Showing papers in "Popular Music History in 2017"
TL;DR: A revisionist history of a key period of Belfast and Northern Ireland's music scene in the 1960s: the emergence of Them and Van Morrison and the attendant "legend" of the group's residency in the city's Maritime Hotel as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: This article offers a revisionist history of a key period of Belfast and Northern Ireland’s music scene in the 1960s: the emergence of Them and Van Morrison and the attendant ‘legend’ of the group’s residency in the city’s Maritime Hotel. This formative moment is, somewhat surprisingly, under-explored in popular music studies, and the article seeks to address this relative absence. Van Morrison’s biographies are a vital resource here, and—via discourse analysis—we trace the emergence of a dominant narrative and assess its ideological implications, before moving on to analyse Them’s breakthrough single and related promotional materials. In so doing, we connect the scene that the group both emerged from and represented, to broader popular musical trends, as well as considering how the story of Them’s emergence is supported and framed in contemporary heritage initiatives. The article argues that the myth of Them, Morrison and the Maritime has obscured other ways of approaching the period, and we conclude with a counterhistory by considering an earlier blues/jazz scene in the city and how this might shape an orthodox narrative.
7 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors chart the relationship between popular music and the British travelling fairground in the post-1945 years, and examine how music emerged as an important aspect of this wider soundscape.
Abstract: This article charts and examines the relationship between popular music and the British travelling fairground in the post-1945 years. I set out a historical trajectory of the importance of sound and noise within the fairground, and examine how music in the post-1945 years emerged as an important aspect of this wider soundscape. The complex spatial characteristics of the fairground are considered as fragmented zones with ‘interiors-within-interiors’ forming to facilitate certain music and sounds. This progresses to encompass and engage the subcultural explosion in British society. The fairground becomes a complex mode of musical consumption, facilitating access to music, enhancing the sound through somatic engagement and providing a temporary space for subcultures to flourish. I draw on historical materials, archival evidence and gathered testimony to look at the 1950s period of new music, then plot a course to the current phase of dance music and club culture.
3 citations
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TL;DR: In the special issue of Popular Music History on Popular Music and Heritage as discussed by the authors, Leonard and Knifton present a collection of essays from the authors of this special issue, including:
Abstract: Marion Leonard and Robert Knifton present the special issue of Popular Music History on Popular Music and Heritage.
1 citations
1 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, an extensive nationwide survey of UK museum practice and interviews with museum professionals is presented, focusing on the increasing prevalence of popular music within museum collections, arguing for the significance of developing popular music as a museum subject.
Abstract: Drawing on an extensive nationwide survey of UK museum practice and interviews with museum professionals, this article documents and reflects on the increasing prevalence of popular music within museum collections. It argues for the significance of developing popular music as a museum subject, placing into context the differing ways in which museums have defined ‘popular music’ on an institutional basis, reflecting the history and context of the organizations themselves. The nature of popular music objects collected are analysed, with the classificatory systems into which they are inserted discussed and collecting motivations examined. Key museological issues affecting the collection of popular music material such as collection care, suitability for display, difficulty of acquisition, and ease of storage are addressed. Limiting factors such as the absence of popular music from many museum collecting policies and the perception that the museum is not the natural home of popular music are viewed as specific inhibiting factors in the growth of popular music as a museum subject; however the fact that popular music continues to develop within UK museums demonstrates shifting perceptions of cultural heritage and developing practices of contemporary collecting.