This thesis examines the circulation of physical music media (78rpm records, LPs, CDs, tape) in the independent music marketplace. It is based on six months of ethnographic fieldwork in Austin, Texas, amongst the producers of goods for the independent marketplace, independent music stores and consumers of these goods and services. Against prevailing constructivist interpretations, I will argue for the value of authenticity as an analytical anthropological concept because it unites what my research participants value about materiality, technology, and marketplace relationships. In the independent marketplace for physical music media, authenticity is a multi-local, multi-vocal phenomenon. A nexus of economic rationales, design, reproduction-technologies, histories and personal conduct interact in an ongoing process that authenticates music commodities and their marketplace. This means that particular commodities are sought out over others on account of the multi-local authenticities they anchor. The thesis firstly demonstrates how the independent music scene safeguards claims to authentic identities by constructing an opposition to the mainstream, drawing on discourses of ethical production and consumption, sound technologies, spaces of consumption and cultural production. Secondly, I will uncover how physical music media and sound-reproduction technologies are assessed as effective providers of authentic musical reproductions according to their historical contingencies and performative material capacities. Thirdly, I develop the notion of the scene (Shank 1994) from its previously genre-fixed perspective to encompass multiple musical styles operating within a common social network of producers, retailers and collectors. The pluralistic scene I describe utilises multiple musical genres and nuanced notions of materiality and authenticity to establish their complex hierarchy of sonic and technological experiences.

La version intégrale de ce mémoire est disponible uniquement pour consultation individuelle à la Bibliothèque de musique de l’Université de Montréal (www.bib.umontreal.ca/MU). / Ce mémoire de maîtrise examine les processus d’intertextualité liés à la représentation de la femme dans la culture musicale folk ou soft rock et examine les mécanismes par lesquels ils sont récupérés par les tenants du suprémacisme blanc. Le mémoire se consacre exclusivement à l’analyse d’une ballade folk pour voix et piano: Tomorrow Belongs To Me, telle qu’enregistrée par la chansonnière suédoise raciste Saga. Cet arrangement d’un extraitde la trame sonore du film Cabaret soulève la problématique de l’apparition des femmes sur la scène musicale suprémaciste, ainsi que celle de la réception de leur musique par les militants masculins. La recherche montre que le choix esthétique de Saga lui permet concurremment de se complaire aux codes d’un milieu à nette dominance masculine et de les défier, assimilant du coup l’idéologie fasciste à l’expression et à l’expérience de la féminité. Le présent travail est basé dans un premier temps sur l’analyse sémiologique des composantes musicales de l’oeuvre, appuyée à la fois sur la littérature musicologique et sociologique sur le folk et la musique de masse, ainsi que sur des entrevues visant à recueillir chez les sujets des matériaux de comparaisons interobjectives, ceci d’après le modèle de Tagg. L’analyse s’appuie ensuite sur une approche holistique intégrant l’analyse du texte, sa mise en contexte et la compréhension de cette pièce en tant que propagande,cela afin de saisir les nouvelles formes de rhétorique employées dans le créneau musical raciste. / This Master’s thesis examines the intertextuality processes related to female gender representation in the folk and soft rock music culture and examines the mechanisms by which those are hijacked by tenants of white supremacism. The research focuses solely on the analysis of a folk ballad for voice and piano: Tomorrow Belongs To Me, as recorded by Swedish racist songstress Saga. This arrangement of an excerpt from the movie soundtrack Cabaret raises the issue of the emergence of women on the racist musical scene, as well as the issue of the reception of their music by male militants. The thesis shows that Saga’s esthetic allows her to conform herself to the codes of a male-dominated milieu, as well as to defy them simultaneously, thus allowing her to assimilate a fascist ideology to the expression and experience of womanhood.In its first section, the paper is based upon the semiological analysis of the musical components of the piece, supported by musicological and sociological literature about folk and mass music, as well as by interviews aiming at collecting inter-objective comparison material from the participants, according to Tagg’s model. The analysis is then grounded ona holistic approach, which integrates a text analysis, providing the setting as context in addition to the understanding of that piece as propaganda, with the aim to understand the new forms of rhetoric employed in racist music.

The purpose of this study has been to analyze the language of the popular lyrics of the seventies to determine if sexism is used to communicate in various musical genres. Three manifestations of sexist language developed by the Sexism in Textbooks Committee of Women at Scott, Foresman have been used in this study. The lyrics analyzed include 100 lyrics selected from songwriter-singers noted as articulate musical artists of the seventies, 90 songs reaching the "Top Ten" charts (1970-1978), and the top 100 songs of 1978. Chapter I defines sexism and explains three manifestations of sexist language. Chapter II includes examples from seven talented lyricists which illustrate sexism. Chapter III presents an evaluation of sexism in the "Top Ten" lyrics (1970-1978). Chapter IV reveals changes in stereotypic language appearing in the 1978 top 100 lyrics. Chapter V offers summaries and reasons for the findings.

During the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, 'lo-fi,' a term suggesting poor sound quality, the opposite of 'hi-fi,' became a characteristic perceived in certain popular-music recordings and eventually emerged as a category within independent or 'indie' popular music. It is typically taken to express the technical and technological deficiencies associated with amateur or 'DIY' musical production, namely at home using cheap recording equipment. However, this thesis rejects the assumption that lo-fi equates to a mode of production and charts it as a construction and a certain aesthetics within popular music discourse, defined as 'a positive appreciation of what are perceived and/or considered normatively interpreted as imperfections in a recording.' I chart the development and manifestation of lo-fi aesthetics, and the ways it focuses on various 'lo-fi effects' such as noise, distortion ('phonographic imperfections') and performance imperfections, in several decades of newspapers, magazines and websites covering popular music in the English-speaking world. I argue that lo-fi aesthetics is not merely the unmediated, realist authenticity that it is often claimed to be, but one that is also fascinated with the distance from perceived commercial norms of technique and technology (or 'technocracy') that lo-fi effects signify. Lo-fi aesthetics derives from aesthetics of primitivism and realism that extend back long before phonographic imperfections were positively received. I also differentiate between lo-fi aesthetics and aesthetics of noise music, distortion in rock, glitch, punk and cassette culture. An appreciation for recording imperfections and the development of 'lo-fi' as a construction and a category is charted since the 1950s and particularly in the 1980s, 1990s and in the twenty-first century, taking in the reception of artists such as the Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan, Hasil Adkins, the Shaggs, Jandek, Daniel Johnston, Beat Happening, Pavement, Sebadoh, Guided By Voices, Beck, Will Oldham, Ariel Pink and Willis Earl Beal.

Cette recherche relève de la sociologie politique et aborde la musique, objet peu commun en politologie. Elleexamine le rebetiko, une musique populaire urbaine grecque, en postulant que l’analyse de musiques populairesoffre un accès privilégié aux représentations ambivalentes du pouvoir, à la participation au politique et à salégitimation. La construction d’un cadre théorique dynamique, capable de prendre en compte le changementincessant, tant musical que social, et de faire fusionner forme et contenu, approches extérieures et intérieures,conduit à adopter une méthode plurielle : historique, musicale et sociologique. La première partie propose derevisiter l’histoire du rebetiko, d’examiner ses conditions de production et sa réception pour la période quis’étend de la fin du XIXe à l’aube du XXIe siècle. A travers des articles de presse, je mets en évidence laconstruction et la fluidité de cette catégorie musicale, sa place dans l’ensemble plus large de la musiquepopulaire, ainsi que les processus de son authentification et traditionalisation. Un corpus de vingt-cinq chansons,encore populaires aujourd’hui, est ensuite analysé. Y sont décelés emprunts et appropriations, traces du passé,mais aussi potentiels oublis de réserve. Enfin, j’explore la réception actuelle du rebetiko et interprète différentsrécits tissés sur cette musique, recueillis grâce à la méthode des entretiens collectifs non-directifs enrichie parl’écoute d’extraits musicaux. Tout au long du parcours, des passerelles entre le musical et le social sont établies.Echafaudées à partir et dans le rebetiko, de multiples configurations identitaires et mémorielles dévoilentl’ambiguïté des divisions et des transformations de la société grecque. / This research derives from political sociology and is concerned with music, an uncommon entity in regard topolitical science. It explores rebetiko, an urban kind of Greek popular music, and postulates that the analysis ofpopular music offers a privileged access to the ambiguous representations of authority, to the participation topolitics and its legitimation. Constructing a dynamic theoretical frame, capable of undertaking constant change,musical and social, as well as capable of integrating form and content, external and internal approaches, resultsin adopting a pluralistic methodology: historical, musical and sociological. The first part attempts to revisit thehistory of rebetiko, to study the conditions of its production and reception during the period extending from theend of the 19th up to the dawn of the 20th century. Through press articles, I intend to highlight the constructionand fluidity of this musical category, its place in the broad entity of popular music, as well as the process of itsauthentication and its adherence to tradition. Furthermore, a corpus of twenty-five songs, still popular to this day,is analysed. Loans and adaptations are detected, traces of the past, as well as “reserved oblivion” (oublis deréserve). Finally, I survey the actual appreciation of rebetiko and interpret various stories told about this kind ofmusic, being collected by means of collective, non-directive interviews, enriched with the listening of musicalexcerpts. All along the way bridges are being built between the musical and the social realms; scaffolding in andout of rebetiko, multiple identity and memory configurations unveil the ambiguity of divisions andtransformations of the Greek society.

M.A. University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities (Journalism and Media Studies), 2012 / This research investigates the representation of kwaito in the Sunday Times between 1994 and 2001, a period of transition for South Africa and the South African media. Kwaito, a music phenomenon that began in the streets of townships, was an important social development. Initially, it offered a range of ways in which post-apartheid black youth could represent themselves and their lives, both good and bad. The Sunday Times, on the other hand, was a white establishment newspaper that needed to change to represent a wider community and provide a space for the inclusion of previously neglected areas of South Africa cultural life. My analysis of all the articles on kwaito published in the newspaper demonstrates that the paper increasingly covered kwaito musicians and events, but tended to confine this coverage to the gossip pages of the City Metro, an insert aimed at black readers. On the other hand, commentators in feature and commentary articles in the main body, who had the power as “cultural consecrators” to investigate the meaning of kwaito as a phenomenon, tended to dismiss it as debased form of expression by lost youngsters. This bears out the argument by Hebdige that youth subcultures tend to be accommodated and contained by the media through a process of converting them into mass-produced objects or through neutering them ideologically.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Journalism and Media Studies), 2016 / This research report is an exploratory study into two regional commercial music stations (YFM and 947) and their use of Twitter as a tool to relate to, interact with and enable participation from their audiences. Of particular interest was why they are using it, what they are doing with it and how this affects the on-air content pre, during and post broadcast, if at all it does. [Abbreviated Abstract. Open document to view full version] / GR2017

Esta dissertação consiste em um trabalho de investigação da trajetória social dos novos artistas da música sertaneja. Em menos de uma década, o gênero tem logrado êxito comercial significativo e ascendente, não somente no mercado de vendas de CDs e DVDs, mas também na liderança das listas de arrecadações de direitos autorais e na agenda de shows ao vivo da indústria fonográfica brasileira. Desde os anos 2000, a institucionalização do sufixo universitário na música sertaneja foi acompanhada de controvérsia entre os próprios artistas. Entretanto, a contestação ou a defesa de uma identidade musical legítima não é um tema recente dentro do cancioneiro sertanejo. Há quase um século, a discussão sobre uma suposta autenticidade da música sertaneja tradicional tem atravessado a história social do gênero. Portanto, um dos intuitos fundamentais será reexaminar as atuais configurações desse debate. De modo concomitante, a pesquisa abordará quais foram as condições objetivas, históricas, econômicas, sociais e culturais que permitiram tanto o rearranjo institucional do mercado fonográfico quanto a atualização da música sertaneja junto ao público-consumidor do gênero. Para ilustrar o novo cenário cultural da música sertaneja, será apresentado o estudo de caso de dois duetos sertanejos adversários e consagrados comercialmente: Victor e Leo e Fernando e Sorocaba. / This dissertation consists of an investigation work of the social trajectory of the new artists of música sertaneja. In less than a decade, the genre has achieved a commercial success significant and ascendant, not only in the sale market of CDs and DVDs, but also at the top of the lists of copyrights collection and in the agenda of live shows of the brazilian phonographic industry. Since the years 2000, the institutionalization of the suffix universitário in the música sertaneja was accompanied by controversy between the artists themselves. However, the contestation or the defense of a legitimate musical identity is not a recent theme in the sertanejo songbook. For almost a century, the discussion about a supposed authenticity of the traditional música sertaneja has crossed the social history of the genre. Thus, one of the fundamental aims will be reexamine the current settings of this debate. Concomitantly, the research will discuss what were the objective, historical, economic, social and cultural conditions, that allowed both the institutional rearrangement of the phonographic market as well the updating of música sertaneja to the public-consumer of genre. To illustrate the new cultural scenario of música sertaneja will be presented the case study of two duets sertanejos opponents and commercially established: Victor e Leo and Fernando e Sorocaba.

Esta tese trata da produção em disco e teatro de revista do cantor carioca Francisco Alves entre 1920 e 1932, período que marcou sua consagração como intérprete. Procura mapear através de sua carreira, a trajetória e o papel do disco e do teatro de revista enquanto seus mediadores, comparando-os como meio de circulação e fixação das músicas gravadas e interpretadas por Alves. Através de uma pesquisa realizada em jornais e revistas da época, na primeira parte do trabalho foi feito um levantamento das peças em que atuou e nos arquivos da companhia teatral recuperados trechos e falas dos personagens que representou. Essa primeira parte engloba de 1920 e 1926, período que atuou como ator secundário no Teatro São José e gravou sem sucesso alguns discos nas gravadoras Popular e Casa Edison. A maneira como estas canções circularam nas festas populares e no teatro de revista foi abordada assim como uma comparação dos modos de produção do teatro e da indústria fonográfica. A segunda parte engloba de 1927 e 1932 e marca uma inversão quantitativa na produção de peças de teatro e de discos na trajetória de Francisco Alves, quando foi consolidada sua consagração. Foi enfocada a maneira como as músicas gravadas por ele passaram a se redimensionar nos palcos e ele a se definir como cantor, se articulando com a gravadora, compositores e outros cantores através de seu posicionamento enquanto agente nas diferentes instâncias de mediação. Neste período a ascensão de Francisco Alves coincidiu com a de vários gêneros musicais urbanos e a tese mostrará o caminho deles para o disco e o teatro e entre um e outro meio. / This thesis focuses on the artistic record and musical revue production by Rio de Janiro (carioca) singer Francisco Alves between 1920 and 1932. Such period is known for bringing the artist\'s consecration as a performer. By recovering his career we try to map the trajectory and role of record and theater production in Brazil as mediator compared to the means of circulation and establishment of the songs recorded and performed by Alves. Through extensive research recovering newspapers and magazines of the time, the first part of our work brings the history of the plays Francisco Alves participated in, also searching the archives of the theater companies he worked for and the lines of the characters he impersonated. Thus, the first part of the thesis recovers from 1920 to 1926, period in which Alves was still a secondary performing actor working in the Theater São José and would release a few songs trough the recording companies Popular and Casa Edison. The way such songs have circulated in national popular parties and in the musical revue tradition was taken into account, pointing to the specific means of production of the theater and the music industry. The second part of the thesis ranges from 1927 e 1932 and it marks a quantitative turn in the production of songs and plays in the trajectory of Francisco Alves, consolidating his achievements. We are interested in the way the songs he recorded were staged and how the artist started to be defined as a true singer, articulated with recording companies, composers and other singers. We also consider his role as an agent in many instances of cultural mediation during that time. Finally, the emergence of Francisco Alves has coincided with that of many urban musical genres. This work intends to show the path recovered by those genres in order to be recorded and/or gain the theater, caught in the middle of one and other medium.

O presente estudo tem como objeto a linguagem de canções do compositor popular brasileiro Zeca Baleiro. Consideramos sua forma híbrida por apropriar-se de materiais simbólicos de diversas procedências e temporalidades: matrizes culturais, elementos tradicionais, referenciais locais, nacionais e signos de um universo simbólico compartilhado mundialmente no espaço de fluxos globais. Por seu caráter dialógico e intertextual considerou-se nessas análises as relações entre texto (na materialidade verbal e musical) e contexto (seus significados). Nesse intuito, propusemos a experiência de articulação metodológico-analítica entre Análise dialógica do discurso baseada em Mikhail Bakhtin e Semiologia para análise da música popular de Philip Tagg. Trata-se de observar a construção de sentidos de sua linguagem poético-musical em relação a temas relevantes da cultura na contemporaneidade / The present study has as an object the language of Brazilian popular composer Zeca Baleiros songs. We consider its hybrid form of ownership of symbolic materials from different origins and time frames: cultural sources, traditional elements, local and national references and signs of a symbolic universe globally shared in the space of global flows. Because of its dialogic and intertextual aspect, it was considered, in our analysis, the relations between text (in their verbal and musical materiality) and context (their meanings). To that end, we have suggested the experience of methodological and analytical articulation between dialogic discourse analysis based on Mikhail Bakhtin and semiology to analyze the popular music by Philip Tagg. It is to observe the construction of the signification of his poetic and musical language in relation to relevant issues in contemporary culture