scholarly journals New Ways of Analysing the History of Varieties of English – An Acoustic Analysis of Early Pop Music Recordings from Ghana

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Acoustic Analysis ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Pop Music ◽  
Outer Circle ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
First Results ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Music Recordings

Focusing on English in Ghana, this paper explores some ways in which early popular music recordings might be used to reconstruct the phonology of colonial and post-colonial Englishes in a situation where other recordings are (mostly) absent. While the history of standard and, to a certain degree, non-standard varieties of “Inner Circle Englishes” (Kachru 1986) has received linguistic attention, diachronic investigations of Outer Circle varieties are still the exception. For the most part, descriptions of the history of post-colonial Englishes are restricted to sociohistorical outlines from a macro-sociolinguistic perspective with little if any reference to the linguistic structure of earlier stages of the varieties. One main reason for this lack of diachronic studies is the limited availability of authentic historical data. In contrast to spoken material, written sources are more readily available, since early travel accounts, diaries or memoirs of missionaries, traders and administrators often contain quotes and at times there are even documents produced by speakers of colonial Englishes themselves (cf. the diary of Antera Duke, a late 18th century Nigerian slave trader; Behrendt et al. 2010). Such material provides insights into the morphology, syntax and the lexicon of earlier stages of varieties of English (cf. Hickey 2010), but it is inadequate for the reconstruction of phonological systems. Obtaining spoken material, which permits phonological investigation, is far more difficult, since there are comparatively few early recordings of Outer Circle Englishes. In such cases, popular music recordings can fill the gap. I will present first results of an acoustic analysis of Ghanaian “Highlife” songs from the 1950s to 1960s. My results show that vowel subsystems in the 1950s and 1960s show a different kind of variation than in present-day Ghanaian English. Particularly the STRUT lexical set is realized as /a, ɔ/ in the Highlife-corpus. Today, it is realized with three different vowels in Ghanaian English, /a, ε, ɔ/ (Huber 2004: 849). A particular emphasis will also be on the way Praat (Boersma and Weenink 2011) can be used to analyze music recordings.

The Relentless Pursuit of Tone

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Wide Spectrum ◽  
Empty Space ◽  
Musical Instrument ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Pop Music ◽  
Sound Waves ◽  
Recorded Sound ◽  
History Of ◽  
Entire History

The Relentless Pursuit of Tone: Timbre in Popular Music assembles a wide spectrum of contemporary perspectives on how sound functions in an equally wide array of popular music. With subjects ranging from the twang of country banjos and the sheen of hip-hop strings to the crunch of amplified guitars and the thump of subwoofers on the dance floor, this volume attempts to bridge the gap between timbre, the purely acoustic characteristics of sound waves, and tone, an emergent musical construct that straddles the borderline between the perceptual and the political. The book’s chapters engage with the entire history of popular music as recorded sound, from the 1930s to the present day, under four large categories. The chapters in Part I, “Genre,” ask how sonic signatures define musical identities and publics; Part II, “Voice,” considers the most naturalized musical instrument, the human voice, as racial and gendered signifier, as property or likeness, and as raw material for algorithmic perfection through software; Part III, “Instrument,” tells stories of the way some iconic pop music machines—guitars, strings, synthesizers—got (or lost) their distinctive sounds; and Part IV, “Production,” puts it all together, asking structural questions about what happens in a recording studio, what is produced (sonic cartoons, rockist authenticity, empty space?), and what it all might mean. The book includes a general theoretical introduction by the editors and an afterword by noted popular music scholar Simon Frith.

Mud, mines and rainforest: a short history of human impact in western Tasmania, using pollen, trace metals and lead-210

2002 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine J. Harle ◽  
Kate Britton ◽  
Hendrik Heijnis ◽  
Atun Zawadzki ◽  
Andrew V. Jenkinson
Keyword(s):  
Trace Metals ◽  
Human Impact ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Pollen Concentrations ◽  
Sclerophyll Forest ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Lead 210 ◽  
Detailed Record ◽  
Mineral Prospecting

Lead-210, pollen and trace-element analyses of a finely sampled 7.5-cm sediment core from a subalpine tarn in western Tasmania have provided a detailed record of post-colonial human impact in the region. Lead-210 analysis indicated that the record extends back to about 1811 AD, with several changes in sediment rates evident. These have been tentatively related to disturbance in the catchment associated with ore prospecting. The regional vegetation has been reconstructed for this period using pollen abundances. Prior to 1860 AD, there appears to have been little disturbance in the regional vegetation, with relatively high taxon diversity and pollen concentrations. Important communities included rainforest dominated by Nothofagus cunninghamii and subdominated by Phyllocladus and Eucryphia, eucalypt-dominated mixed and wet sclerophyll forest and subalpine and/or alpine complexes. From the 1860s, the evidence suggests an overall reduction in the extent of regional forests, particularly rainforest and subalpine woodland. Initially, this appears to have been associated with both elevated charcoal levels and minor increases in concentrations of trace metals, particularly lead, tin, arsenic and copper. By the 1950s, however, significant reductions in taxon diversity and pollen abundance (particularly for rainforest and subalpine woodland) were strongly associated with rapidly increasing concentrations of trace metals. This evidence corresponds with historic records of mineral prospecting and mining in the region, especially around Queenstown where significant deforestation occurred due to logging and pollution from smelters. Interestingly, the evidence for the most significant impacts coincided with the escalation of open-cut mining from the 1950s to the 1970s, rather than earlier phases of smelter-produced pollution.

scholarly journals Pop Music for Kids: Sonic Markers as Narrative Strategies in Children’s Music

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eirik Askerøi
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Vocal Performance ◽  
Pop Music ◽  
Narrative Strategies ◽  
Children's Music ◽  
Recording Technology ◽  
Younger Age ◽  
History Of

Whilst the creative handling of recording technology has played a major role in the development of popular music, there has been little research into the role of production in music promoted explicitly for a child audience. The term “tween” is most often applied to describe children just before they become teens, referring to children aged 9–12 years. In more recent years, however, the tween category has come to comprise children as young as 4 and up to 15 years of age. Based on the premise that there is a growing tendency for children to be “youthified” at a far younger age than occurred previously, I am keen to investigate the extent to which music plays a part in this process. Through close readings of three songs from different eras in the history of children’s music, I will explore the role of sonic markers as narrative strategies in children’s music. The overall aim is to discuss the extent to which the relationships between lyrical content, vocal performance, and production aesthetics may play a role in the youthification of child performers and audiences. 

Avant-Gardists and the Lure of Pop Music

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Vernallis
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Music Videos ◽  
Pop Music ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Sound Image ◽  
Derek Jarman ◽  
History Of ◽  
Joseph Cornell ◽  
Cultural Constraints ◽  
Experimental Films

This chapter provides methods and models for thinking about avant-garde and experimental films and videos that incorporate popular music. It sketches the history of intersections between avant-gardists and popular music. It also provides close readings of works by Kenneth Anger, Bruce Connor, Joseph Cornell, Derek Jarman, Tony Oursler, Pipilotti Rist, Andy Warhol and others. It claims that institutional, formal and cultural constraints not only limit the frequency with which avant-gardists participate with pop musicians and pop music, they also colour the audiovisual relations within the works themselves. Avant-garde films and videos with pop soundtracks emphasise particular kinds of audiovisual relation—relations that differ from sound-image connections in narrative films, YouTube clips, commercials and music videos. It is demonstrated that this experimental subgenre embodies a unique sort of sound-image relation and suggests, finally, that these videos can expand our knowledge of audiovisual relations more broadly.

scholarly journals Beyond denial and exclusion: The history of relations between Christians and Muslims in the Cape Colony during the 17th–18th centuries with lessons for a post-colonial theology of religions

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaco Beyers
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Theology Of Religions ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
Current Context ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
The Relationship

Learning from the past prepares one for being able to cope with the future. History is made up of strings of relationships. This article follows a historical line from colonialism, through apartheid to post-colonialism in order to illustrate inter-religious relations in South-Africa and how each context determines these relations. Social cohesion is enhanced by a post-colonial theology of religions based on the current context. By describing the relationship between Christians and Muslims during the 17th–18th centuries in the Cape Colony, lessons can be deduced to guide inter-religious relations in a post-colonial era in South Africa. One of the most prominent Muslim leaders during the 17th century in the Cape Colony was Sheik Yusuf al-Makassari. His influence determined the future face of Islam in the Cape Colony and here, during the 18th century, ethics started playing a crucial role in determining the relationship between Christians and Muslims. The ethical guidance of the Imams formed the Muslim communities whilst ethical decline was apparent amongst the Christian colonists during the same period. The place of ethics as determinative of future inter-religious dialogue is emphasised. Denial and exclusion characterised relationships between Christians and Muslims. According to a post-colonial understanding of inter-religious contact the equality and dignity of non-Christian religions are to be acknowledged. In the postcolonial and postapartheid struggle for equality, also of religions, prof Graham Duncan, to whom this article is dedicated, contributed to the process of acknowledging the plurality of the religious reality in South Africa.

The politics and practice of Thomas Adeoye Lambo: towards a post-colonial history of transcultural psychiatry

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew M Heaton
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
Transcultural Psychiatry ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Over Time

This article traces the career of Thomas Adeoye Lambo, the first European-trained psychiatrist of indigenous Nigerian (Yoruba) background and one of the key contributors to the international development of transcultural psychiatry from the 1950s to the 1980s. The focus on Lambo provides some political, cultural and geographical balance to the broader history of transcultural psychiatry by emphasizing the contributions to transcultural psychiatric knowledge that have emerged from a particular non-western context. At the same time, an examination of Lambo’s legacy allows historians to see the limitations of transcultural psychiatry’s influence over time. Ultimately, this article concludes that the history of transcultural psychiatry might have more to tell us about the politics of the ‘transcultural’ than the practice of ‘psychiatry’ in post-colonial contexts.

scholarly journals Beyond nations: A thematic history

Muzikologija ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 163-186
Author(s):  
Manuel Ferreirа
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Instrumental Music ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
History Of ◽  
Early Influence

This paper describes an on-going project, the collaborative Thematic History of Music in Portugal and Brazil; it details its context, rationale, concept, structure and the process that led to its public presentation and preliminary development at CESEM/FCSH, Universidade Nova de Lisboa. The importance of Africa in the understanding of some facets not only of modern popular music, but also of 16th- 18th century genres in Portugal and Brazil is particularly stressed; examples of both polyphonic and instrumental music are given to illustrate this early influence.

scholarly journals Problems and Prospects of Study into the Scholarly Heritage of Professor Liubomirov

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 939-949
Author(s):  
Alexander L. Kleitman ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Economic History ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Social Thought ◽  
Volga Region ◽  
Great Contribution ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Academic Interests

The article presents an overview of the biography and scholarly heritage of a graduate of St. Petersburg University, a student of S.F.Platonov, and an outstanding Russian historian of the first half of the 20th century, P.G.Liubomirov. Based on the analysis of the works and materials of the personal archive of the scholar, the paper shows that the sphere of academic interests of P.G.Liubomirov comprised several directions. He made a great contribution to the study of the socio-economic history of the Low Volga region in the 17th–19th centuries, and to the history of social thought in Russia in the 18th century. A series of articles by P.G.Liubomirov on these topics appeared in the 1920–1930s in the regional academic periodicals. Many works of the scholar have never been published and are kept in his archive as manuscripts. In the 1930–1940s a group of his students and colleagues did a large amount of work with concerning publication of his works. However, due to the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War and ideological campaigns of the turn of the 1940–1950s this work has not been completed. Today, much of the scholarly heritage of P.G.Liubomirov remains unpublished and unknown to historians. The works of the historian has not lost their relevance. In this regard, it is necessary to resume work on the study and publication of the works of P.G.Liubomirov, which was interrupted in the 1950s.

A singer-songwriter's view of the French record industry: the case of Léo Ferré

Popular Music ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Tinker
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
North American ◽  
Pop Music ◽  
Pragmatic Approach ◽  
Legal Requirements ◽  
Record Industry ◽  
The Road ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Ambivalent Relationship ◽  
Marked Resistance

Léo Ferré exemplifies what is now widely regarded in France as the golden era of la chanson française during the 1950s and 1960s. This article examines how one singer-songwriter attempted to deal in his own, highly idiosyncratic way with the contraints of working within the record industry, and focuses on the development of his ambivalent relationship with the record label owner and producer, Eddie Barclay. Although sympathetic to Ferré's cause, Barclay also adopted a pragmatic approach, particularly where questions of censorship were concerned, as he attempted to balance commercial necessity, legal requirements as well as the creative demands of the artist. The discussion also explores how Ferré has contributed to contemporary intellectual debates relating to the significance of popular music within a French context. Ferré showed marked resistance to North American influence and middle-of-the-road pop music, particularly la chanson yéyé, but he was by no means not-influenced by the arrival of rock in France.

scholarly journals O todo e a parte: nomeando espaços e vivências urbanas em São Paulo (décadas de 1950 e 1960) * The whole and the part: naming urban spaces and experiences in São Paulo (1950’s and 1960’s)

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
MARCOS VIRGÍLIO
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Sao Paulo ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
São Paulo ◽  
De Se ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The City

<p><strong>Resumo:</strong> O artigo trata das referências a diferentes localidades de São Paulo identificadas nos sambas produzidos durante as décadas de 1950 e 1960, comparando as imagens de cidade traduzidas por essas diferentes referências. Busca-se, com isso, evidenciar a utilidade de se recorrer ao estudo das representações da cidade nas músicas populares como uma fonte válida e frutífera para os estudos da história da urbanização.</p><p><strong>Palavras-chave:</strong> Samba – São Paulo – Urbanização – Centro – Periferia.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Abstract:</strong> The article deals with references to different locations in São Paulo that are identified in sambas produced during the 1950s and 1960s, and makes comparisons to the images of the city translated by these different references. The aim is to demonstrate the usefulness of the study of city’s representations in popular music as a valid and fruitful source for studies of the history of urbanization.</p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> Samba – São Paulo – Urbanization – Downtown – Outskirts.</p>

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document