Yaogun Yinyue: rethinking mainland Chinese rock ‘n’ roll

Popular Music ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
HAO HUANG
Keyword(s):  
Rock Music ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Life Choices ◽  
Mainland Chinese ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
The Past ◽  
Limited Life ◽  
International Discourse ◽  
Rock Musicians ◽  
Rock N Roll

International discourse on Yaogun Yinyue (mainland Chinese rock music) has been coloured by the early identification of Chinese rock ‘n’ roll with the aborted student democracy movement of the late 1980s. This has led to a simplistic valourisation of Western representations of rock rebellion by the global mass media, characterised by a lack of awareness of changing social circumstances within the People's Republic of China over the past decade. Originally, Yaogun Yinyue did indeed share a generational root with student radicals who expressed frustration with the severely limited life choices in a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) controlled state. However, in response to the periodic political crackdowns during the post-Tiananmen massacre era, most current mainland rock musicians have consciously avoided rhetoric which might lead to unhealthy repercussions for their careers. ‘Empathetic’ Western rock critics may be disillusioned to learn that recently many Chinese rock musicians not only reject popular reifications of rock ‘n’ roll but also express vehemently anti-foreign sentiments (Barme 1996, p. 202). Historical Sino-Western antagonisms have combined with individual resentments of foreign record companies' exploitative practices to create genuine suspicion about the West as a cultural and economic hegemon. This article offers a social and historical analysis in an attempt to reframe the meanings of Chinese rock as cultural product.

‘Living in the Past’?: value discourses in progressive rock fanzines

Popular Music ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRIS ATTON
Keyword(s):  
Rock Music ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Symphonic Poem ◽  
Passion Play ◽  
The Past ◽  
Progressive Rock ◽  
Classical Models ◽  
Rock N Roll ◽  
The Uk

At the height of its success in the first half of the 1970s, progressive rock was perhaps a surprisingly popular genre; surprising since its exponents strove to fuse classical models of composition and arrangement with electric instruments and extend the form of rock music from the single song to the symphonic poem, even the multimovement suite. Album and concert sales were extremely high; even albums that were greeted with less than critical approval (itself a rare occurrence) such as Jethro Tull's A Passion Play and Yes's Tales from Topographic Oceans (both 1973) sold well (the latter reached number one in the UK Top 10 album charts upon its release). Today, the dominant critical characterisation of progressive rock is of overblown, pretentious musicians in ridiculous garb surrounded by banks of keyboards playing bombastic, overlong compositions in time signatures that you couldn't dance to: a music as far removed from ‘real’ rock ‘n’ roll as could be imagined; a music that failed both as rock music but also as classical music. (All these negative characteristics are to be found, for instance, in David Thomas's (1998) coverage of Yes's latest UK tour.) This characterisation is only partly unfair. It arose in the wake of punk, which sought to sweep away what its proponents saw as the empty virtuosity of rock dinosaurs. Punk sought to reclaim rock music for `ordinary' people to be played in intimate venues - not stadia - by people who didn't need to be conservatoire trained.

The three phases of rock music in the Czech lands

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-70
Author(s):  
Sabrina P. Ramet ◽  
Vladimir Đorđević
Keyword(s):  
Rock Music ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
The Third ◽  
Third Phase ◽  
Rock Musicians ◽  
Rock N Roll ◽  
Czech Lands ◽  
Three Phases ◽  
Song Texts

In the Czech lands (included in Czechoslovakia until the end of 1992), rock music has evolved through three phases. In the first phase, lasting until 1968, rock musicians had no ambition to offer social or political commentaries. This began as the era of rock ‘n’ roll, which is to say music being performed for dancing. The second phase began after the Soviet bloc invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968, lasting until the end of the communist era in 1989. In this phase, rock musicians (no longer playing rock ‘n’ roll were closely monitored by the authorities and were expected to sing happy songs, submitting their song texts to the authorities for approval in advance of performing them. In spite of this control, some rock groups purposefully sang political texts in the 1970s and 1980s, mocking or criticizing the communists, albeit often cryptically. Finally, in the third phase — since 1989 — having lost their ideological foe, Czech rock groups have for the most part become politically disengaged.

An historical analysis of species references in American English

Corpora ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-349
Author(s):  
Craig Frayne
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Sentiment Analysis ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
American English ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
The Past ◽  
Corpus Studies ◽  
Google Books

This study uses the two largest available American English language corpora, Google Books and the Corpus of Historical American English (coha), to investigate relations between ecology and language. The paper introduces ecolinguistics as a promising theme for corpus research. While some previous ecolinguistic research has used corpus approaches, there is a case to be made for quantitative methods that draw on larger datasets. Building on other corpus studies that have made connections between language use and environmental change, this paper investigates whether linguistic references to other species have changed in the past two centuries and, if so, how. The methodology consists of two main parts: an examination of the frequency of common names of species followed by aspect-level sentiment analysis of concordance lines. Results point to both opportunities and challenges associated with applying corpus methods to ecolinguistc research.

Editor's Note

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Kaliel
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Public Memory ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Red River ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
The Past ◽  
Relationship Of

The articles published in our Fall 2016 edition are connected loosely under the themes of public memory and the uses of identity in the past. We are thrilled to present to you three excellent articles in our Fall 2016 edition: The article "Dentro de la Revolución: Mobilizing the Artist in Alfredo Sosa Bravo's Libertad, Cultura, Igualdad (1961)" analyzes Cuban artwork as multi-layered work of propaganda whose conditions of creation, content, and exhibition reinforce a relationship of collaboration between artists and the state-run cultural institutions of post-revolutionary Cuba; moving through fifty years of history “’I Shall Never Forget’: The Civil War in American Historical Memory, 1863-1915" provides a captivating look at the role of reconciliationist and emancipationist intellectuals, politicians, and organizations as they contested and shaped the enduring memory of the Civil War; and finally, the article “Politics as Metis Ethnogenesis in Red River: Instrumental Ethnogenesis in the 1830s and 1840s in Red River” takes the reader through a historical analysis of the development of the Metis identity as a means to further their economic rights. We wholly hope you enjoy our Fall 2016 edition as much as our staff has enjoyed curating it. Editors  Jean Middleton and Emily Kaliel Assistant Editors Magie Aiken and Hannah Rudderham Senior Reviewers Emily Tran Connor Thompson Callum McDonald James Matiko Bronte Wells

Psychedelic Illusions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Weinel
Keyword(s):  
Rock Music ◽  
Outer Space ◽  
Altered States ◽  
Sound Design ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Production Techniques ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
Rock N Roll ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Conceptual Meaning

This chapter explores how music technologies and electronic studio processes relate to altered states of consciousness in popular music. First, an overview of audio technologies such as multi-tracking, echo, and reverb is given, in order to explore their illusory capabilities. In the rock ’n’ roll music of the 1950s, studio production techniques such as distortion provided a means through which to enhance the energetic and emotive properties of the music. Later, in surf rock, effects such as echo and reverb allowed the music to evoke conceptual visions of teenage surf culture. In the 1960s and 1970s, these approaches were developed in psychedelic rock music, and space rock/space jazz. Here, warped sounds and effects allowed the music to elicit impressions of psychedelic experiences, outer space voyages, and Afrofuturist mythologies. By exploring these areas, this chapter shows how sound design can communicate various forms of conceptual meaning, including the psychedelic experience.

Trashing Appalachia: Coal, prisons and whiteness in a region of refuse

2021 ◽  
pp. 146247452110115
Author(s):  
Robert Todd Perdue
Keyword(s):  
Coal Mining ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Resource Extraction ◽  
Land Uses ◽  
White Trash ◽  
The Past ◽  
Central Appalachia

While prisons are often seen as locally undesirable land uses (LULUs), nuance and historical analysis is needed to understand why this is not the case for all places, as well as why many of these “sites of acceptance” are layered upon legacies of resource extraction and environmental degradation. Central Appalachia has seen a shift from coalfields to prisonfields in the past three decades as policymakers turn to the incarceration industry to stem unemployment and depopulation as coal mining declines. Using the conceptual lens of trash, I contend that the literal trashing of the ecosystems of this region has been fostered by the metaphorical representation of Appalachians as “white trash.” In turn, the space is now viewed as a logical location for the deposition of “societal castoffs” in the form of prisoners.

scholarly journals The past and present of pandemic management: health diplomacy, international epidemiological surveillance, and COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Flavio D’Abramo
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Epidemiological Surveillance ◽  
Health Diplomacy ◽  
The Past ◽  
Colonial Expansion ◽  
Administrative Systems

AbstractThe establishment of international sanitary institutions, which took place in the context of rivalry among the great European powers and their colonial expansion in Asia, allowed for the development of administrative systems of international epidemiological surveillance as a response to the cholera epidemics at the end of the nineteenth century. In this note, I reflect on how a historical analysis of the inception of international epidemiological surveillance and pandemic management helps us to understand what is happening in the COVID-19 pandemic today.

Histories for Anthropology: Ten Years of Historical Research and Writing by Anthropologists, 1980–1990

1991 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 417-455
Author(s):  
Susan Kellogg
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Historical Anthropology ◽  
The Past ◽  
Structure And Agency ◽  
Textual Practice ◽  
Anthropological Study ◽  
Duke University ◽  
Anthropological History

Editor’s Note: Susan Kellogg’s article on anthropology and history continues our special series “History and the Other Social Sciences.” There will be one further article, by David Robertson, on political science and history. An expanded version of the whole series will then be published as a book by Duke University Press.The past, once considered the exclusive domain of historians and antiquarians, has increasingly been embraced by anthropologists. Today, it is difficult to find a major anthropological study that does not claim to offer a diachronic, processual, historical analysis. In examining 10 years of historical anthropological writing, I cover three broad topics in this essay. First, I explain the emergence of a more historical anthropology as a widespread response to a crisis in the conceptualization of culture. Second, I argue that while there are certain identifiable themes that cut across this literature, in general, it reflects long-standing topical interests within anthropology; I review this literature according to these topics rather than divide it into interpretive or cultural studies versus studies of political economy. Third, I try to assess this body of work critically. I concentrate here on anthropological history as both research and textual practice, as well as briefly examine anthropological uses of the concepts of time, colonialism, and structure and agency.

Historiography: An Introductory Guide

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eileen Ka-May Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
The Past ◽  
Integral Role ◽  
History Of ◽  
American Historian ◽  
Subjective Perspective ◽  
The Many

“What is historiography?” asked the American historian Carl Becker in 1938. Professional historians continue to argue over the meaning of the term. This book challenges the view of historiography as an esoteric subject by presenting an accessible and concise overview of the history of historical writing from the Renaissance to the present. Historiography plays an integral role in aiding undergraduate students to better understand the nature and purpose of historical analysis more generally by examining the many conflicting ways that historians have defined and approached history. By demonstrating how these historians have differed in both their interpretations of specific historical events and their definitions of history itself, this book conveys to students the interpretive character of history as a discipline and the way that the historian’s context and subjective perspective influence his or her understanding of the past.

Rock in the Musical Theatre

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Church
Keyword(s):  
Rock Music ◽  
Theoretical Study ◽  
Hard Rock ◽  
Training Programs ◽  
Musical Theatre ◽  
Performance Practices ◽  
University Professor ◽  
Rock N Roll ◽  
The Many ◽  
Source Of Information

Rock ’n’ roll music and its offshoots, including pop, hard rock, rap, r&b, funk, folk, and many others, have become the standard language of today’s musical theatre. Theatre singers, performers, and coaches need a source of information on these styles, their origins, and their performance practices. Rock in the Musical Theatre: A Guide for Singers fills this need. Today’s musical theatre training programs are now including rock music in their coursework and rock songs and musicals in their repertoires. This is a text for those trainees, mentors, courses, and productions. It will also be of great value to working professionals, teachers, music directors, and coaches less familiar with rock styles, or who want to improve their rock-related skills. The author, an experienced music director, vocal coach, and university professor, and an acknowledged expert on rock music in the theatre, examines the many aspects of performing rock music in the theatre and offers practical advice through a combination of aesthetic and theoretical study; extensive discussions of musical, vocal, and acting techniques; and chronicles of coaching sessions. The book also includes advice from working actors, casting directors, and music directors who specialize in rock music for the stage.

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