-
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE
This article was downloaded by: [Columbia University]On: 22 May
2009Access details: Access Details: [subscription number
907055525]Publisher RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and
Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer
House,37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
Popular Music and SocietyPublication details, including
instructions for authors and subscription
information:http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713689465
Reading between the lines: Music and noise in hegemony and
resistancePaul R. Kohl aa Department of Communication Arts, Loras
College, Dubuque, Iowa
Online Publication Date: 01 September 1997
To cite this Article Kohl, Paul R.(1997)'Reading between the
lines: Music and noise in hegemony and resistance',Popular Music
andSociety,21:3,3 17To link to this Article: DOI:
10.1080/03007769708591676URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03007769708591676
Full terms and conditions of use:
http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf
This article may be used for research, teaching and private
study purposes. Any substantial orsystematic reproduction,
re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic
supply ordistribution in any form to anyone is expressly
forbidden.
The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or
make any representation that the contentswill be complete or
accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae
and drug dosesshould be independently verified with primary
sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss,actions,
claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or
howsoever caused arising directlyor indirectly in connection with
or arising out of the use of this material.
-
Reading between the Lines:Music and Noise in Hegemony and
Resistance
Paul R. Kohl
One of the essential components of being human is the creation
ofsymbolic systems that allow us the ability to think not only of
what is,but of what was and what can be, even of what can never be.
This qual-ity is often a double-edged sword, however, when it leads
to the creationof hierarchy, the dividing of humankind's
environment, individuals, andartifacts into categories that often
have negative consequences. Philoso-phers and literary critics of
the past century have investigated such cul-turally constructed
categories in order to illuminate their artificiality,causing many
to be erased or rewritten. But such distinctions also illumi-nate
the true underlying differences in cultures. Ideological
distinctions,for instance, such as liberal versus conservative,
offer a sense-makingschema for a world still constantly dividing
itself. Cultural artifactsthemselves are useful ideological
constructs. As an artistic and culturalform music can be a valuable
tool for reading ideological intentions andthe changing political
and economic tenor of the times. This is evident inits own
development and written history as music itself has been end-lessly
categorized and divided against itself.
Music is, of course, divided into a multitude of categories,
mainlyfor purposes of marketing. A glance at any recent issue of
Billboard willgive evidence of the range and scope of today's
musical product. Evenmajor genres like rock are broken up into
myriad subgenres like punk,techno, metal, hard, and pop. These
categories are all meaningful, butrather than looking at such
distinctions I wish to explore a few majordichotomies that have
arisen in cultural analyses of music. Many ofthese are tied to
purely musical ideas, but it is their cultural meaningsthat are
important here.
Carl Dahinaus traced one of the most significant musical
distinc-tions in his book The Idea of Absolute Music. Dahlhaus here
explores thedevelopment of the notion of absolute music in
classical forms, notingthat "According to Arnold Schering, not
until around 1800 'does the per-nicious spectre of dualism between
'applied' (dependent) and 'absolute'music enter European musical
awareness, leading to serious conflicts"
3
Downlo
aded
By:
[Co
lumb
ia U
nive
rsit
y] A
t: 0
6:57
22
May
2009
Desiderio NavarroCentro Criterios
Desiderio NavarroCopyright
-
4 Popular Music and Society
(8-9). The conflict itself arises out of the importance of
symbolic sys-tems and music's own place within them. Before 1800
music matteredmost if it was tied to some extramusical content,
some language meaningthat would accompany the listener. "Music
without language was there-fore reduced," Dahinaus states, "its
nature constricted: a deficient type ormere shadow of what music
actually is" (8). Absolute music, to the con-trary, had no meaning
outside itself. Devoid of even such guides tomeaning as a title,
works such as Beethoven's Fifth Symphony conveyed"essences" rather
than "appearances" and hence reached deeper than lan-guage ever
could (Dahlhaus 10).
European thinkers eventually elevated the idea of absolute music
asthe purest form of art for art's sake. The dichotomy led to
philosophicalarguments ever since as to the superiority of one form
over the other.Roland Barthes, however, in the essay "Musica
Practica," makes a com-pletely different distinction between music
one listens to and music oneplays. "These two musics are two
totally different arts," he explains,"each with its own history,
its own sociology, its own aesthetics, its ownerotic" (149).
Barthes's concept of music that one plays is somewhatarchaic by
today's standards and he admits as much. "This music
hasdisappeared," he writes (149). Though individuals obviously
still playfor themselves, family, and friends, our modern world has
been over-whelmed by a professional musical caste that entertains
from afar andfor profit. Curiously, Barthes blames (or credits) the
same individual forthis change to whom Dahlhaus attributes the
creation of absolute music:Beethoven. The power of Beethoven's
music is such, according toBarthes, "that it forsakes the amateur
and seems, in an initial moment, tocall on the new Romantic deity,
the interpreter" (152).
The ideas of Dahlhaus and Barthes lay some groundwork for
look-ing at one of the more crucial distinctions in popular music,
that betweenauthenticity and inauthenticity. As Simon Frith has
noted, "The impor-tant question is not whether one piece of music
is more authentic thananother... but why authenticity is an issue
in popular culture, why somesorts of inauthenticity are more
suggestive than others" (471). MichaelJarrett likewise notes the
importance of the division, but as he and Frithboth suggest, the
categories are in no way distinct: "I want to emphasizethe overlap
of 'authentic' and 'commercial' music. Only by unsettlingthis
opposition can we begin to rethink a cultural model. . ."
(170).
The question of authenticity is important in music because of
itsdirect relation to economics and industrialization. As music is
commodi-fied it is seen as losing its power with the people and
instead becomespart of a greater ideology, a hegemonic tool of
sorts. This is the argu-ment of Jacques Attli, who traces the shift
in music from a cultural form
Downlo
aded
By:
[Co
lumb
ia U
nive
rsit
y] A
t: 0
6:57
22
May
2009
-
Reading between the Lines 5
which provides ritualistic force to one which predicts a
capitalist eco-nomic system. As Attli states, "A dynamic of codes,
foreshadowingcrises in political economy, is at work within music"
(31). A brief look atAttali's codes will create a new set of
distinctions by means of which todiscuss issues of authenticity
which have been previously raised.
Attli 's Four Musical NetworksIn his book Noise: The Political
Economy of Music, Attli defines
four historical stages of music production, each of which
creates a par-ticular relationship, or network, between individuals
and their socialorganizations. The first of these networks,
preindustrial in origin, is thesacrificial ritual. Attli begins his
thesis with the notion of noise as aform of murder, a violent
rupture in the otherwise peaceful fabric ofexistence. Borrowing
from information theory, Attli conceptualizesnoise in part as "the
term for a signal that interferes with the reception ofa message by
a receiver, even if the interfering signal itself has a mean-ing
for that receiver" (27). As Stuart Hall reminds us, a message is
neverreceived or decoded as it was encoded, so noise, it would
appear, isalways present at some level. Harnessing this noise, in
part, is one of theritualistic functions of music: "the whole of
traditional musicology ana-lyzes music as the organization of
controlled panic, the transformation ofanxiety into joy, and of
dissonance into harmony" (Attli 27).
So if noise is a form of murder to Attli, then the harmonizing
of noiseinto musical sounds is a form of sacrifice, an intentional
breaking ofsilence for the purpose of control. Such is the origin
of the ritualisticuses of music that predate the industrial age.
Even more importantly,Attli suggests that "music appears in myth as
an affirmation that soci-ety is possible. That is the essential
thing. Its order simulates the socialorder, and its dissonances
express marginalities. The code of music simu-lates the accepted
rules of society" (29). So it is that the later musicalnetworks
that Attli proposes reflect changing political and
economicsystems.
In eighteenth-century Europe music became representation
andcommodity. That is, it became a form of greater
professionalizationwhich demanded a greater separation between
performer and audience.This necessitated the beginning of musical
exchange value as musiciansbegan working for patrons and royalty.
As Attli explains, such arrange-ments led to ideological uses of
music, as well: "This evolution of theeconomy of music is
inseparable from the evolution of codes and thedominant musical
aesthetic," as each "specific type of musical distribu-tion and
musical code [is] associated with each social organization"(46).
With music now formalized in concert halls or cabarets, a series
of
Downlo
aded
By:
[Co
lumb
ia U
nive
rsit
y] A
t: 0
6:57
22
May
2009
-
6 Popular Music and Society
controls began to be manifested around it, as Attali's anecdotes
on thenineteenth century regulation of Parisian street performers
portray (72-77).
Music as representation held sway over the nineteenth century,
butas the industrial revolution took hold a new way of listening to
musicemerged. The phonograph paved the way for Attali's third
musical code,repetition. In this network a musical work is wholly
commodified,removed from any physical context of time or space, and
even moreimportantly, capable of being stockpiled for future
listening. It is Attali'scontention that music in this form
produces an entirely new economicsystem, one reflected in Marx's
concept of commodity fetishism. Thecommodity itself is removed from
the workmanship which created it andbecomes a spontaneous object.
Under repetition, Attli states, "musicbecomes a monologue. It
becomes a material object of exchange andprofit, without having to
go through the long and complex detour of thescore and performance
anymore" (88).
The network of repetition cannot last forever, however,
according toAttli, and he supposes a fourth musical code that will
eventually sup-plant it. Composition, he admits, "is not easy to
conceptualize. All politi-cal economy up to the present day, even
the most radical, has denied itsexistence and rejected its
political organization" (134). Composition is areturn to personal
usage and meaning in music, an escape from the eco-nomic and
political structures that have arisen around music the previous500
years. It is not a return to the ritual of the past, however, but
anescape from all prior codes, "when music, extricating itself from
thecodes of sacrifice, representation, and repetition, emerges as
an activitythat is an end in itself, that creates its own code at
the same time as thework" (135).
Attali's notion of composition is certainly a heartening one, as
indi-viduals create, perform, and listen to music for its own ends,
no longerproducing distinctions between producers, commodities, and
audiences.It is a network that Attli sees evolving in the new
compositional andperforming styles and philosophies of John Cage
and the free jazz artistsof the 1960s and in the noise manifestoes
and instruments of Luigi Rus-solo. These and many other radical
breaks in music-making are indeedliberating, and Attali's
conceptions of the four networks and their pro-gression are
illuminating. But, like other categorical systems, theycannot be
read as absolute. The compositional mode was doubtless ineffect
even at the height of representation and repetition. What
makescomposition prevalent at this juncture in history, as Attli
admits, is theachievement of the previous networks' goals:
"Representation made rep-etition possible by means of the stockpile
it constituted. And repetition
Downlo
aded
By:
[Co
lumb
ia U
nive
rsit
y] A
t: 0
6:57
22
May
2009
-
Reading between the Lines 7
created the necessary conditions for composition by organizing
an amaz-ing increase in the availability of music" (136).
Ironically, then, it isindustrialization and technology that
provide the conditions for theirtranscendence in addition to the
need for that transcendence.
The history of popular music can certainly be illuminated by
usingAttali's codes in conjunction with some of the other
distinctions musicol-ogists have devised. What is important in
looking at here is that not onlydoes music foreshadow economic and
political systems, as Attli sug-gests, it also resists and reacts
against them. As Susanne Langer writes inPhilosophy in a New Key,
"If music has any significance, it is semantic,not symptomatic"
(185). Attali's compositional mode is highly political,but wrapped
as it is in the trappings of previous modes, one must askhow
liberating it can truly be. I wish to parse this question out by
lookingat the universal tension between music as authentic voice
and as com-mercial commodity, a tension which has long been
contemporaneous.
What Is Authenticity?Music has for so long been tied up in a
system of economics and
commodification that these conditions cannot be held as criteria
for amusical work either being or not being authentic. What is held
up, how-ever, is the point of origin of musical styles and works.
One point oforigin seen as authentic is the African-American
experience as mani- fested in the blues and related genres. As
Michael Jarrett notes,
For me (a white, male, and, now, middle-aged music consumer),
"music asexpression" has always meant African-American music. It
was "authentic," agenuine outpouring of real feeling (quality is a
result of closeness to the blues).I have long regarded
commercialization as corruption: an "essential humanactivity"
colonized. (171)
Jarrett admits, however, that this conception is simply too
tidy. The inter-mingling of black and white musical stylings and
meanings clouds suchan easy distinction.
Rather than basing authenticity on racial or historical
origins,Simon Frith suggests looking at more local origins and
differences"between meanings grasped 'from underneath' and meanings
imposed'from on top' " (471-72). The cultural impact of
commercially successfulartists like Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Bob
Marley, Public Enemy, or Nir-vana "was not written into their music
in advance. The recognitions andresonances they caused in their
audiences were unknown until theyoccurred" (472). Though I am in
some agreement with Frith that musicostensibly created on the
streets, such as punk or rap, is more sugges-
Downlo
aded
By:
[Co
lumb
ia U
nive
rsit
y] A
t: 0
6:57
22
May
2009
-
8 Popular Music and Society
tively authentic than the studio-created worlds of groups like
Spice Girlsor the Monkees, such distinctions again get trickier as
the music industryevolves to ever more postmodern lengths towards
what Lawrence Gross-berg calls "authentic inauthenticity"
(224).
Why is such a distinction important if a distinction cannot
truly bemade? The answer lies, I believe, in the contention that
music can haveboth a hegemonic and a liberating effect, often at
the same time. JohnFiske's work on the contradictions of popular
culture makes it clear thatin order to support itself a capitalist
system must provide products whichcontradict its goals, thus
providing the spectacle of megacorporationsreleasing anticorporate
songs by the Clash, the Sex Pistols, and Gang ofFour, or hegemonic
institutions like Geffen and CBS Records releasingantiauthoritarian
works by N.W.A. and Public Enemy. Are these authen-tic statements
or are they compromised by the distribution system ofwhich they are
a part? Do bands lose authenticity when they move to amajor label?
What could be more authentic, however, than Kurt Cobainsinging "All
Apologies" on the last track of In Utero, his last albumbefore
killing himself, giving truth to his psychological battles?
Thesestatements of authenticity are all part of Attali's network of
repetition,however, a network in which works are stockpiled and
their messagesforever confined in the commodity, "even the act that
is the least separa-ble from use-time: death" ( 126).
Can we have it both ways? Using Attali's notion of
composition,the suggestion would seem to be yes, and there is no
reason to believethat we haven't had it both ways all along. As
Frith states: "Pop music. . . matters because it is an important
way in which people, youngpeople in particular, accommodate
themselves to . . . the contradictionsof capitalism" (472). Despite
whatever attempts might be made, music,and especially its meanings,
cannot be controlled.
The Meaning of NoiseThe essential component in looking at music
as resistance seems to
be noise. As Attli writes, "Musicology always situates this
essentialfracture back at the entry of noise into music" (136). But
where does thisentry begin? Attli credits Russolo and his followers
in the years beforethe First World War for bringing the sounds of
the industrial world intothe concert hall, but noise was a
component of musical developmentlong before that. Jean-Jacques
Nattiez, for instance, points out that "theTristan Chord, at the
time of its creation (1859), was nothing but 'noise,'in the sense
that it was a sonorous configuration that could not be
coun-tenanced by contemporary harmonic conventions" (46). But the
notionof noise becomes critical with the rise of industrialization.
"All twenti-
Downlo
aded
By:
[Co
lumb
ia U
nive
rsit
y] A
t: 0
6:57
22
May
2009
-
Reading between the Lines 9
. eth-century music is in effect characterized by a displacement
of theboundary between 'music' and 'noise,' " according to Nattiez
(45).
There is some irony in the need for musicians to expand the
rangeof acceptable sounds in a new world clamoring with new timbres
andrhythms, but there is some necessity for it, as well. As
Mississippi bluesplayers had to electrify their instruments upon
entering the noisy night-clubs of Chicago, as hip-hop artists
compete according to who has thebest bass on the block, so those
artists who incorporate noise into theirmusic do so to gain
attention. Of course, noise need not be literally loud.Attli notes
John Cage's silent piece 4' 33" as an example of disruption,forcing
the audience to listen to themselves (136). Noise can best
bedefined here as rupture or resistance toward the dominant ideals
ofmusic, and consequently, of the larger society. What I wish to
explorefurther is the role of the third network, repetition, in the
creation ofnoise, rupture, and resistance.
As Theodore Gracyk puts forth in his volume Rhythm and Noise:An
Aesthetics of Rock, the ability to record sounds not only created
theopportunity for stockpiling recordings and removing them from
theiroriginating contexts, it also created a whole new method of
makingmusic, a method that could not be reproduced in any other
way. Record-ings become not only authentic texts, but the only
place where certainsounds and performances can be heard. As Gracyk
explains, the sound ofsuch recordings as Elvis Presley's Sun
sessions or Phil Specter's workcan only be heard on record.
Similarly, tape-manipulated songs like"Good Vibrations" or "A Day
in the Life," among many others, cannever be fully re-created in
any other manner. Thus industrial progress inrecording technology
makes way for a whole new mode of understand-ing music.
Not all recordings are like this. Many recordings reproduce
actualperformances with recording techniques used solely to fix
errors. But ashas become apparent in recent years, recordings
themselves havebecome the raw material from which other recordings
are now made.This mode of composition appears to reflect back some
of Attali's ideason the shift between musical networks. Recording
technology and itssubsequent decontextualizing of content provides
for increasing noiseand rupture of the dominant political and
economic ideology, despiteAttali's protests. It accomplishes this
through the process of mass pro-duction and the uncontrollable
nature of subsequent meanings. Theindustrial and technological
nature of the recording process provides ameans of escape from the
hegemonic meanings of mass production. Iwish to explore three ways
by which this is done: signification, sam-pling, and the rvaluation
of musical history through the compact disc.
Downlo
aded
By:
[Co
lumb
ia U
nive
rsit
y] A
t: 0
6:57
22
May
2009
-
10 Popular Music and Society
All three of these processes create ruptures between the encoded
mean-ings of mass production and decoded meanings of reception.
Signification, or the Inversion of MeaningThe tension between
music as an authentic cultural form and mass-
produced commodity can perhaps best be expressed by looking at
thenotion of signification. The idea of signification enters
popular musicthrough the introduction of African cultural forms and
traditions to theWestern world. In his study The Signifying Monkey,
Henry Louis Gates,Jr., calls signification "a uniquely black
rhetorical concept, entirely tex-tual or linguistic, by which a
second statement or figure repeats, ortropes, or reverses the
first" (49). Signifying was brought to the NewWorld by African
slaves who brought with them mythical characterswho communicated
with both gods and humans. These characters wereoften trickster
figures who played jokes on those above and on thosebelow. One such
character was Esu-Elegbara, whose unique status ofexisting in two
worlds at the same time gave him the ability to speak indifferent
languages. Gates notes that, "This probably explains why Esu'smouth
. . . sometimes appears double; Esu's discourse, metaphorically,
isdouble-voiced" (7).
Upon arriving in the New World, Africans found it necessary to
adaptEsu-Elegbara's abilities to their new situation. Faced with
circumstancesthat often demanded trickery and subterfuge,
African-American slaveslearned to speak a vernacular English which
held different meanings forthemselves than it did for their
dominators. The art of signification thusbecame a way for
African-Americans to survive in the New World byoverturning the
meanings of their masters and, in turn, tricking them.
Signifying has manifested itself in all manner of
African-Americanculture, from the early folk tales of the
Signifying Monkey and Br'erRabbit to the verbal jousting known as
"the dozens," all of which filterinto African-American musical
culture. Music has always been one ofthe most important vehicles
for signification for a number of reasons,one of which is the fact
that music was one area in which early whiteAmericans admitted that
the Negro had skill. As Lawrence Levinewrites: "White southerners,
no matter how much they might denigratethe culture and capacities
of their black bondsmen, paid tribute to theirmusical abilities"
(5). Attracted to the rhythms and harmonies that theirslaves
brought over from Africa, aware that their use improved the
dis-position and productivity of their workers, and ignorant of any
otherfunction, slave owners and other whites encouraged the
production ofmusic by Negroes. It is important to note the economic
justification usedhere; as Ben Sidran states, "These songs were
encouraged by the white
Downlo
aded
By:
[Co
lumb
ia U
nive
rsit
y] A
t: 0
6:57
22
May
2009
-
Reading between the Lines 11
man because they helped the slaves work more efficiently" (15).
Theslaves themselves had other uses in mind. Levine notes,
"Inevitably, theslaves used the subtleties of their song to comment
on the whites aroundthem with a freedom denied them in other forms
of expression" (11).African-American music forms thus became, among
other things, vehi-cles of opposition and resistance, made manifest
in an unusually candidNegro folk song:
Got one mind for white folks to see,'Nother for what I know is
me;He don't know, he don't know my mind. (Levine xiii)
Though the origins of signification predate recording
technology,mass production both disseminated the seeds of
signification and madethe device even more necessary. The hidden
meanings of African-Ameri-can culture entered into mainstream
American culture, at first slowly,eventually rapidly. By the end of
World War H, the youth of America,anxious for change and
excitement, latched onto black America's rhythmand blues, which
quickly metamorphosed into rock and roll, a music thatruptured
American culture in a major way.
One example of signification at work in modern popular music
canbe found in some of the music created in the 1960s at Berry
Gordy'sMotown Records. Gordy designed his music to be popular among
allraces, and so it was. But many secret messages of resistance and
strugglecan be found in some of the company's most popular hits.
Most appar-ent, perhaps, is Martha and the Vandellas' "Dancing in
the Street,"released in the summer of 1964. Gerald Early notes that
few African-Americans at the time took the song literally,
insisting, rather, that it was"a metaphorical theme song for black
unity and black revolution" (38).As important a black revolutionary
figure as Amiri Baraka read the songas "an evocation of
revolutionary times" (McEwen & Miller 226).
A similar reading can be made of the Four Tops' 1966 "Reach
OutI'll Be There." Greil Marcus has written that in the song "Levi
Stubbssang as if he were calling to a buddy in a firefight" (270),
and the Hol-land-Dozier-Holland production reacts to a turbulence
that is far greaterthan any mere romantic situation could be.
Stubbs's performance echoesthe despair of black Americans unable to
break through the barriers ofprejudice. As he cries out at the
song's conclusion there is a hint ofGordy himself speaking of his
own triumph in apparently overcomingthe obstacles of race.
As the black community broke itself apart in the 1960s by
seeking avariety of ways to challenge racism, such popular Suprmes
songs as
Downlo
aded
By:
[Co
lumb
ia U
nive
rsit
y] A
t: 0
6:57
22
May
2009
-
12 Popular Music and Society
"Where Did Our Love Go?," "You Can't Hurry Love," and
"SomedayWe'll Be Together" seemed to preach a message of loss,
patience, andhope that white audiences could not fully appreciate.
Berry Gordy him-self has recounted the funeral of a Chicago Black
Panther, at whose largefuneral "Someday We'll Be Together" was
played: "All these peoplewere fighting each other, but they were
all listening to Motown music"(Goldberg 71).
Not all popular music is as subtle in its signification, and
asAfrican-American music has progressed, much of it is almost
impenetra-ble to outside audiences, including free jazz and rap.
What is interestingabout much of this music is that it not only
signifies through its lyrics,but likewise through its composition
and recording practices. Thisshould become evident by looking at
the practice of sampling.
Sampling, or the Reuse of MaterialSampling has become a major
controversy in the music industry of
late, and with good cause. With the technology available to pull
soundsout of previously released recordings and reuse them, the
question ofownership becomes central, and in the dominant economic
system of ourtime ownership equals profit.
The question of who owns the rights to musical compositions
orrecordings has likewise been a pivotal point in the tensions
betweendominant cultural practices and marginalized populations.
Blues writersoften had their songs credited to others or lost out
on major profits whenwhite artists recorded their songs. The
practice of white artists coveringrhythm and blues songs served to
cheat the original artists. Even somajor a figure as Chuck Berry
had to share writing credit on his firstrecord, "Maybellene," with
disc jockey Alan Freed, who had no part inits composition (Ward,
Stokes, and Tucker 102). Such actions werefairly standard and not
limited to whites cheating blacks.
Such exploitative practices have been well-documented. On
thereverse side, African-American artists have signified on white
composi-tions by changing their structure, as well. Bebop players
like CharlieParker and Dizzy Gillespie routinely fashioned new
compositions out ofthe chord changes of Gershwin melodies like "I
Got Rhythm" and othertunes.
Of course, chord changes and rhythms cannot be copyrighted,
whilemelody and lyrics are. Thus the actions of early rap artists
escapednotice for some time as new lyrics were placed over old
beats. But aship-hop grew in popularity, the use of previously
issued recordings asmusical material became a major issue in the
recording industry. Rapgroup De La Soul, for example, were sued by
the Turtles for slowing
Downlo
aded
By:
[Co
lumb
ia U
nive
rsit
y] A
t: 0
6:57
22
May
2009
-
Reading between the Lines 13
down "You Showed Me" and using it as a new track. Not only
rapgroups are penalized, but alternative bands like Negativland,
who wereforced to recall one of their recordings after sampling U2
and the voiceof Casey Kasem.
Sampling provides a technological means to resist dominant
ideasof ownership. It is fitting that the tradition of sampling
originated inoppressed communities using the music of previously
marginalizedmusicians. Hip-hop artists on the streets of the Bronx
in the late seven-ties used the music of James Brown and Jamaican
reggae bands to backtheir messages. The manipulation of turntables
and records to create thenew music serves as an example of using
previously existing materialsfor new purposes, much as the founders
of concrete music used foundsounds in their compositions. These are
examples of what John Fiskecalls the "cultural value" of
commodities. "The original commodity (beit a television program or
pair of jeans) is, in the cultural economy, atext," he states, "a
discursive structure of potential meanings and plea-sures that
constitutes a major resource of popular culture" (27). It is "inthe
productive use of industrial commodities" where the creativity
ofpopular culture is found. "The culture of everyday life lies in
the cre-ative, discriminating use of the resources that capitalism
provides" (28).One of those resources is music, which is frequently
used to resist orredirect dominant meanings, and with the increased
stockpiling of pastrecordings for rvaluation, more and more of that
resource is available.
Rvaluation, or Rewriting Musical History on Compact DiscIn
defending themselves against illegal sampling charges, the
group
Negativland reminds us that "As Duchamp pointed out many
decadesago, the act of selection can be a form of inspiration as
original and sig-nificant as any other" (91). At its broadest this
can be taken to say thatone creates meaning simply by the selection
of content to which oneattends. Ultimately this is true, and, based
on Attali's criticism of thedecontextualized nature of recordings,
is omnipresent. But we have nowreached a new era in recording, a
new medium which is more easilymanipulable by the audience than
previous recording media of recordsand tapes.
Compact discs are revolutionary in that they have allowed for a
newway of listening to* musical history. No longer are the musical
canons ofthe past as well defined as they once were. By pushing a
few buttons onone's compact disc player, one can reprogram an
entire album with ease.The CD version of the Beatles' Sgt. Peppers
Lonely Hearts Club Bandincludes notes on the original intended
playing order of side one, fol-lowed by the suggestion to program
the player to hear this original order.
Downlo
aded
By:
[Co
lumb
ia U
nive
rsit
y] A
t: 0
6:57
22
May
2009
-
14 Popular Music and Society
Old albums are now released with alternate versions of songs, or
trackswhich were never meant to see the light of day.
Theodore Gracyk proposes an interesting problem in his
discussionof rock recordings as the essential texts over songs. One
could create a"bootleg" version of Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks,
he notes, byusing alternate takes of the album's songs. It would
not, however, beBlood on the Tracks. "My tape would be the
equivalent of showing youone of Seurat's preliminary studies for La
Grande Jatte and claimingthat it was the painting that everyone
regards as his masterpiece" (35).It is now fairly common, however,
for one to be able to perform such are-creation using newly
released material. The recently released Anthol-ogy volumes of the
Beatles contain enough outtakes that one could con-struct almost
entirely new versions of Sgt. Pepper, The White Album, orAbbey
Road. One Internet web site offers tips on tracking down theplanned
tracks for the Beach Boys' aborted Smile album, most nowavailable
commercially. Many recordings of old material are newlyenhanced for
stereo or noise reduction.
This hunger for old material is not limited to popular music.
Manu-scripts of unfinished work by Mozart and other composers are
oftenfound and performed, either unfinished or with newly fashioned
endings.Several excised bars of Rhapsody in Blue were recently put
back for thefirst time. Neither is this backlog of newly found
riches unwelcome.Musicologists and fans alike are always excited to
hear new material bya favorite artist. But these practices should
not go without some exami-nation as to what they might mean for the
listener or for the perceivedhistory of music.
David Denby, writing in The New Yorker, notes that "if you
repro-gram the order of cuts in a pop album, you dissolve the
album, at least asthe album was once conceivedas a story the artist
wanted to tell" (78).Denby gives the aforementioned Sgt. Pepper as
the most obvious exam-ple, but many more organic, concept albums
exist. Denby is, of course,correct, but anyone who would manipulate
Sgt. Pepper, Pet Sounds,Astral Weeks, or Tommy in such a manner
misses the point of thoseworks, anyway. For those who do appreciate
the structure built into suchmusical works the newfound ability to
deconstruct them accentuates thatstructure. With the growing
availability of musical resources and strate-gies for rewriting,
one does have a greater opportunity to write one'sown meaning into
a text.
The distribution of music is still a highly economic and
political act,subject to market forces. Much of musical history
remains marginalizedand difficult to access because of its relative
unpopularity. Usually this isthe music that has the most resistant
potential. But often the most unas-
Downlo
aded
By:
[Co
lumb
ia U
nive
rsit
y] A
t: 0
6:57
22
May
2009
-
Reading between the Lines 15
suming texts can become transgressive when utilized by
particular groupsor individuals. The popularity of ABBA within the
gay community, SidVicious's rendering of "My Way," and John
Coltrane's deconstruction of"My Favorite Things" are examples of
mainstream popular music beingappropriated counterculturally.
Reacting to Attali's position on the ideo-logical limitations of
reproduction, Tricia Rose writes that "Positioningrepetition in the
late capitalist markets as a consequence of that
market,marginalizes or erases alternative uses of and relationships
to repetitionthat might suggest collective resistance to that
system" (104).
Because of its development as traced by Attli, music is
moregreatly controlled and protected against legal violation than
other arts,visual arts in particular. The appropriation of "found
material" by dadaistartists like Duchamp and pop artists like
Warhol incorporates a sense ofplay with culture that musical
artists are less free to experiment with.Either artists must attain
copyright permission, flaunt the law, or disguisetheir sampling so
as to make it unrecognizable. But such play is infi-nitely
possible, both on a recording level and in the behaviors of
audi-ences. Anyone who has ever put together a mix tape can attest
to thethrill of creating a new artifact, of giving previously
released songs newmeaning in new juxtapositions. Repetition does
not restrict this practicebut makes it possible.
Ownership and MeaningThe dividing lines within music that have
been explored here are
those between types of ownership and meaning. Whether one
distin-guishes between music which is tied to an external meaning
or isabsolute and freed from defined meaning, whether one sees a
differencebetween whether one is a listener or a participant, or
whether one recog-nizes certain types of music as being more
authentic than others, owner-ship and meaning are central. There is
much power concentrated in thecultural distribution of musical
texts, as Attli demonstrates. But there isopportunity to resist
that power embedded in those texts.
In physical terms, Michel de Certeau makes a distinction
between"place" and "space." A "place" belongs to the forces of the
powerful andprovides a locale from which the powerful can perform
controlling"strategies." "Space" is the location of the weak, a
temporary shelterfrom which the residents perform resistant
"tactics." "The space of thetactic is the space of the other," de
Certeau writes. "Thus it must play onand with a terrain imposed on
it and organized by the law of a foreignpower" (37). To look at the
relationship between music and its audiencein this way is perhaps
unrealistic. Controlling concerns do use music forhegemonic
purposes, but record companies, and certainly musical artists,
Downlo
aded
By:
[Co
lumb
ia U
nive
rsit
y] A
t: 0
6:57
22
May
2009
-
16 Popular Music and Society
should not be universally characterized in this manner. Neither
do all lis-teners use music to resist domination. But elements of
this schema doexist in the production, distribution, and reception
of popular music. Thecomplexity of these interrelationships demands
more understanding ofwhat meanings are created as these aspects of
musical creation andappreciation are conjoined.
References
Attali, Jacques. Noise: The Political Economy of Music. Trans.
Brian Massumi.Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1985.
Barthes, Roland. "Musica Practica." Image-Music-Text. Trans.
Stephen Heath.New York: Noonday P, 1977. 149-54.
Dahlhaus, Carl. The Idea of Absolute Music. Trans. Roger Lustig.
Chicago: U ofChicago P, 1989.
de Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life. Trans. Steven
Rendall.Berkeley: U of California P, 1984.
Denby, David. "My Problem with Perfection: The Consequences of
the CDRevolution." The New Yorker 26 Aug. & 2 Sept. 1996:
64ff.
Early, Gerald. "One Nation under a Groove." The New Republic 15
and 22 July1991: 30-41.
Fiske, John. Understanding Popular Culture. Boston: Unwin Hyman,
1989.Frith, Simon. "Art Ideology and Pop Practice." Marxism and the
Interpretation
of Culture. Ed. Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg. Urbana: U of
Illi-nois P, 1988. 461-75.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of
African-AmericanLiterary Criticism. New York: Oxford UP, 1988.
Goldberg, Michael. "Berry Gordy." Rolling Stone. 23 Aug. 1990:
66ff.Gracyk, Theodore. Art and Noise: An Aesthetics of Rock.
Durham: Duke UP,
1996.Grossberg, Lawrence. We Gotta Get Out of This Place:
Popular Conservatism
and Postmodern Culture. New York: Routledge, 1992.Jarrett,
Michael. "Concerning the Progress of Rock & Roll." Present
Tense:
Rock & Roll and Culture. Ed. Anthony DeCurtis. Durham: Duke
UP, 1992.167-82.
Langer, Susanne. Philosophy in a New Key. New York: New American
Library,1951.
Levine, Lawrence W. Black Culture and Black Consciousness:
Afro-AmericanFolk Thought from Slavery to Freedom. New York: Oxford
UP, 1977.
Marcus, Greil, ed. Stranded: Rock and Roll for a Desert Island.
New York:Knopf, 1979.
Downlo
aded
By:
[Co
lumb
ia U
nive
rsit
y] A
t: 0
6:57
22
May
2009
-
Reading between the Lines 17
McEwen, Joe, and Jim Miller. "Motown." The Rolling Stone
Illustrated Historyof Rock & Roll. Ed. Jim Miller. New York:
Random House, 1976. 222-33.
Nattiez, Jean-Jacques. Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology
of Music.Trans. Carolyn Abbate. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1990.
Negativland. "Fair Use." Sounding Off! Music as
Subversion/Resistance/Revo-lution. Ed. Ron Sakolsky and Fred
Wei-Han Ho. Brooklyn: Autonomedia,1995. 91-94.
Rose, Tricia. "Soul Sonic Forces: Technology, Orality, and Black
Cultural Prac-tice in Rap Music." Sounding Off! Music as
Subversion/Resistance/Revo-lution. Ed. Ron Sakolsky and Fred
Wei-Han Ho. Brooklyn: Autonomedia,1995. 97-107.
Sidran, Ben. Black Talk. New York: Da Capo, 1981.Ward, Ed,
Geoffrey Stokes, and Ken Tucker. Rock of Ages: The Rolling
Stone
History of Rock & Roll. New York: Rolling Stone P, 1986.
Paul R. Kohl is assistant professor and chair of the Department
of Communica-tion Arts at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa.
Downlo
aded
By:
[Co
lumb
ia U
nive
rsit
y] A
t: 0
6:57
22
May
2009
