Transcript Music cultures Authenticity

Authenticity
Brainstorm
• Words, ideas, genres, artists/acts etc
associated or connected with the idea of
authenticity?
• Identifiers/elements of ‘authentic’
• Genres and associated artists considered
authentic/inauthentic and place them on a
sliding scale of authenticity
Authenticity
• Words associated or
connected with the idea of
authenticity?
• Real
• Honest
• Sincere
• Genuine
• Truth(ful)
• Emotion…
In its most general sense authenticity is a concept which conveys assumptions about
objects, people and places. If something is authentic it is assumed that it is believable
and reliable, that it is genuine and thus acceptable.
Mayhew, E. Women in Popular Music and the Construction of "Authenticity“ in Journal of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies 4.1 (June 1999)
Elements/Criteria for authenticity
What aspects/traits/biographical details suggest authenticity?
Elements/Criteria for authenticity
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Geography
Race/ethnicity
Gender
Social class
Age
Consistency
Voice/accent
(http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jan/10/wild-beasts-british-bands-sing-us-accents-arctic-monkeys)
(http://www.nme.com/news/arctic-monkeys/71153)
Authenticity
Pythagoras hypothesised universe
organised round same structure as
music.
The Romantic tradition, authenticity
connected with the soul and a
connection with God .
19C. Music seen by some as higher form
of reality entering our own. In this
period the Enlightenment influences
(move away from religion to science and
secular investigation) means music
‘provided an alternative route to
spiritual consolation’
Cook cited in Machin p15. Machin, D. (2010). Analysing Popular Music,
London: Sage
“…characteristics [linking
Romanticism to rock music]
include the expression of
intense emotion, the
expression of rebellion against
traditional social and moral
constraints, technological
advances in musical
instruments, and the use of
drugs
”
(Greckel 1979,177-178)
cited in Mayhew, E. Women in Popular Music and theConstruction of "Authenticity”
[t]here are compelling similarities between
the Mick Jagger of the Rock Era and the Franz
Liszt of the Romantic Era. Both represent in
their own way the virtuoso performer
composer;... the sex-symbol-lady-killer
thronged with hysterical, idolizing women
grasping for a personal souvenir...; the
dashing figure with a sensational if not
scandalous life-style; the archetype who
personifies the characteristics of his
particular era
Greckel 1979,199-200 cited in Mayhew, E. Women in Popular
Music and theConstruction of "Authenticity“
"The level of animosity, antagonism, excitement, discovery, was all there in the air at the same
time. It marked me for life - I knew I'd never see anything like this ever again. And I never have."
C.P. Lee, http://expectingrain.com/dok/who/b/butlerkeith.html
“(R)ock is metonymic with ‘authenticity’
while ‘pop’ is metonymic with ‘artifice’.
Sliding even further down the
metonymic slope, ‘authentic’ becomes
‘masculine’ while ‘artificial’ become
‘feminine’. Rock, therefore, is
‘masculine’, pop is ‘feminine’, and the
two are set in binary relation to each
other, with the masculine, of course on
top”.
Norma Coates, ‘Revolution Now’ in Sexing The Groove –
Popular Music and Gender by Sheila Whitely (ed) (1997;
Routledge, London), p.53.
*This gender connection can be noted
in the Thornton reading
Generally speaking the notion of
authenticity in relation to
contemporary popular music is
indexed quite clearly to the terms
‘rock’ and ‘pop’. Mary Hannon
observes this in her article
‘McRock: Pop as Commodity’. She
suggests that while pop stands for
‘mutability and glitter’ rock believes
in ‘geniuses and heroes’. In every
instance it would seem that pop
testified its own artificiality while
rock proclaims its authenticity.
Hannon, M. (1988), McRock: Pop as Commodity, pp.209-210.
Increasingly this rock/pop binary is
becoming less and less applicable
• What factors contribute to the lessening
relevance of this binary?
Some elements of authenticity
• Authenticity is a social construct
• Authenticity is a social process
• Authenticity is an ongoing process
• Perform authenticity
“It is not what a person does that makes her a
genuine person, but what informs or motivates her
actions” Widdicombe and Wooffitt, 1995: 157
“How is it that in 2016, people
are upset at a 19-year-old
rapper by the name of Lil
Yachty admittedly not being
able to name five songs by Pac
or Biggie?”
http://pigeonsandplanes.com/in-depth/2016/08/lil-yachty-hip-hop
https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2016/sep/29/seasick-steve-session-musician-ramblin-man-book
In/authenticity
“[1960s] the ideology
of authenticity
mandated that
musicians appear on
stage as them-selves,
not as any other person
or character”
Auslander, P. (2006) Performing Glam Rock: Gender
and Theatricality in Popular Music. Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Press
Iggy Azalea
“I resent Iggy Azalea for her co-optation and
appropriation of sonic Southern Blackness,
particularly the sonic Blackness of Southern
Black women. “
http://www.salon.com/2014/07/15/iggy_azaleas_post_racial_mess_americ
as_oldest_race_tale_remixed/
“Azalea has been accused of cultural
appropriation, of being a musical carpetbagger
mining a culture that’s not her own”
http://www.reviewjournal.com/columns-blogs/jason-bracelin/hip-hopcommunity-reluctant-embrace-chart-topping-aussie-mc-iggy-azalea
“Oliver Wang calls it “a hat trick of
appropriation: not American, not black, not
southern.””
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/06/04/iggy_azalea_fancy_is_
no_1_how_did_this_australian_become_such_a_popular.html
Reinvention
Authenticity and the fan/listener
How can members of a
subculture of particular
fan group identify a
difference between
authentic and inauthentic
performance of identity?
Sarah Thornton
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Specialized Knowledge
Sacred objects
Bodies (tattoos, modification, fashion etc)
Physique?
Fashion and style
Body compentancy or body performancedancing, tricks etc
Some possible further reading
‘You’re Not A Real Dj Unless You Play Vinyl’ – Technology And Formats – The Progression Of Dance Music And Dj Culture
http://arpjournal.com/581/%E2%80%98you%E2%80%99re-not-a-real-dj-unless-you-play-vinyl%E2%80%99-%E2%80%93technology-and-formats-%E2%80%93-the-progression-of-dance-music-and-dj-culture/
Consumer Society and Authenticity:The (Il)logic of Punk Practices
http://library.nothingness.org/articles/SI/en/display/86
The Habitus of Dancing: Notes on the Swing Dance Revival in New York City
http://jce.sagepub.com/content/35/1/84.abstract
Racial Authenticity in Rap Music and Hip Hop
https://www.academia.edu/6446509/Racial_Authenticity_in_Rap_Music_and_Hip_Hop
Recycled "Trash": Gender and Authenticity in Country Music Autobiography
https://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/american_quarterly/v050/50.2fox.html
Iggy Azalea, Andrew WK, and the Paradox of Authenticity in Pop Music
http://flavorwire.com/477814/iggy-azalea-andrew-wk-and-the-paradox-of-authenticity-in-pop-music
Lana Del Rey: The strange story of the star who rewrote her past
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/jan/21/lana-del-rey-pop