No Wave Music - An Annotated Bibliography
“…And You Voted For That Guy”: 1980s Post-Punk And Oppositional Politics.
-Bradford Martin
Martin, Bradford. 2004.”“…And You Voted For That Guy”: 1980s Post-Punk And Oppositional Politics.” Journal Of Popular Music Studies 16 (2) 142-174. Accessed April 18, 2012. Doi: 10.111/j.0022-4146.2004.00017.x
In this journal publication Martin writes about Post-Punk including its other subgenres such as No Wave, and their relationship to its audience as an overall identity. He explains that the main aspects of the genres that appealed to the members in the subculture were its characteristic (often strange sounding) ‘low-fidelity’ sound, the genres’ underground origins, its anti-consumerist and proletarian ideals and its oppositional yet relatable style. This Subculture (and subgenres) would utilise the ‘noise’ (in the sound, the use of shock images and lyrics), to create an identity that challenged the social, musical and political ‘norms’ of the time. The source itself is a peer-reviewed journal article published in the Journal of Popular Music Studies, which is highly regarded. Martin works in the History and Social Sciences department at Bryant University, and has written other refereed journal articles, so he can be seen to be a reliable author. There is a large amount of referencing in this article so that it has a basis of credit to his conclusions. It is seemingly intended at a wide audience as there are some rather interesting conclusions drawn in a highly academic tone, whilst his use of easy to understand metaphors create clarity in his arguments. The source was highly history orientated as it gives a full explanation of the movement from the audiences’ perspective: from its homemade and humble beginnings, to its hypocritically consumerist pleasing end. However, the work was lacking in analysis on the music itself. There are similar conclusions drawn in Hegarty’s book (2007) annotated below such as the forced authenticity that was awarded to these types of subcultures, where the artists’ work may have been based on originality, rather than the expected political basis.
Recentering The Listener In Deconstructive Music
-Daniel S. Traber
Traber, Daniel S. 2007.”Recentering The Listener In Deconstructive Music”. CR: The New Centennial Review 7 (1) 165-180, 275. Accessed April 15, 2012. Doi:10.1353/ncr.2007.0031
Dr. Traber’s thesis in this article is to get readers to understand the power intertextuality and context of listening to music has. The first impression of music, whether it is challenging or acceptable to someone’s ear, what meaning music has to them? These issues are explored through deconstruction of Punk, No Wave and Popular music subcultures. He has concluded that when music such as No Wave and Punk is first heard, it is seen as challenging to audiences in terms of sound and its themes. As this is heard more repeatedly this becomes their definition of ‘music’ and the ‘digitally constructed’ Popular music becomes the ‘noise’. The idea of oppositional music then is seen to be self-righteous and original. Dr. Traber is an associate in English for Texas A&M University. This is a peer-reviewed journal article for CR: The New Centennial Review. This is not too long and easy to read, yet full of interesting conclusions so it can be seen that it is for the general public to understand the effect of music on them. He states that he can’t cover all of the aspects of the topic and utilizes similar references found in Martin’s article above. This shows that the source may be lacking in some areas (such as direct musical analysis), and that further research may be necessary. These points create credibility for the author and the work. The source is different to the other sources in this annotation [excluding Hebdige’s work, (2002)], as the analysis of the subcultures is used to present a much deeper theory than just something directly linked with them. This presents an interesting concept that if music is purely based around intertextuality and taste, then the participants within subculture may have notions of nostalgia or hatred for that music now as they look back onto that part of their lives. This is linked to the authenticity of what they though the artists were trying to achieve, and this is seen as a part of Martin’s work (2004) annotated above.
NOISE/MUSIC A HISTORY
PAUL HEGARTY
Hegarty, Paul. 2007. “Inept.” In Noise/Music A History by Paul Hegarty, 87-102. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.
This book chapter concentrates on the ineptitude of musicians in ‘noise’ music subcultures and how the audience perceives this as authenticity. Inept as a term does not necessarily mean lack of skill, it can also mean experimentation and the avant-garde. The ideas of ‘do-it-yourself’ music, freedom of expression, originality, false amateur playing, oppositional political agendas, cheap studio sound, violence in music and how skill is judged are discussed in this. His conclusion is that in subcultures such as Punk and No Wave, musicians are meant to portray amateur talent, a completely original sound and an oppositional and expressive style, to gain audience respect. Hegarty is a senior lecturer at the College University Cork in Ireland, so he has assumed academic merit. This is obviously meant for academics and professionals in the music history studies, as the language is very complex and often difficult to understand. It is in the style of a literature review as he analyses different authors’ works on the topic. Whilst Hegarty is trying to be unbiased in the presentation of the argument, he almost sounds condescending to the artists in question. He uses the same definition of noise that is found in Traber’s (2007) article annotated above, and this is rather interesting as even though it is all up to listener’s perceptions, it connotes a negative stance, rather than experimental. This is difficult to single him out, as ‘noise’ is unfortunately, a loaded word. This presents similar notions to the other sources that the artists were all trained and highly intellectual, so the concepts of class are brought into question as if they were from middle-class background; their use of ‘DIY’ music connotes working-class ideals. This chapter seems to be an excellent follow up to the previous two sources as it fuses the two concepts of the audience perception of the subcultures as well as noise in music.
SUBCULTURE AND THE MEANING OF STYLE
DICK HEBDIGE
Hebdige, Dick. 2002. “EIGHT: Style as Homology and Style as Signifying Practise.” In Subculture And The Meaning Of Style, edited by Dick Hebdige.113-127. Taylor & Francis e-Library ed. London; New York: Routledge
Hebdige explains that the homology between the seemingly random artefacts of style in subcultures, are actually chosen through extreme order to the chaos they are trying to push to (in the case of Punk), mainstream society. This comes through to the reasons why the fans like the music, as well as the style and ideals in the No Wave subculture. The ‘noise’ associated with the subculture was calculated to be just that based on mainstream perceptions of the artefacts and music. These objects flow and change depending on the mainstream perception, thus the signs themselves are meaningless and empty but as a whole create meaning. This includes outsiders who reappropriate the objects as a part of mainstream style, and thus they are rechosen. This is said with concepts of bricolage and analysis of Punk style. Hebdige is seen to be a forefather on the concept of subcultural studies as his work is referenced in many others’. He was a part of many universities in the areas of society and arts. The chapter itself is very easy to follow and is written for experts on subcultural studies and the general public alike. He critiques others’ work on the area and builds upon many of the ideas of the Birmingham School. Martin agrees with his theory on homology in subcultural styles and applies this to No Wave. His way of thinking has been critiqued in Traber’s (2007) source as it is seen as old thinking. This is because his work does not include feminine as well as masculine views and analysis.
