On Popular Music and Its Unruly Entanglements (Pop Music, Culture and Identity)

__On Popular Music and Its Unruly Entanglements__ comprises eleven essays that explore the myriad ways in which popular music is entwined within social, cultural, musical, historical, and media networks. The authors discuss genres as diverse as mainstream pop, hip hop, classic rock, instrumental synthwave, video game music, amateur ukelele groups, and audiovisual remixes, while also considering the music’s relationship to technological developments, various media and material(itie)s, and personal and social identity. The collection presents a range of different methodologies and theoretical positions, which results in an eclecticism that aptly demonstrates the breadth of contemporary popular music research. The chapters are divided into three major sections that address: wider theoretical and analytical issues (“Broad Strokes”), familiar repertoire or concepts from a new perspective (“Second Takes”), and the meanings to arise from music’s connections with other media forms (“Audiovisual Entanglements”). Introduction / Nick Braae and Kai Arne Hansen -- Section I: Broad Strokes -- 1. Scratching the Surface: Texts and Textures in Music Studies -- or, Musicology without Music / Kyle Devine -- 2. From Music Analysis to Narrative Reading: A Case Study of Recorded Popular Song / Alex C. Harden -- 3. Kristeva and Popular Music / Nathan Wiseman-Trowse -- 4. The Shape of the Voice: Analyzing Vocal Gestures in Irish Traditional Music and Popular Song / Bláithín Duggan -- 5. Its a Dark Philosophy: The Weeknd, Intermediality, and the Aestheticization of Provocative Themes / Kai Arne Hansen -- Section II: Second Takes -- 6. Treating Cultural Trauma with Music: The Representation of War in the Music of Bruce Springsteen / Susanna Välimäki -- 7. Linear Temporality in Popular Song / Nick Braae -- 8. "To Prepare a Face to Meet the Faces that you Meet": The Instrumental Retrowave Persona / Andrei Sora -- 9. Electric Affinities: Wagner, Hendrix, and the Thingness of Sound / Erik Steinskog -- Section III: Entanglements -- 10. Timbre, Genre, and Polystylism in Video Game Music / Megan Lavengood -- 11. A Musical Exploration of Incongruity and its Humorous Effects / Ragnhild Brøvig-Hanssen -- 12. The Empowerment of the Listener in Kendrick Lamars "Backseat Freestyle" / Steven Gamble -- 13. Psychedelic Ways of Listening: A Gothic Case Study / Claire Rebecca Bannister -- 14. Taken by Strum: Ukulele Jamming as Musical Experience / Matthew Bannister -- Afterword / Allan F. Moore Front Matter ....Pages i-xiii To Begin Untangling Popular Music (Kai Arne Hansen, Nick Braae)....Pages 1-12 Front Matter ....Pages 13-13 Musicology Without Music (Kyle Devine)....Pages 15-37 Narrativizing Recorded Popular Song (Alexander C. Harden)....Pages 39-57 Taken by Strum: Ukuleles and Participatory Music-Making in Hamilton, Aotearoa/New Zealand (Matthew Bannister)....Pages 59-81 Linearity in Popular Song (Nick Braae)....Pages 83-99 Front Matter ....Pages 101-101 War and Trauma in the Music of Bruce Springsteen: “Born in the U.S.A.,” “Devils & Dust,” and “The Wall” (Susanna Välimäki)....Pages 103-123 Electric Affinities: Jimi Hendrix, Richard Wagner, and the Thingness of Sound (Erik Steinskog)....Pages 125-141 Carpenter Brut and the Instrumental Synthwave Persona (Andrei Sora)....Pages 143-163 Empowerment in Rap Music Listening ft. Kendrick Lamar’s “Backseat Freestyle” (Steven Gamble)....Pages 165-185 Front Matter ....Pages 187-187 Humor’s Role in Mashups and Remixes: Similarities Between Humor Structure and Remix Structure (Ragnhild Brøvig-Hanssen)....Pages 189-207 Timbre, Genre, and Polystylism in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Megan Lavengood)....Pages 209-234 It’s a Dark Philosophy: The Weeknd’s Intermedial Aestheticization of Violence (Kai Arne Hansen)....Pages 235-255 Afterword (Allan F. Moore)....Pages 257-261 Back Matter ....Pages 263-269