scholarly journals Harmonic Stasis and Oscillation in Björk’s Medúlla

2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Malawey

Björk Guðmundsdóttir’s 2004 all-vocal album Medúlla provides an opportunity to explore processes of harmonic oscillation, the repetition of two or more alternating harmonies, and stasis, the continuous repetition of a single harmony. Qualities of timelessness are evoked through harmonic stasis, which allows for intricate vocal textures to come to the fore in songs such as “Komið” and “Öll Birtan.” “Who Is It” illustrates how local-level and global processes of harmonic oscillation interact and how traditional chord function may be negated through oscillation. To account for harmonic progressions that suggest tonal centricity, concepts of repose and tension are applied as interpretive models to passages from “Triumph of a Heart.” This paper offers a model to describe oscillation and combines models developed by Tim Hughes to explore other uses of harmonic oscillation and stasis. Overarching oscillations support extra-musical narratives suggested by song lyrics and music videos. These models of analysis can be applied to other songs by Björk, as well as other popular music, as an alternative to traditional methods of understanding tonal harmony, which break down for such songs.

Popular Music ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Will Straw

Writing on music video has had two distinctive moments in its brief history. The first wave of treatments tended to come from the culture surrounding rock music and from those who were primarily interested in music video as something which produced effects on that music. Here, two claims were most common, and generally expressed in the terms and the contexts of rock journalism:(1) that music video had made ‘image’ more important than the experience of music itself, with effects which were to be feared (for example, the potential difficulties for artists with poor ‘images’, the risk that theatricality and spectacle would take precedence over intrinsically ‘musical’ values, etc.);(2) that music video would result in a diminishing of the interpretative liberty of the individual music listener, who would now have visual or narrative interpretations of song lyrics imposed on him/her, in what would amount to a semantic and affective impoverishment of the popular music experience.


2020 ◽  
pp. 146144482091854
Author(s):  
Byrd McDaniel

In popular music reaction videos, performers on YouTube—called “creators”—record their reactions to popular music, filming themselves as they listen to music recordings and watch music videos. The profitability and appeal of popular music reaction videos can be explained by a quality I call reactivity. Reactivity describes the approach that creators take to listening, as they heighten and exaggerate their affective experience of music media. Reactivity also describes their goals for creating these reaction videos, which they hope will provoke subsequent reactions among viewers. Reactions among their viewers translate into more views, shares, and ultimately more power for the creators. By drawing on observations and interviews with nine creators, I demonstrate how reactivity can enable creators of color and queer creators to counter problematic and dominant forms of listening to popular music, while also enabling privileged creators to treat exploitative listening as a kind of virtuosic act of consumption.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 95-117
Author(s):  
Christine Capetola

In 1986, Janet Jackson forever changed the direction of pop music and its music videos with the release of her third and breakthrough album, Control. Working with producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, choreographer Paula Abdul, and director Mary Lambert, Jackson created songs and videos that conveyed a new kind of feminist affect that intertwined individual stories of endurance, the forcefulness of relatively new digital music technology, and Black and female collectivity. In this article, I chart how Jackson transmitted this feminist affect through what I call hyperaurality, or sounds and vibrations that work in excess of the limitations of visual representation. Through tracing the affective excesses of Jackson’s visuals, sounds, and movements, I unpack how hyperaurality both intensifies and reintegrates the senses of sight, hearing, and feeling. In the process, I posit that vibration, or sound’s materially felt oscillations, works as a point of connection across these three aspects of hyperaurality. By demonstrating its connective power, I assert that vibration is a source of affective politics within popular music, one with the power of repurposing capitalism's excesses.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-106
Author(s):  
Lisa Perrott

Once appearing to function primarily as a commercial tool for popular entertainment, the popular form of music video has recently been exposed by scholars as formally and functionally diverse, with a rich history stretching back decades before the advent of MTV. Animated music videos owe much to centuries old traditions spanning the visual, musical and performing arts, providing performative and material models that inspire contemporary video directors. Experimental animation, surrealism and music video form a matrix of historical and contemporary significance; however, few scholars have undertaken close examinations of the relations between them. John Richardson and Mathias Korsgaard show how music video directors have employed surrealist compositional strategies together with experimental animation methods, thus giving rise to challenging new forms that traverse disparate approaches to art and culture. Building upon their contributions, this article explores the continuity between experimental animation, surrealism and music video, with a view to discovering the subversive potential of this matrix. In order to probe this potential, the author examines how music video directors experiment with animation technique as a means of subversion and enrichment of popular music video. Through close analysis of music videos directed by Adam Jones, Stephen Johnson, Floria Sigismondi and Chris Hopewell, this article charts the continuity of surrealist strategy across culturally specific moments in history, thus provoking questions around the perceived functions of animated media and popular music video.


Author(s):  
Keith Howard

K-pop, Korean popular music, is a central component in Korea’s cultural exports. It helps brand Korea, and through sponsorships and tie-ups, generates attention for Korea that goes well beyond the music and media industries. This essay traces the history of Korean popular music, from its emergence in the early decades of the twentieth century, through the influence of America on South Korea’s cultural development and the assimilation of genres such as rap, reggae, punk, and hip hop, to the international success of Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’ and the idol group BTS. It explores the rise of entertainment companies, how they overcame the digital challenge, and how their use of restrictive contracts created today’s cultural economy. It introduces issues of gender and sexuality, and outlines how music videos and social media have been used to leverage fandom.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 99
Author(s):  
Ana Liza M. Cruz ◽  
Franz Jake M. Cruz ◽  
Olive Chester Cuya Antonio

One source of funding for sub national government is imposition of taxes. It is imposed upon individual and corporation within the territorial jurisdiction of the municipality.  Local governments are funded through Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) provided by the National Government. The purpose of the study is to assess the local revenue generation capacity of the municipality of Bongabon, Nueva Ecija in the Philippines. The paper revealed that its calculated collection efficiency is only 20.6% of the total collectibles on Real Property Tax. The average local revenue raising capacity of the municipality of Bongabon, Nueva Ecija within the period of 7 years (2011 to 2017) is only 40.9 % of the externally sourced revenue or IRA. The study concluded that the municipality of Bongabon, Nueva Ecija remains dependent on national government when it comes to funding. The study also identified various constraints to efficient tax collection while local citizens perceived the LGU capacity to collect tax negatively. More studies on tax capacity are encouraged to come up with sufficient baseline data that may serve as inputs to policy making and solve the problems of tax collection in the local level.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (53) ◽  
pp. 81-90
Author(s):  
Marek Jeziński

In the paper I analyse the ways in which a city, urbanism, city space and people living in urban environment are portrayed in Polish popular music, especially in the songs of Polish alternative bands of the 80. inthe 20th century. In popular music, the city is pictured in several ways, among which the most important is the use of words as song lyrics that illustrate urban way of life. The city should be treated as an immanent part of the rock music mythology present in the songs and in the names of bands. In the case of Polish alternative rock music of the 80.such elements are found in songs of such artists as Lech Janerka, Variete, Siekiera, Dezerter, Deuter, AyaRL. The visions of urbanism taken from their songs are the exemplifications used in the paper.


Neophilology ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 336-345
Author(s):  
Yuriy E. Plotnitskiy

The paper studies specific characteristics of the music videos containing a choreographic component. Different viewpoints on the notion of corporality have been analysed and its significance for understanding conceptual and axiological aspects of the song text, as well as specific features of contemporary dance from the angle of its influence on the audience. Further we give a general description of the study material, which includes 20 music videos in different styles. Then the researcher gives detailed analysis of the videos in which the choreographic visual component carries out the function of illustration, symbolically conveys the conceptual meaning of the song lyrics or is in the contrast relations with it. The research has also revealed the cases of visual choreographic component performing the complementary function by way of adding extra semantic aspects to the meaning of the song, as well as the function that can be called “providing a storyline”, where the visual component is characterised by absolute novelty in relation to the verbal component or the song lyrics. Such parameters as correlation between the verbal and the visual components of a music video, functions of the choreographic visual component and the specifics of conveying conceptual information by means of dance movements in a music video have been investigated.


Author(s):  
Matthew Sumera

This article appears in the Oxford Handbook of Sound and Image in Digital Media edited by Carol Vernallis, Amy Herzog, and John Richardson. This chapter seeks to explain the potency and appeal of music in contemporary war representations. Through the close analysis of war music videos—amateur productions, set to some form of popular music and posted online—the chapter addresses the ways in which music has become a generative, affective force in countless war depictions. In examining the ways in which such videos circulate, including how soldiers create, discuss, and use them, the chapter ultimately argues that these contemporary audiovisions are not about war as much as they are part of it.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document