Student Number : 0302215H - PhD thesis - School of Language and Literature Studies - Faculty of Humanities / This study explores the meaning of contemporary Kenyan popular music by undertaking literary interpretations of song lyrics and musical styles. In making these interpretations, the fabric of popular song is shown to be a network of referents and associations with texts situated both within and outside of the song-texts. As polyphonic discourse, these vast range of textual and paratextual referents opens up various points of engagement between artiste, songtext and audience and in the process, the surplus meanings generated by both the poetry of the text and the referents embedded within it account for the significance of popular songs as concrete articulations that mediate the realities of modern Kenya. Through the six chapters that make up the core of the study we see the mini-dramas that are played out in the material conditions within which the songs are produced; in the iconographies that are generated by artistes' stage names and album titles; in the strategies of memory work that connect present-day realities to old cultural practices; in the soundtracks of urban spaces and in those of domesticated global cultural trends and finally, in the mediation of the antinomies surrounding the metanarrative of the nation and the realization of political transition. I conclude by suggesting that Kenyan popular music demonstrates how contemporary postcolonial texts inform one another, opening up a dialogue between texts and also between local events, experiences and knowledges. Equally important, the study defines contemporary Kenyan culture by working out the sources of the images and idioms built up in this music and accepting the complexities of postcolonial existence as a site of fluid interaction between various cultural practices and competing modernities.

In this thesis I explore how music-text relations in Frank Zappa’s music work together to express a central narrative, with a particular focus on his use of musical allusion. First, I frame Zappa’s creative perspective from a Dadaist philosophy, illuminating an underlying critique of American culture through the use of musical and lyrical devices such as allusion. I explore how Zappa uses allusion as a narrative device and how these allusions affect a listener’s interpretation of a track. Finally, I provide an in-depth analysis of “Billy the Mountain” from the 1972 album Just Another Band From L.A. I first present an overview and analysis of the narrative as it is presented in the lyrics and then explore how musical parameters contribute to the narrative of the track. By understanding the interaction of music and text, I create a platform from which Zappa’s music can be better understood.

presente estudo pretende analisar o Heavy Metal no Brasil nos anos 1980, historiando sua origem, bem como sua chegada ao Brasil e a forma como esse estilo foi absorvido pela juventude brasileira, destacando suas especificidades. Ao historiar esse processo, daremos ênfase ao panorama político, econômico e social do país no período e suas articulações com o movimento heavy metal, procurando responder até que ponto essas condições influenciaram a estética desse movimento, e como ele foi adaptado e absorvido no panorama cultural brasileiro, influenciando-o por sua vez / This study aims to analyze the Heavy Metal in Brazil in the 1980s studies the history their origin and their arrival in Brazil and how that style was absorbed by Brazilian youth, highlighting its specific features. When recounting this process, we will emphasize the political, economic and social landscape of the country in the period and its articulations with the heavy metal movement, seeking to respond to what extent these conditions influenced the aesthetics of this movement, and how it was adapted and absorbed into the cultural landscape Brazilian, influencing it in turn

This dissertation is about the mediation of cross-cultural difference among Moroccan and Spanish musical practitioners. It is based on the idea that negotiations across the gaps of such difference have been promoted through the increased circulation of people, products and ideas in the modern era. Based on fieldwork during the years 2003-2007, primarily in the urban sites of Granada, Spain and Fez, Morocco, the project focuses on popular music, how both the production and reception of music are critically bound up with notions of genre, how resulting associations of musical practice are affected by different uses of technology, and how musical practices of all types partake of and help form different ideas of belonging.

presente estudo pretende analisar o Heavy Metal no Brasil nos anos 1980, historiando sua origem, bem como sua chegada ao Brasil e a forma como esse estilo foi absorvido pela juventude brasileira, destacando suas especificidades. Ao historiar esse processo, daremos ênfase ao panorama político, econômico e social do país no período e suas articulações com o movimento heavy metal, procurando responder até que ponto essas condições influenciaram a estética desse movimento, e como ele foi adaptado e absorvido no panorama cultural brasileiro, influenciando-o por sua vez / This study aims to analyze the Heavy Metal in Brazil in the 1980s studies the history their origin and their arrival in Brazil and how that style was absorbed by Brazilian youth, highlighting its specific features. When recounting this process, we will emphasize the political, economic and social landscape of the country in the period and its articulations with the heavy metal movement, seeking to respond to what extent these conditions influenced the aesthetics of this movement, and how it was adapted and absorbed into the cultural landscape Brazilian, influencing it in turn

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio State University, 1982. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 161-170). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

Thesis (M.A.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Liberal Studies." Includes bibliographical references (p. 35-36).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Music, Dec. 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.