The published work on which this submission is based examines the ways in which deaths of popular musicians are represented in the media, offering a critical and problematic spotlight on social values conveyed through media discourse. In the title the term ‘representation’ is used deliberately, acknowledging a conceptual debt to Stuart Hall (1997: 15) who articulated the complexity of the relationship between language, culture and meaning. Going on to set out three theories - ‘reflective’, ‘intentional’ and ‘constructionist’ - Hall’s latter perspective is one used here to argue that media discourse is distinct in relation to this data set. That is, that popular musicians are treated in several distinct ways in the coverage of their deaths. These narratives reflect social views and reinforce dominant discourses of lifestyles stereotypically associated with popular music. Underneath these recurring narrative devices operates a covert layer of morality and judgement, which is sometimes inaccurate, often misleading and potentially communicates unhelpful messages to distressed and vulnerable members of the public. At its most extreme, irresponsible reporting of suicide and acts of self-harm may be of risk to the public (Samaritans. 2013: 7).

In the mid-1970s, my approach to popular music was shaped by aesthetical categories developed in the fields of Euroclassical music and continental philosophy. In fact, my interest in the avant-garde movements of the 20th century predated my involvement with popular music. In 1980, however, when I completed my philosophy thesis on Arnold Schönberg at the “Università degli Studi” in Milan, Italy, I had already been working for years in the field of rock, jazz, and folk music. Now that the borders between musical languages have become more porous, my double background in classical and popular music would not be unusual. In late-1970s Italy, it was. Yet in my mind, the two worlds co-existed and have co-existed since. From this dual commitment to the intellectual reasons of criticism and the raisons du coeur of passionate involvement with all genres of music, four themes have emerged in my scholarly production: Section A. The 1977-1982 sociological phase now revived thanks to the new edition of my first book and the volume on music and society in Italy I have edited in 2015. Section B. Articles written mostly in the 1980s and up to 2004, in which I combined post-romantic aesthetics, psychoanalysis, and hermeneutics in a parallel analysis of contemporary minimalism and the “music of the spheres” theme. Section C. Writings on Bob Dylan and American culture (1998 to now), in which I also found the way to expand on the “poetry and music” theme dating back to my Schönberg thesis. Section D. Articles on songwriters and songwriting in which I have combined different critical approaches such as historical survey, “portrait-of-an-artist,” and in-depth analysis of specific songs and of their cultural relevance. Conclusions. An excerpt from my current work on descriptive categories that I intend to apply to the study of popular music.

This thesis attempts an intervention in popular music classification. It argues that popular musicians do not only choose the titles to their works, but go further to define the genres of these works. The dynamic at play is such that most popular musicians claim to produce works of different and new genres with each new work they create. By engaging with the works of a selection of Nigerian popular musicians, the thesis demonstrates that the disorderliness in popular music branding can be restricted. Through a critical discourse analysis of the textual elements of the material and of ‘alternative’ audience contributions, the thesis advocates a new genre of popular music, namely the genre of ‘political music’. This distinctive genre is extractable from the otherwise conventional genres of popular music, and is composed of three comprehensible subgenres namely protest political music, unity political music and terrestrial praise political music. The study’s selection is made of popular music material from hip hop, reggae, afro-beat, and juju genres. They are delivered in popular Nigerian languages ranging between Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, English and Pidgin English.

This thesis explores the recent phenomenon of music concert goers filming these concerts and uploading the footage to YouTube. This contemporary practice poses several questions of the nature of contemporary music culture. The status of the concert as live event is problematised by this mediation of the experience. The videos create producers of fans and allow these fans to make a substantive contribution to music culture as authors of music texts consumed through a major distribution network. The fact that these fans are not paid for their efforts begs the question as to what they gain from this enterprise; particularly as it serves as a distraction for filmers from the immersive concert experience. This thesis will use the work of Walter Benjamin on the ‘aura' as a yardstick against which to judge current attitudes amongst music fans as to the status of live music alongside other ways of experiencing music. The thesis will also offer a contemporary reappraisal of Pierre Bourdieu's concept of ‘cultural capital' that accounts for the recognition that filmers receive from other music fans for their efforts in filming concerts. Concerts are restricted spaces in which music is simultaneously produced and consumed. Broadcasting videos of these events on YouTube provides recognition for filmers both for having attended and managed to capture footage to be shared with those unable to attend for various reasons. Filmers are not paid for their efforts and so this recognition serves as a form of cultural capital in lieu of financial reward. The thesis is based upon interviews with a global sample of music fans who either film concerts or watch these films on YouTube.

Jacques Brel, Georges Brassens and Léo Ferré are three emblematic figures of post-war French song, who have been seen by critics, journalists, and the public, as the epitome of chanson, and more generally of ‘Frenchness’. The starting point of this study is the observation that the legacy of the systematic association of Brel, Brassens, and Ferré – crystallised in Cristiani’s 1969 interview and in Jean-Pierre Leloir’s photograph of the interview – has enjoyed a prosperity which seems disproportionate to the actual relevance of the comparison between the three artists. In 1969, the three singers were significant figures of French song, but they were not the only ones. Bringing them together was therefore a promise of media success, but it was in no way expected to start a legend; and yet, the myth of the interview has today taken over its reality, to the extent that the Comédie Française is presently, almost thirty years later, turning it into a play which was staged in May 2008. The photograph of the three singers smoking and drinking around a table is, today, and for a vast majority of people, the only thing that they know about the famous interview, if not about the singers. The lack of obvious grounds to justify the exclusivity of the trio suggests that there is more to it than a musical trinity. By taking into consideration the oral dimension of song, the socio-cultural context in which the trio emerged, and the mediation of their celebrity, this study aims to identify the factors of cultural and national identity that have held together the myth of the trio since its creation. Besides shedding new light on the significance of the three artists individually, this study proposes to demonstrate that each singer embodies qualities with which the French people likes to be associated, and that the trio Brel-Brassens-Ferré can therefore be seen as an arbitrary sketch of a certain ‘Frenchness’. In particular, this thesis focuses on the trio illustrating the popular representation of a key issue of French national identity: the paradoxical aspiration to both revolution and the status quo. By taking the cultural icon ‘Brel-Brassens-Ferré’ as a case study through which to address questions of popular and national identity, this study contributes to cultural studies in two different ways. Firstly, through theorising the implications of the oral dimension of songs, it demonstrates the necessity of taking into consideration factors such as performance, the media, and the socio-historical context, when studying artists as societal phenomena. Secondly, it evidences the importance of the study of forms of popular culture, such as iconic singers or music, when investigating the ways in which a society perceives its own national identity.