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Pop Lecture 2 KLE

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Popular Music (MUS- 10043) Lecture 2: Authenticity
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Page 1: Pop Lecture 2 KLE

Popular Music (MUS-10043)

Lecture 2: Authenticity

Page 2: Pop Lecture 2 KLE

Learning objectives

To grasp the basic meaning of the term ‘authenticity’ as used in popular music studies, then further dimensions/nuances of the concept

To lay the ground for the seminar next week To prepare to complete the first KLE assignment (a

500-word essay on authenticity) Is some music inscribed with authenticity, or is authenticity

always ascribed by individuals influenced by their specific cultural and historical positions? Use yourself as an example and use your answer as an opportunity to critique your own musical tastes and/or prejudices. Why do you believe the music you enjoy is more (or less!) authentic than other music and how would you defend (or deconstruct!) your values?

Page 3: Pop Lecture 2 KLE

Structure

Class poll of last year’s best/worst tracks

Basic definitions of authenticity The pop/rock binary opposition

Case study The Kaiser Chiefs vs/♥ Girls Aloud?

Moore’s ‘Authenticity as Authentication’

Page 4: Pop Lecture 2 KLE

Poll

Sample of best/worst tracks submitted via email Get into groups of 2 or 3

Discuss these selections, and your own choices. What are the differences between the ‘best’ and ‘worst’

tracks? How are categorisations of ‘best’ and ‘worst’ justified by

each person? What patterns emerge behind the specifics of these

contributions? Are there any interesting oppositions, either in people’s

views, or in their ways of categorising different acts? What loaded terms are used to ascribe or withhold notions

of ‘value’? Class discussion

Page 5: Pop Lecture 2 KLE

Rock/pop, good/bad, authentic/commercial 1

Allan Moore: ‘The pop/rock distinction here concerns the nature of the commercial enterprise surrounding any particular style: the degree to which it can be perceived as “authentic”. Objectively speaking, of course, the commercial/authentic polarity is illusory, since all mass-mediated music is subject to commercial imperatives, but what matters to listeners is whether such a concern appears to be accepted, resisted, or negotiated with, by those to whom they are listening’ In ‘Listening to Popular Music’.

Page 6: Pop Lecture 2 KLE

Rock/pop, good/bad, authentic/commercial 2

Roy Shuker: ‘A central concept in the discourses surrounding popular music, authenticity is imbued with considerable symbolic value. In its common-sense usage, authenticity assumes that the producers of music texts undertook the “creative” work themselves; that there is an element of originality or creativity present, along with connotations of seriousness, sincerity, and uniqueness; and that while the input of others is recognized, it is the musicians’ role which is regarded as pivotal. … This view saw authenticity as underpinned by a series of oppositions: mainstream versus independent; pop versus rock; and commercialism versus creativity, or art versus commerce… It assumes commerce dilutes, frustrates, and negates artistic aspects of the music.’ In Roy Shuker, Popular Music: The Key Concepts (Routledge,

2005), pp. 17-18.

Page 7: Pop Lecture 2 KLE

Rock/pop, good/bad, authentic/commercial 3

Bill ‘I want my rock stars dead’ Hicks Warning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=xRkA6zugNMQ

Page 8: Pop Lecture 2 KLE

Case study: KCs vs. GA

Page 9: Pop Lecture 2 KLE

Case study: KCs and K vs. GA

KASABIAN SLAM GIRLS ALOUD Movie & Entertainment News provided by World

Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)2006-08-28 08:35:16 -

British rockers KASABIAN have slammed pop group GIRLS ALOUD for playing at UK rock event the V Festival - because the girl group aren't 'real' rock music.The CUTT OFF stars are furious Girls Aloud played at the same festival - held in England at two sites in Stafford and Chelmsford - as more serious acts such as RADIOHEAD.And they were relieved when Girls Aloud covered the KAISER CHIEFS hit I PREDICT A RIOT rather than a Kasabian track.Guitarist SERGE PIZZORNO says, "Girls Aloud should be nowhere near that festival. I'd have been devastated if they'd done one of our songs."

Page 10: Pop Lecture 2 KLE

Kaiser Chiefs vs/♥ Girls Aloud?

What are your responses to these two videos?

Do you agree with Ricky and Serge after watching this one? http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=0gY5hwvRwBQ Discussion

And then where does this leave things? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-g2XYgbcRg Discussion

Page 11: Pop Lecture 2 KLE

The authenticity pendulum

From Moore, ‘Authenticity as Authentication’, p. 211. There is much more to how we deem something authentic

than a verifiable binary oppositions: processes of authentication

Page 12: Pop Lecture 2 KLE

Authenticity as authentication

ACTIVITY: Discussion of Moore’s article ‘Authenticity as Authentication’. Divide into four groups.

Use your notes from your reading: Group A must explain the difference between ascribed

and inscribed authenticity. Group B must explain first-person authenticity. Group C must explain second-person authenticity. Group D must explain third-person authenticity.

Elect a spokesperson to feedback, with two good examples – one from Moore, one from your group – to illustrate your explanation

Page 13: Pop Lecture 2 KLE

Ascribed/inscribed? Ascribed: authenticity is not a property of a

performance, but something we ascribe to it A construction made by listeners Not an issue of what is being authenticated

(i.e., is having authenticity ascribed to it), but who?

Who is authenticating, and why? Socially alienated late-modern subjects (i.e., you

and me) Irony of using a tool of that alienation – mass-

marketed music – as part of a process of redemption for our alienated selves

Link to next topic (weeks 4 and 5), the culture industries

Page 14: Pop Lecture 2 KLE

First-person authenticity http://youtu.be/T_lMMCTq0-Y Folk and jazz manifestations relating to styles and

instruments ‘unsullied by modernity’ (i.e., not electric) Shifting goalposts: Dylan/Springsteen and electric

In rock, reinterpreted as ‘unmediated expression’ Raw vocals, listeners relate to such ‘crying or

shouting’: ‘This is what it’s like to be me’ Can be achieved otherwise E.g. Neil Tennant, flat vocals, no histrionics: no

hoodwinking All related to an interpretation (by the audience) of a

perceived act of expression (by the performer) Creates (illusion of) unmediated communication Authenticity of expression = first-person authenticity

Page 15: Pop Lecture 2 KLE

Third-person authenticity http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9FkEjOBJuw If authenticity is partly illusory (a construction), then artificiality

may at times be authentic Blues rock movement and Eric Clapton: worked back to

Robert Johnson, hence cover of ‘Crossroads’ with Cream Clapton on Johnson (remembering Weller): ‘the most powerful

cry… it seemed to echo something that I had always felt’ So Clapton’s expression of authenticity, ascribed by the

audience, is ‘this is what it’s like to be me’ but also ‘this is what it was like to be Johnson’

The acquisition of a mode of unmediated authenticity, be it in rock, metal, tribute bands, folk, is authenticity of execution or third-person authenticity

Page 16: Pop Lecture 2 KLE

Second-person authenticity http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxuThNgl3YA When music becomes, for an individual within a group of

individuals, a place of belonging Sense of centredness in face of alienating social change by

being a fan of an act (along, crucially, with other fans: a group) 80s rock bands from Celtic regions or deprived areas in USA Springsteen: use of guitar and rock in face of pop electronica,

and ‘commune’ of E-Street Band ‘a space within which metaphorical escape to a pre-modern

ideal became possible’ (also for fans) Answering a ‘need’ felt by the audience for some form of as

yet unexpressed emotion, thought, view, etc. Authenticity of experience or second-person authenticity:

A performer succeeds in conveying the impression to a listener that the listener’s experience of life is being validated: the music is ‘telling it like it is’ for listeners Some of you will ascribe second-person authenticity to this

module…

Page 17: Pop Lecture 2 KLE

Prep for next week… Readings on authenticity on KLE. Read your assigned article (see next

slide for groups), and bring along to class a summary of the key things you learned about authenticity from reading that specific article Prepare to contribute to a discussion of the readings

Also come along with a rough draft, or key bullet points, developing today’s discussions, and your reading, and preparing to answer the first KLE task: “Is some music inscribed with authenticity, or is authenticity always

ascribed by individuals influenced by their specific cultural and historical positions? Use yourself as an example and use your answer as an opportunity to critique your own musical tastes and/or prejudices. Why do you believe the music you enjoy is more (or less!) authentic than other music and how would you defend (or deconstruct!) your values?” Use Moore’s terms in your notes or draft Develop examples and prepare arguments for what kinds of authenticity or

inauthenticity they depict We will share your examples, and workshop them We’ll also work on how you can write a strong answer that will demonstrate

your understanding of authenticity and your own musical tastes

Page 18: Pop Lecture 2 KLE

Readings for next week

Read the article assigned to your surname: A-F: article 1 (Moore – ‘U2 and the Myth of

Authenticity in Rock’) G-L: article 2 (Butler – ‘Intertextuality and

Authenticity in Two Covers by the Pet Shop Boys’) M-Q: article 3 (Leach – ‘Authenticity and the Spice

Girls’) R-Z: article 4 (Armstrong – ‘Eminem’s Construction

of Authenticity’)

Page 19: Pop Lecture 2 KLE

Further reading

Allan Moore, ‘Authenticity as authentication’, Popular Music 21/2 (2002), pp. 209-223.

Roy Shuker, Popular Music: The Key Concepts (Routledge, 2005).


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