of music into the analysis of its social, cultural and musical construction.