tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/pop-26909/articlesPop – The Conversation2022-05-05T12:44:07Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1796182022-05-05T12:44:07Z2022-05-05T12:44:07Z‘Walking through Europe’s door, singing’ – How Eurovision helps define Europe’s boundaries (and why Ukraine will likely win)<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460412/original/file-20220428-24-ca3gcb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C71%2C2995%2C1922&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Could Ukraine's entry be heading for Eurovision success?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://eurovision.tv/mediacentre/gallery/kalush-orchestra-ukraine-2022">Maxim Fesenko/eurovision.tv</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This year’s <a href="https://eurovision.tv/">Eurovision Song Contest</a> – an annual celebration of pop music in which nations compete to win the votes of judges and the public – takes place on May 14 in Turin, Italy. And <a href="https://eurovisionworld.com/odds/eurovision">Ukraine is overwhelmingly the favorite</a> to win.</p>
<p>While the latest odds first and foremost reflect the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/stronger-europe-world/eu-solidarity-ukraine_en">widespread sympathy throughout Europe</a> for besieged Ukraine, it certainly helps that the Ukrainian entry, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiEGVYOruLk">Kalush Orchestra’s “Stefania</a>,” hits the right notes when it comes to Eurovision. Combining traditional folk sounds with modern hip-hop, the song is sentimental and upbeat at the same time. </p>
<p>Originally penned as an ode to the lead singer’s mother, “Stefania” has since become an anthem for the nation at war. </p>
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<p>Sung entirely in Ukrainian, it showcases historical costumes and traditional instruments in a firm stamp of Ukrainian identity, while also effectively merging a melodic chorus with the global rhythms of hip-hop. Overall, the song reflects something of Ukraine’s resilient attitude in the face of Russian aggression as well as its pro-Western cultural leanings. Indeed, <a href="https://www.euronews.com/culture/2022/04/06/ukraine-s-eurovision-entry-perform-for-young-ukrainian-refugees-in-jerusalem">one member of Kalush Orchestra declared</a>: “Our country will not only win the war, but also win the Eurovision.”</p>
<p>Russia was intent on competing this year as well. In February, however, the <a href="https://www.ebu.ch/home">European Broadcasting Union</a>, the organization behind Eurovision, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/feb/25/russia-banned-from-eurovision-after-invasion-of-ukraine#:%7E:text=Russia%20will%20no%20longer%20be,bring%20the%20competition%20into%20disrepute%E2%80%9">banned Russia from the competition</a>, under mounting pressure from other participating countries over the invasion of Ukraine.</p>
<p>I have <a href="https://www.routledge.com/A-Song-for-Europe-Popular-Music-and-Politics-in-the-Eurovision-Song-Contest/Tobin-Raykoff/p/book/9780754658795">long studied Eurovision</a> as <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Eurovision-Song-Contest-as-a-Cultural-Phenomenon-From-Concert-Halls/Dubin-Vuletic-Obregon/p/book/9781032037745">a cultural and political event</a>. If Ukraine does win, I believe it will continue Eurovision’s ongoing legacy of marking the boundaries of the liberal West. Despite the popular and ephemeral nature of its songs, the event has, since its inception, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Postwar-Europe-Eurovision-Song-Contest/dp/1474276261?asin=1474276261&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1">reflected the political culture and geopolitical realities of Europe</a>.</p>
<h2>They had a dream</h2>
<p>Founded in <a href="https://eurovision.tv/history/in-a-nutshell#:%7E:text=The%20history%20of%20the%20Eurovision,1956%2C%20when%20seven%20nations%20participated.">1956 by the European Broadcasting Union</a>, the Eurovision Song Contest is the longest continuously running televised international musical competition in the world, with an enormous <a href="https://www.ebu.ch/news/2021/05/183-million-viewers-welcome-back-eurovision-song-contest-as-over-half-of-young-audiences-tune-in">audience of</a> <a href="https://eurovision.tv/story/nearly-200-million-people-watch-eurovision-2015">roughly 200 million</a> people. Will Farrell’s 2020 Eurovision spoof “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8580274/">Story of Fire Saga</a>” and a recent NBC spinoff of the actual event, the <a href="https://www.nbc.com/american-song-contest">American Song Contest</a>, hosted by Snoop Dogg and Kelly Clarkson, have piqued interest in the U.S.</p>
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<p>Over the years, Eurovision has expanded from a small group of six Western European nations to over 40 competitors from all over Europe, plus Israel and Australia. </p>
<p>It has grown roughly in tandem with other European and European-focused organizations, such as <a href="https://european-union.europa.eu/principles-countries-history/history-eu_en">the European Union</a> and the <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/nato">North Atlantic Treaty Organization</a>. Like those economic and strategic blocs, Eurovision expanded into the Mediterranean in the 1960s and ‘70s, and to Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Over the decades, <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137367983">the contest has pushed and readjusted the boundaries of “Europe,” both geographically and ideologically</a>. </p>
<h2>Knowing me, knowing EU</h2>
<p>Eurovision’s definition of Europe’s geographical boundaries may not be intuitive for many viewers. The European Broadcasting Union follows the <a href="https://www.itu.int/en/history/Pages/PlenipotentiaryConferences.aspx">1932 Madrid conference of the International Radiotelegraph Union</a>, which set the eastern and southern boundaries of the “European Region” at the 40th meridian east and the 30th parallel north, “so as to include the Western part of the U.S.S.R. and the territories bordering the Mediterranean.” </p>
<p>Israel and indeed all countries bordering on the Mediterranean are thereby eligible to participate. Adjustments were made in 2007 on those boundaries to allow the nations of the Caucasus to participate. </p>
<p>Australia’s inclusion is a different matter, going back to 2015, when the European Broadcasting Union <a href="https://eurovision.tv/story/australia-to-compete-in-the-2015-eurovision-song-contest">invited the country</a>, <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-20058-9?noAccess=true">on the basis of its unusually strong fan base</a>, to join for a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the competition. The Australians arrived with such energy and enthusiasm that they’ve stayed ever since.</p>
<p>The ever-increasing number of participating countries has expanded and stretched the understanding of which countries belong to Europe as a cultural entity. </p>
<p>More complex and nuanced is the ideological and political meaning of “Europe.” The European Broadcasting Union’s stated “<a href="https://www.ebu.ch/files/live/sites/ebu/files/Publications/EBU-Empowering-Society_EN.pdf">core values</a>” include democracy, pluralism, diversity, inclusion and freedom of expression.</p>
<p>But those values have at times rubbed up against the political realities of countries within the geographical boundaries of Europe. </p>
<p>When <a href="https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/brexit-news-franco-s-eurovision-47020/">Spain hosted the contest in 1969</a>, Austria boycotted on account of Spanish dictator Gen. Francisco Franco’s fascist politics. Spain hosted because it had won the year before with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYvhZOq10L8&t=2s">Massiel’s “La La La”</a>; the winning nation has usually hosted the following year’s competition since 1958. </p>
<h2>Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! a song without politics</h2>
<p>The European Broadcasting Union tries to hold to the ideal of a purely musical competition without political overtones, but some countries have tried to insert sly political critiques into their entries. </p>
<p>In 2009, Georgia attempted to protest Russia’s 2008 invasion of its country with the song “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV1_s73fI-U">We Don’t Want to Put In</a>” – a play on the then-Russian Prime Minister’s name. But organizers <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20090310-georgia-cannot-perform-put-eurovision--0">rejected the song</a> as too obviously political. </p>
<p>On the other side of the political spectrum, the European Broadcasting Union <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2021/03/11/belarus-eurovision-entry-galasy-zmesta-face-disqualification-over-lyrics-14228006/">rejected Belarus’ 2021 entry</a>, “Ya Nauchu Tebya (I’ll Teach You)” by the band Galasy ZMesta, for its overt condemnation of that country’s pro-democracy protesters. </p>
<p>In recent years, <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315097732-3/eurovision-50-post-wall-post-stonewall-robert-deam-tobin">the contest’s strong association with the LGBTQ community</a> has seen a backlash from conservative governments. Turkey’s departure from the contest in 2013 came as its interest in joining the European Union waned. While Turkey had multiple reasons for leaving, the head of Turkish Radio and Television objected specifically to the prominence of queer performers like Austria’s Conchita Wurst, who won in 2014 with “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaolVEJEjV4">Rise like a Phoenix</a>” as a gay bearded drag queen. In 2020, Hungary also withdrew from the competition; Andras Benscik, a commentator on a pro-government television station, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/hungary-eurovision-song-contest-gay-homophobia-lgbt-viktor-orban-a9221321.html">likened the contest</a> to a “homosexual flotilla.”</p>
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<h2>The winner takes it all</h2>
<p>Success in the Eurovision Song Contest has often come as countries move toward the liberal, inclusive, pluralistic, democratic ideals of Europe. Spain’s victories in the late 1960s, for example, preceded the relative loosening of societal restrictions in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Spain/Francos-Spain-1939-75">final years of the Franco era</a>. Turkey’s <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/turkey-wins-eurovision-song-contest/a-877588">victory in 2003</a> came at the height of that country’s campaign to join the European Union. </p>
<p>Most notably, the countries of Eastern Europe, which started competing in the 1990s, embraced the contest as symbol of Western freedom. After Estonia became the <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/estonias-everybody-erupts-at-eurovision-79751/">first former Soviet Republic to win</a> in 2001, Prime Minister Mart Laar <a href="http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2050588,00.html">announced</a>, “We are no longer knocking at Europe’s door. We are walking through it singing.”</p>
<p>Ukraine fits into this pattern perfectly. Entering the competition in 2003, it won the very next year in 2004 with Ruslana’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIDz8lIeVYA">fiery leather-clad performances of “Wild Dances</a>.” In 2005, Ukraine sent GreenJolly, which performed “Razom Nas Bahato (Together We Are Many),” a celebration of the Orange Revolution. More recently, Ukraine was victorious in 2016 with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxS6eKEOdLQ">Jamala’s “1944</a>,” an elegiac meditation on former Russian dictator Josef Stalin’s forced removal of the Tatars from Crimea. </p>
<p>The historical reference allowed Ukraine to circumvent the European Broadcasting Union’s prohibition on politics by claiming to investigate and commemorate an event from the past, while also obviously protesting Russia’s 2014 invasion and annexation of Crimea. </p>
<p>Facing Russian aggression once again, it looks like Ukraine has a good chance of winning Eurovision in 2022. According to oddsmakers, as of May 13, 2022, it had a <a href="https://eurovisionworld.com/odds/eurovision">60% chance of winning</a>.</p>
<p>Assuming Ukraine does well or even wins, the Song Contest will reconfirm and reestablish the boundaries of liberal Western Europe.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140K">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179618/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Deam Tobin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Politics have never been that far away from the Eurovision Song Contest. Since its inception, the annual event has reflected the political culture and geopolitical realities of Europe.Robert Deam Tobin, Henry J. Leir Chair in Language, Literature and Culture, Clark UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1741252021-12-23T10:09:37Z2021-12-23T10:09:37ZChristmas music: is there a magic formula behind festive chart-toppers?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438648/original/file-20211221-23-dtc6wr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>There is probably no chart position more fought over than the Christmas number one. This year, it looks like <a href="https://inews.co.uk/culture/music/christmas-number-1-who-odds-xmas-2021-when-announced-1360687">LadBaby</a> will steal their fourth chart win in a row — a new record if successful — with a song featuring Elton John and Ed Sheeran. But what does it really take to propel a song to the coveted spot during another COVID Christmas? And what makes for good Christmas music — the kind that we want to consume throughout the festive season?</p>
<p>We know Christmas music when we hear it, but it’s not always obvious what features (if any) it needs to have to pass the yuletide test. Plenty of explicitly Christmas-themed songs will have certain musical characteristics, even though they’re <a href="https://edinburgh.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.3366/edinburgh/9780748628087.001.0001/upso-9780748628087-chapter-8">always optional</a>. These include a major key, an accessible pitch range and a moderate tempo, making them both easier to sing and easier on the ear. Certain sounds, too, like sleigh bells, the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10B3e3k6CVs">celeste</a>, the glockenspiel, and a choir also signal the holiday. For over a month, this music <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Key+Terms+in+Popular+Music+and+Culture-p-9780631212645">is ubiquitous</a>: people do not necessarily pay for or try to hear it, but it’s there anyway, like acoustic wallpaper.</p>
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<h2>The Christmas blues</h2>
<p>The fact that it’s hard to escape Christmas music might account for the eye-rolling that greets it every year. It’s understandable that we might recoil from the sound of yet more Slade and sleigh bells in the context of overflowing car parks and endless queues. </p>
<p>Sometimes the music’s idealised qualities can even instil melancholy. Hearing a romanticised version of family and togetherness <a href="https://edinburgh.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.3366/edinburgh/9780748628087.001.0001/upso-9780748628087-chapter-7">can provoke</a> a keener sense of their absence, and lock out <a href="https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/christmas-2020-how-to-protect-mental-health#3.-Addressing-loneliness">listeners who</a> cannot join in the reindeer games. </p>
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<p>The artificial or fantastical side to the music can be even more off-putting given the commercialised climate in which these sentiments are shared. The very idea of chasing the top spot on the chart appears in some ways disconnected from the “true meaning” of Christmas. It suggests competitive zeal and commercial reward rather than communal values and selflessness. This tension might be one reason why several performers have hitched their chart bid to charitable causes.</p>
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<h2>A festive chart rebellion</h2>
<p>Yet for all the ways it is easy to tire of Christmas songs’ excesses, to many people it <em>matters</em> what music we should value at this time of year. People notice the music’s political and ideological trajectory and can mount a rebellion when they feel that the falseness has gone too far. </p>
<p>Look no further than the successful campaign in 2009 to install Rage Against the Machine’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWXazVhlyxQ">Killing In The Name</a> at the top of the UK chart and prevent yet another X Factor single from being number one. It was everything Christmas songs are not, or at least not supposed to be (although there is certainly some form of protest, albeit of a less revolutionary kind, in <a href="https://youtu.be/flA5ndOyZbI">John Lennon’s Happy Xmas</a> and Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas). </p>
<p>It indicated that some people care whether the number one position goes to <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8423340.stm">another schmaltzy ballad</a>. I suspect listeners did not need an excuse to rebel against X Factor’s then-monopoly, but the fact that the campaign happened at Christmas suggests that the rebels found a cause.</p>
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<h2>The power of pop</h2>
<p>This upset, however, is a departure from the norm. One has only to look at the list of <a href="http://irishcharts.ie/christmas/christmas.htm">Christmas number ones</a> to see on the one hand their variety, but on the other, how they gravitate towards a particular type of popular music. In trying to define pop, the rock writer <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-companion-to-pop-and-rock/pop-music/35A2D173E6ED1941E67FE80DCA9628CE">Simon Frith considered</a> it to be what is left when one strips away rock, country and the other venerable popular genres. </p>
<p>The leftover category of “pop”, loosely defined, is designed to appeal to everyone: often family-orientated, musically conservative, professionally produced, unobtrusive, and a conduit for cliché and commonplace emotional states like “love, loss, jealousy”. How Frith characterises this residual class of music resonates strongly with typical Christmas music. </p>
<p>As he also points out, such music, despite its purported banality, can be put to affecting use. Its participatory quality and way of gathering memories and associations lend themselves to ritual and strong personal resonances.</p>
<p>These factors, among others, might help explain why we gravitate towards such music at this time of year. Looking at the influence of Victorian Britain on modern Christmas celebrations, the musicologist <a href="https://edinburgh.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.3366/edinburgh/9780748628087.001.0001/upso-9780748628087-chapter-7">Sheila Whiteley highlights</a> the importance of family (both literal and the wider idea), as well as a “utopia of shared values”. Perhaps this sense of sharedness pushes the significance of Christmas week’s number one beyond that of whatever is at the top of the charts at any other time of the year. </p>
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<p>The number one place is the result of a popularity contest among music fans. While the metrics <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.190944">have changed</a> across the decades, the principle of success has not. Chart positions represent a ranking arrived at nationally, suggesting a consensus, even if you were not among those who supported the winner. </p>
<p>Perhaps something is appealing in the perception that people — without necessarily meaning to — have sent something to the top of a public list, indicating that many others enjoy it. It hints at the social and communal. </p>
<p>Perhaps the specific holiday also multiplies these factors and makes them that bit more important. It appears to represent consensus at a time when animosities and hostilities are to be set aside (in theory at least) and when a social rapprochement descends like light snow for a couple of days. In particular, our need for a sense of togetherness cannot be underestimated amid COVID restrictions and reduced social interaction. The feeling of common consent, tacit agreement and shared sensibilities appeals more keenly when people perceive its absence elsewhere.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174125/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Hodgers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Whether you love it or hate it, Christmas music is unavoidable during the holiday season. But what makes a Christmas number one, and why is the music of yule so meaningful?Jonathan Hodgers, Adjunct Research Fellow of Music, Trinity College DublinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1457982020-09-09T13:34:24Z2020-09-09T13:34:24ZWhat BTS breaking Billboard 100 means for pop as the industry knows it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357259/original/file-20200909-20-9g00re.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C1278%2C526&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdZLi9oWNZg&ab_channel=BigHitLabels">BTS/Youtube</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>K-pop supergroup BTS made pop history on August 31 when it became the <a href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/chart-beat/9442836/bts-dynamite-tops-hot-100-chart">first Korean group to have a number one single on the Billboard Hot 100</a> with their first wholly English-language single <a href="https://youtu.be/gdZLi9oWNZg">Dynamite</a>. The song topped Spotify’s <a href="http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20200823000062">Global Top 50 chart</a> and rose to number one on the iTunes charts in over 100 countries. It also set a <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/24/entertainment/bts-youtube-record-dynamite-intl-scli/index.html#:%7E:text=As%20of%20Monday%20morning%2C%20%22Dynamite,single%20sung%20completely%20in%20English">YouTube record</a> for the most views in 24 hours. BTS’s success, particularly on the Billboard Hot 100 recently, highlights the need to re-examine how we define pop music within the global music industry.</p>
<p>The Billboard Hot 100 and Top 200 are pop music’s apex. These charts are based on <a href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/8427967/billboard-changes-streaming-weighting-hot-100-billboard-200">three metrics</a> – streaming, radio airplay and digital sales in order of importance. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/464907/billboard-hot-100-celebrates-20-years-of-nielsen-data">radio component of the charts</a> is derived from monitoring radio airplay from over 1,200 radio stations throughout the US. Interestingly, in the week that Dynamite topped the charts, it didn’t enter the <a href="https://www.billboard.com/charts/radio-songs/2020-09-05,">Top 50 Radio Songs chart</a>. BTS’s, and to a wider extent K-pop’s, lack of western radio airplay has been a consistent bugbear.</p>
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<p>The reason that BTS was able to top the Billboard 100 without radio play was due to their fandom, <a href="https://twitter.com/ResearchBTS/status/1300587332240732160?s=20">ARMY</a>. ARMY has long realised that one way to ensure the success of their chosen group and their visibility within western media is through <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/12/asia/bts-fandom-army-intl-hnk/index.html">sales and streaming</a>. Media academics, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444814554895">Dal Yong Jin and Kyong Yoon</a> suggested that the lack of Korean pop content in mainstream media catalysed the development of the Korean pop culture social mediascape. </p>
<h2>Radio’s role</h2>
<p>While BTS was able to top without radio play, radio is still powerful in the US market and is music’s largest and most influential market. Around <a href="https://www.nielsen.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/06/audio-today-2019.pdf">272 million Americans still listen to radio</a>, with radio reaching more Americans than any other platform in 2019. The inclusion of radio airplay within the Billboard Hot 100 metric keeps the major charts bent in favour of English-language, particularly Euro-American (American, Canadian and British), music.</p>
<p>Language has been identified as one reason for the lack of mainstream media attention, with Dynamite’s success attributed to its <a href="https://www.scmp.com/yp/discover/entertainment/music/article/3100020/k-pop-superstars-bts-make-history-their-first-all">English-language content</a>. However, <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/bts/chart-history/billboard-200">BTS’s enduring popularity since 2016</a> and that of other K-pop groups such as <a href="https://eu.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2019/04/16/blackpink-can-k-pop-girl-group-become-next-spice-girls/3482394002/">BLACKPINK</a>, demonstrate the ability of significant sections of the Euro-American audience to enjoy non-English songs. </p>
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<p>The fact that K-pop, despite its popularity, continues to receive such low or non-existent radio play is arguably due to gatekeeping of <a href="http://210.101.116.28/W_files/kiss10/80700374_pv.pdf">radio</a> rather the preferences of the audience.</p>
<p>This exclusion applies to other languages on American radio. Despite <a href="https://telelanguage.com/spanish-speakers-united-states-infographic/#:%7E:text=Roughly%2053%20million%20people%2C%2041,Colombia%20(48%20million%20speakers">over 50 million Spanish speakers</a> in the US, only two Spanish language songs <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news%20/politics/2017/06/02">have charted in the top ten</a>.</p>
<p>The centres <a href="https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/The_world_according_to_iTunes_mapping_urban_networks_of_music_production/9484259">of the global music industry</a> have historically been London, New York and Los Angeles. This means that artists from these cities and English-language music have an outsized influence within the global music industry.</p>
<h2>Redefining pop</h2>
<p>Genre definitions are also an aspect of gatekeeping, which have historically kept Black, Asian and ethnic minorities and non-English speakers out of the hit parade. Radio stations programme according to genre. </p>
<p>Recently, there has been a move to define K-pop as a genre separate from pop, with the MTV VMAs including a K-pop category, <a href="https://variety.com/2019/music/news/bts-vmas-kpop-category-mtv-1203314934/">a move criticised for ghettoising K-pop</a> from pop. </p>
<p>K-pop insiders themselves disagree that K-pop is a distinct genre. Veteran K-pop journalist, Tamar Herman, wrote that K-pop was <a href="http://kultscene.com/fandom-not-genre-k-pop-surpasses-the-limitations-of-music/">a fandom</a> and an industry, rather than a genre. Likewise <a href="https://bigbangkpop.fandom.com/wiki/T.O.P">T.O.P</a>, of K-pop group Big Bang, known for its R&B and rap influences, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle%20/2016/03/03">noted that</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You don’t divide pop music by who’s doing it. We don’t say, for instance, “white pop” when white people make music. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Pop music can be defined in two ways. First, it is music that is popular on a mass scale. And, second, since rock and roll in the 50s, it is a <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Popular-Music-Concepts-Routledge-Guides-dp-1138680923/dp/1138680923/ref=dp_ob_title_bk">mass market melting pot of sonic influences</a>, including R&B, disco and dancehall. </p>
<p>K-pop fits both understandings. Among many accolades that demonstrate its mass popularity, BTS is the first group since <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/the-beatles/10030810/The-Beatles-chart-success-in-rivals-and-numbers.html">The Beatles</a> to have <a href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/8507983/bts-beatles-monkees-billboard-chart-history">three number one albums in a single year</a> on the Billboard 200 Chart. Music academics Hyunjoon Shin and Seung-Ah Lee noted in their book, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Made-Korea-Studies-Popular-Routledge/dp/1138793035">Made in Korea</a>, that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[K-pop] had the familiar twinges of R&B, rock, hip-hop, and soul that is so heavily used in contemporary western pop music.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>They also note that (one of) its main distinctions is its origin story.</p>
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<p>Black performers have long endured similar limiting genre definitions. In a year marked by Black Lives Matter protests, the music industry has been forced to question the systemic racism inherent in their genre labelling. The long criticised “<a href="https://www.nme.com/features/grammys-urban-music-tyler-the-creator-billie-eilish-2686106">urban</a>” music category has been disavowed by labels and the Grammys.</p>
<p>Upon winning the Grammy Best Rap Album for his 20202 album IGOR, <a href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/awards/8549244/tyler-the-creator-grammys-best-rap-album-win-backstage-comments-categories-urban">Tyler the Creator</a> said that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>They always put [us] in a ‘rap’ or ‘urban’ category … I don’t like that ‘urban’ word. To me, it’s just a politically correct way to say the N-word. Why can’t we just be in pop?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Foreign black performers have also long dealt with limiting genre definitions. Being relegated to reggae or urban stations and award categories has severely limited the hit prospects of <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/dancehall-reggae-jamaica-breakthrough-704969/">Jamaican reggae and dancehall musicians</a>. Despite dancehall being the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/27/arts/music/dembow-rhythm-drake-justin-bieber.html">sound of successive summers</a>, only Euro-American performers are programmed on pop stations, such as Ed Sheeran’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGwWNGJdvx8">Shape of You</a>.</p>
<p>Non-musical factors such as race, nationality and language have impacted BTS’s journey in the global music industry. When the Beatles had three number ones in one year in 1995-6, they won <a href="https://www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/beatles/16293">three Grammys</a>. BTS, for the same feat, received <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/bts-no-grammy-nominations-914664/">no Grammy nominations or awards</a>. However, the institution obviously recognises their importance, archiving suits they wore to the awards in the <a href="https://twitter.com/GRAMMYMuseum/status/1196898895030296576?s=20">Grammy Museum collection</a>.</p>
<p>BTS’s experience continues to expose the entrenched fissures around race, language and national origin in an industry which purports to be global. While K-pop has its distinctive characteristics, there are far-reaching political and economic implications of leaving K-pop out of pop’s definition.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145798/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kim-Marie Spence does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>BTS has broken record after record but the industry still discounts K-pop as not pop.Kim-Marie Spence, Postdoctoral Researcher in Pop and Global Cultural Industries (and Adjunct Lecturer, University of the West Indies), Solent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1336242020-03-30T17:28:45Z2020-03-30T17:28:45ZNo musical talent, no problem — there are now apps for that<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323400/original/file-20200326-133040-13lkr7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5607%2C3724&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Using apps like Boomy and Voisey, aspiring pop artists can now use their phones to record and distribute their music — no talent required.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A new social music app is pushing the boundaries of music creation by making recording artists out of novices with little to no musical training or traditional talent.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.voisey.app/">Voisey</a> allows users to choose from a library of beats from around the world, submitted to the Voisey website by producers, and sing their own lyrics and melodies over them. Their vocals are run through in-app vocal effects including auto-tune. The app is designed to make anyone sound like a star.</p>
<p>In 2019 alone, 350,000 original songs were created on Voisey, says co-founder Olly Barnes. Today, the app is live on Apple’s operating system in 22 countries. Producers, singer-songwriters and even average music fans can create professional-sounding, 60-second songs with collaborators from all over the world.</p>
<h2>Production and distribution</h2>
<p>While Spotify and other streaming platforms allow anyone to share their existing music with the world, Voisey takes it a step further by giving anyone with the app the ability to record and distribute a song on the platform in just minutes.</p>
<p>“I just write the song, I’m like, OK, I put that out … now I’m back to homework,” says Voisey user and Spanish artist, Ana Mancebo, who is currently working towards her bachelor’s degree in business in the United States. “You can pretty much make anyone sound like an artist.”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/B-Fd6xJpYMh","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Making music is innately human and it’s certainly nice for anyone to be able to create it. But these companies aren’t totally altruistic; they are money-making ventures, just like Spotify. </p>
<p>Voisey doesn’t disclose their user base, but as of January 2020, downloads of the app were growing 60 per cent week on week — all organic growth, without ads, according to Barnes. The music industry has its eyes and ears on Voisey too — the producing duo <a href="https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/a-year-after-selling-catalog-stargate-invests-in-voisey-app-calling-it-the-future-of-songwriting/">Stargate invested in the app</a> in 2019.</p>
<h2>Democratizing pop</h2>
<p>Voisey is an app that allows anyone to be a star. The app takes cues from TikTok — users can easily swipe through videos, like, comment and share — but the focus is on writing and producing original music. According to Barnes, 91 per cent of the songs on Voisey are originals. </p>
<p>Currently, the Voisey app is not monetized — creators are not paid for their content and the company isn’t paid for their service. But a vast catalogue of original music — and people looking for fame — can certainly be lucrative.</p>
<p>And Barnes has big plans for monetization. </p>
<p>“If we’re where music talent will crystalize for the first time, should we not see if we can help people bypass the traditional machine?” says Barnes. </p>
<p>He believes that much of the new music created on Voisey will be from first-timers who don’t yet have a music publisher and aren’t yet registered with performing rights organizations (the agencies that collect royalties on broadcast and performed music on behalf of the artists). The company is working on a program to non-exclusively administer music rights for some users on the platform. This means they could potentially take a fee.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2019/01/30/2018-streaming-music-price-bible/">Of course, it has been argued that streaming royalties aren’t enough</a>. In the 2010s, streaming services were lauded for <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4535479/spotify-just-turned-10-heres-how-its-impacted-music-alan-cross/">democratizing music and bringing back revenue to record labels</a>. Now, as we enter a new decade, it’s becoming clear that this democratization has also created a revenue stream for music streaming services. </p>
<p>In 2018, <a href="https://musically.com/2018/10/17/spotify-invests-in-distrokid-as-part-of-new-distribution-partnership/">Spotify partnered with Distrokid</a>, which charges $19.99 per year per artist to upload unlimited albums and songs to streaming services. And now, <a href="https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2020/03/04/spotify-expanding-pay-for-promotion/">Spotify is rolling out paid promotion</a>. There is money to be made from people who want to be artists.</p>
<h2>Pay-to-play features</h2>
<p>Rights administration is only a small part of Voisey’s monetization strategy. The company is not currently disclosing the model, but Barnes says that it’s inspired by “top-tier mobile games,” and while the core experience will be free, they will charge for an “enhanced” experience. </p>
<p>Could this include charging creators for certain vocal effects? Or for more than a certain number of songs each month? Or for distribution on streaming platforms? </p>
<p><a href="https://boomy.com/">Another new music creation technology, Boomy</a>, is already doing some of the things that Voisey might aspire to. </p>
<p>Boomy helps users make music with artificial intelligence. Users choose from various musical themes and genres, click a button, wait for the artificial intelligence to work its magic and decide if they like what they hear. If they don’t, they can just click “try again” and have something new created for them with the same theme or genre. </p>
<p>They can also choose to edit, which allows them to make simple changes like drag and drop sections of the song or change the tempo. More than 400,000 tracks have been created using Boomy, according to the counter on its website. </p>
<p>According to Boomy’s website, with a free account, a user has access to limited downloads, saves and features, and can create and release one single to streaming services. But to unlock more features and increase downloads and saves, a user can sign up for plans from US$2.99 to $9.99 per month.</p>
<p>And 70 per cent of Boomy users have never created a song before using the service, says Alex Mitchell, CEO of Boomy. But for a fee, Boomy will distribute the music they create and help them earn royalties from streams. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323403/original/file-20200326-133040-1m7kjrt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323403/original/file-20200326-133040-1m7kjrt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323403/original/file-20200326-133040-1m7kjrt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323403/original/file-20200326-133040-1m7kjrt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323403/original/file-20200326-133040-1m7kjrt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323403/original/file-20200326-133040-1m7kjrt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323403/original/file-20200326-133040-1m7kjrt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323403/original/file-20200326-133040-1m7kjrt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Hundreds of thousands of songs have been recorded and uploaded to music production apps and websites; the ability to monetize this could disrupt the pop music industry.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>“There’s an explosion in the streaming music environment, there’s a ton of royalties that are going to be flowing into the music business …. We want to make sure that you can take advantage of that growth, even if you are somebody who traditionally has not had access to music education, music resources,” says Mitchell. </p>
<p>Mitchell says that on average, royalties are around US$50 to $100 for the last couple of months.</p>
<p>Not too shabby for the creator, for as little as $2.99 per month and a few clicks-worth of their time. And not too shabby for Boomy, which in addition to upgrades, also takes a percentage of royalties from free users. </p>
<p>There is certainly still money to be made in the music business, but it remains to be seen if it is for the users of new music technologies, the companies behind those music technologies, traditional music business stakeholders or a combination of these.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/133624/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marina Eckersley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Aspiring singers can now use apps to record professional-sounding songs from their phones. This has the potential to disrupt the recording and publishing industry.Marina Eckersley, Dalla Lana Fellow in Global Journalism, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/962682018-05-10T01:17:09Z2018-05-10T01:17:09Z‘Schlager’, Scandi-pop and sparkles: your guide to the musical styles of Eurovision<p>In his acceptance speech for the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, Portuguese winner Salvador Sobral issued a <a href="http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/fans-and-artists-turn-on-eurovision-winner-over-controversial-speech/news-story/76954a352f42a09efb4af2aa31e15601">controversial call to arms</a> to “bring music back” to a place of meaning and feeling:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We live in a world of disposable music; fast-food music without any content. I think this could be a victory for music with people who make music that actually means something. Music is not fireworks; music is feeling.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It was a bold statement to make at a contest known – and loved – for its trashy Europop as much as it is for its heartfelt ethno-folk ballads or its diva swan songs. Eurovision music is diverse, encompassing both fast food and feelings. Over the years, it has developed its own sound and even its own genres.</p>
<h2>The classics</h2>
<p>The late Lys Assia’s <a href="https://youtu.be/IyqIPvOkiRk">Refrain</a>, the winning song of the inaugural Eurovision in 1956, best encapsulates the <em>chanson</em> style that dominated the contest for its first decade. Literally French for “song”, the term is used to describe any lyric-driven French song, but a song being in French does not immediately make it a <em>chanson</em>. </p>
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<p>This year’s entrant from Madame Monsieur, <a href="https://youtu.be/dHb-gWC-WTc">Mercy</a>, is contemporary electro pop that shares more with the pop music that superseded chanson after the 1960s. Many today would describe the <em>chanson</em> as old-fashioned, although others suggest it is a timeless genre. Although sung in Portuguese, Sobral’s <a href="https://youtu.be/Qotooj7ODCM"><em>Amar Pelos Dois</em></a> from 2017 recalls this style.</p>
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<p>The <em>canzone</em> is the Italian iteration of the chanson, exemplified by the iconic <a href="https://youtu.be/bES7I8ib_7A"><em>Nel blu dipinto di blu</em></a> by Domenico Modugno in 1958. Many would better know this song as <a href="https://youtu.be/5JEQIQmQa-c"><em>Volare</em></a> as covered by Dean Martin.</p>
<h2>The hits</h2>
<p>If the <em>chanson</em> dominated the 1950s and 1960s, <em>schlager</em> was undoubtedly the driving force from the 1970s until the early 2000s, when it integrated with Eurodisco and Eurodance. Although the term may not be familiar unless slurring your beer order, the style itself is perhaps the most recognisable to even the most casual Eurovision viewer. </p>
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<p>The origins of <em>schlager</em> are German, but forms of it can be found around Europe and are even recognisable in some American pop music. Meaning a “musical hit”, <em>schlager</em> refers to light pop music featuring catchy instrumentals and sentimental, usually non-political lyrics. </p>
<p>Nicole won the prize for Germany in 1982 with <a href="https://youtu.be/eBQ9ZoNkjFc"><em>Ein bißchen Frieden</em></a>, while Germany’s last winner in 2010, Lena’s effervescent <a href="https://youtu.be/8QSgNM9yNjo">Satellite</a>, is a quirky take on the <em>schlager</em> tradition.</p>
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<p><em>Schlager</em> itself is arguably less prominent at the contest in recent years, but we can see elements of it, fused with dance and folk elements, in DoReDos’ 2018 entry <a href="https://youtu.be/pKLKeVC-9Y4">My Lucky Day</a> for Moldova.</p>
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<h2>The traditional</h2>
<p>The fusion of different musical styles, especially traditional elements with contemporary trends, is one of the most appealing aspects of Eurovision as it presents international viewers with something different to the pop standard. </p>
<p>Ethno-folk fusions rose in popularity in the 1990s, arguably when “world music” caught on as a global trend from the late 1980s. From <a href="https://youtu.be/JPSZxPGv7dI">Celtic-inspired ballads</a> to <a href="https://youtu.be/TzKgojZqO5Y">bellydancing beats</a>, every year is replete with examples of this. </p>
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<p>Sanja Ilić and Balkanika, representing Serbia in 2018 with <a href="https://youtu.be/WkOFnIjGrkw"><em>Nova Deca</em></a>, have made it their mission to both preserve and modernise Balkan musical traditions. The song combines the Torlakian dialect of southeastern Serbia with standard Serbian, fusing traditional vocals and flute with contemporary singing and a dance beat. </p>
<p>Everyone’s favourite folk entry of recent years is undoubtedly the <a href="https://youtu.be/BgUstrmJzyc">Russian grannies</a> of 2012.</p>
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<h2>The niche</h2>
<p>As an event aimed at a family gathered around the modern hearth of the television, music with a more general appeal has been the standard for much of the contest’s history. Until, of course, Finnish heavy metal demon rockers Lordi surprised us all with their victory in 2006, <a href="https://youtu.be/gAh9NRGNhUU">Hard Rock Hallelujah</a>. </p>
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<p>Traditionally, rock does not fare well at Eurovision, so best of luck to Hungary’s AWS with <a href="https://youtu.be/6unRU5ZHbqY"><em>Viszlát Nyár</em></a> this year, which might draw in a few different punters with its reminiscence of Linkin Park’s oeuvre.</p>
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<h2>The mega-pop</h2>
<p>On the other end of the spectrum is Scandi-pop. Just as most of your favourite hits over the past 20 years have been written by <a href="https://www.billboard.com/photos/7378263/max-martin-hot-100-no-1-hits-as-a-songwriter">one Swedish mastermind writer/producer</a> (Max Martin, who has written everything from Britney Spear’s One More Time to Taylor Swift’s Bad Blood), Swedish songwriters dominate Eurovision, spruiking their wares across the continent.</p>
<p>For example, this year’s Maltese entry, <a href="https://youtu.be/E_0ugf0eP1Q">Taboo</a>, sung by Christabelle, was written by none other than Thomas G:son, who penned everyone’s (well, OK, my) favourite winner from the past ten years, <a href="https://youtu.be/Pfo-8z86x80">Euphoria</a> by Loreen. </p>
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<p>The one to watch this year, however, is Finland’s more congenial answer to Lady Gaga, Saara Aalto. (Although she won’t be singing it in the contest, her 34-language version of her entry <a href="https://youtu.be/L9Y3AxgV1f4">Monsters</a> is worth a listen.)</p>
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<h2>Time for a toilet break?</h2>
<p>Our final category can cross all musical genres: the ballad. Broadly defined as a slow-tempo song (known by some as the toilet-break songs), the ballad can dampen the party mood pretty quickly, so it is the song type that everyone loves to hate (but also secretly love). </p>
<p>According to number-crunching fan site <a href="https://www.escdaily.com/israel-can-only-win-eurovision-if-8-ballads-qualify-from-the-semi-finals/#">ESC Daily</a>, ballads usually account for about 40% of entries each year. Time your toilet breaks well, for there are fewer this year than last year and those that remain each offer something a little different.</p>
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<p>Iceland’s <a href="https://youtu.be/Pm1YaJceg5c">Ari Ólafsson</a> and Germany’s <a href="https://youtu.be/o_xTETHwIQg">Michael Schulte</a> provide more traditional ballads, but Portugal’s <a href="https://youtu.be/kaVp4El9p3s">Cláudia Pascoal and Isaura</a> and Latvia’s <a href="https://youtu.be/uBlZsGxeXk4">Laura Rizzotto</a> provide unique contemporary styling on the slow-tempo song. Also, don’t miss Elina Nechayeva’s operatic <a href="https://youtu.be/76KOUIfDry8"><em>La Forza</em></a>.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/76KOUIfDry8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The diversity of musical styles this year is great – a veritable food court of choices from fast food to fine dining. Sadly, however, there is no <a href="https://youtu.be/ZSHc7iDuBCQ">rap yodelling</a> on the menu … </p>
<hr>
<p><em>The 2018 Eurovision Grand Final will be broadcast on SBS on Sunday May 13.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96268/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jess Carniel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Since it began in the 1950s, Eurovision has embraced everything from metal to the global juggernaut of Scandi-pop, and of course the Eurodance and disco synonymous with Eurovision.Jess Carniel, Senior Lecturer in Humanities, University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/773962017-05-14T07:57:22Z2017-05-14T07:57:22ZFireworks, feelings, and fraught relations at Eurovision 2017<p>For one week in May, the bleary-eyed in our workplaces are not the sports fans following northern hemisphere leagues, nor are they the new parents. They are Eurovision fans. And we are legion.</p>
<p>The Eurovision Song Contest offers its fans glitz (or at least glitter), glamour, politics, intrigue, increasingly limited lessons in how to count in French and, of course, music. This year’s contest, hosted by Ukraine in Kyiv, offered up these elements in spades with music, in the words of Portuguese winner Salvador Sobral, proving to be the ultimate victor. As he effused in his acceptance speech,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This could be a victory for music, with people who make music that actually means something. Music is not fireworks, music is feeling!</p>
</blockquote>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/z5VUti3kVIo?wmode=transparent&start=90" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Portugal’s reprise performance after winning Eurovision 2017.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Indeed, it was the charm and emotional intensity of Sobral’s performance of Amar Pelos Dois at both the first semi-final and the grand final that won over both popular and jury voters. The gentle, lyrical jazz/pop ballad was written by his sister, Luisa Sobral, a graduate of the esteemed Berklee College of Music in Boston, and is Portugal’s first win. </p>
<p>As Salvador suffers from a heart condition that requires frequent rest and medical attention, Luisa took his place in the rehearsals throughout the week. Fans were finally treated to her own singular vocals when she joined her brother on stage for the <a href="https://youtu.be/z5VUti3kVIo?t=1m30s">victor’s reprise</a>.</p>
<h2>Pop politics</h2>
<p>Portugal’s victory was a surprise to many – and several expressed displeasure at how Sobral’s acceptance speech derided pop music and by extension his fellow contestants. It was an upset for Italy’s <a href="https://eurovision.tv/participant/francesco-gabbani/info">Francesco Gabbani</a> who had led the bookmaker’s favourites until Saturday afternoon.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169201/original/file-20170514-3659-1kqbwik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169201/original/file-20170514-3659-1kqbwik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169201/original/file-20170514-3659-1kqbwik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169201/original/file-20170514-3659-1kqbwik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169201/original/file-20170514-3659-1kqbwik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169201/original/file-20170514-3659-1kqbwik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169201/original/file-20170514-3659-1kqbwik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169201/original/file-20170514-3659-1kqbwik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Italy’s Francesco Gabbani performs the song Occidentali’s Karma: he had been the bookies’ favourite.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gleb Garanich/Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But odds are never a sure thing. Last year’s favourite Sergey Lazarev (Russia) led the odds, only to come in third to Ukraine’s Jamala and Australia’s Dami Im.</p>
<p>It also signals the first non-English language win at Eurovision since Serbia’s <a href="https://youtu.be/FSueQN1QvV4">Marija Šerifović</a> in 2007. While there are currently no rules about the language used in submissions, from 1966 to 1999 (with the exception of three years), it was a requirement that songs be performed in one of the official languages of the country. These days only a handful of artists perform in their own language each year, preferring to sing in English.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169199/original/file-20170514-3672-ohrhvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169199/original/file-20170514-3672-ohrhvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169199/original/file-20170514-3672-ohrhvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169199/original/file-20170514-3672-ohrhvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169199/original/file-20170514-3672-ohrhvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169199/original/file-20170514-3672-ohrhvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169199/original/file-20170514-3672-ohrhvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169199/original/file-20170514-3672-ohrhvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sobral celebrates the win.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gleb Garanich/Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Still, the tide could be turning on the popularity of English lyrics at Eurovision. While the number of entries has not necessarily increased, their popularity has. All non-English acts qualified from the semi-finals - Portugal was joined by crowd favourites in Hungarian and Belarusian – and France, Spain and Italy sang in their own languages. (Croatia also warrants a mention, as <a href="https://eurovision.tv/participant/jacques-houdek/info">Jacques Houdek’s</a> My Friend includes operatic Italian lyrics.)</p>
<p>With the exception of Germany, which placed second-last, the Big 5 (France, Italy, Spain, Germany and the UK) performed solidly. These are the biggest financers for the contest, and in return qualify automatically for final.</p>
<h2>Brexit at Eurovision</h2>
<p>Eurovision and the UK have had a bumpy relationship, and at least one survey suggests a <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/news/2017/05/12/first-came-brexit-now-britain-wants-leave-eurovisi/">British vote to leave Eurovision</a> would have the same result as the EU referendum. </p>
<p>Over the past decade, the UK has done notoriously poorly at Eurovision. Hostility from Eurovision audiences toward the UK is primarily based on the opinion that they do not take Eurovision seriously, withholding quality performers and songs. On occasion the UK has defended itself, citing politics for its poor performance. In 2003, both BBC commentator Terry Wogan and performer Chris Cromby responded to the no-score result for Jemini’s off-key performance by accusing Europe of <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2935874.stm">post-Iraq backlash</a> against the UK. There may be some truth to this claim (Jemini’s dressing room was allegedly vandalised). </p>
<p>This year’s entry, <a href="https://eurovision.tv/participant/lucie-jones/info">Lucie Jones</a> singing Never Give Up On You (penned by Danish Eurovision-winner Emmelie de Forrest, Daniel Salcedo, and Lawrie Martin), was doubtless a concerted effort by the UK to reverse this view, and was seen by some as a post-Brexit apology. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169198/original/file-20170514-3649-1qzpjzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169198/original/file-20170514-3649-1qzpjzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169198/original/file-20170514-3649-1qzpjzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169198/original/file-20170514-3649-1qzpjzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169198/original/file-20170514-3649-1qzpjzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169198/original/file-20170514-3649-1qzpjzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169198/original/file-20170514-3649-1qzpjzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169198/original/file-20170514-3649-1qzpjzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">UK’s Lucie Jones performing Never Give Up on You.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gleb Garanich/Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“I’ll never give up on you,” Jones belted beautifully, “You’re the one that I’m running to/Just give me your hand and hold on/Together we’ll dance through this storm.” </p>
<p>As many of the economic and political ties between Europe and the UK are dissolved, cultural connections like Eurovision will become even more important to sustain.</p>
<p>While the UK is staying in the contest for the time being, <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/3555930/israel-quits-eurovision-2017-live-on-air-after-44-years/">Israel sadly announced its departure</a> from the competition live on air during the voting. Israel’s public broadcaster IBA closed down this week. Its replacement channel, Kan, doesn’t satisfy the requirements of Eurovision membership.</p>
<p>Bloc voting remains a key characteristic of Eurovision, but the trend hit a sour note with the punters this year as the crowds booed obvious vote-swaps between Greece and Cyprus during the jury vote.</p>
<h2>Solid performance from Australia</h2>
<p>And how did Australia fare in its third time competing? Former X-Factor winner <a href="https://eurovision.tv/participant/isaiah/info">Isaiah Firebrace</a> still needs some time to find his comfort zone on the stage, but his grand final performance of Don’t Come Easy shed the problematic notes of the semi-finals to place ninth in the final tally.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RiXEMYUqa3w?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Isaiah Firebrace’s song for the 2017 contest.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Speaking of Australia and bum notes, viewers were mortified at the sudden appearance of an Australian flag-clad man baring his derriere during last year’s winner Jamala’s performance of her new song, I Believe In U. The good news (well, for Australians) is that the flasher has been revealed to be Ukrainian serial prankster, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitalii_Sediuk">Vitalii Sediuk</a>.</p>
<h2>Russian-Ukrainian tensions</h2>
<p>The Ukrainian hosts ended the show on a political note. Their closing declaration - “We are a tolerant, open, and modern country”- seems a pointed response to the criticisms and controversies that have courted Ukraine and the Kyiv production in the lead-up to this year’s competition. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169200/original/file-20170514-3689-c976p4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169200/original/file-20170514-3689-c976p4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169200/original/file-20170514-3689-c976p4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169200/original/file-20170514-3689-c976p4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169200/original/file-20170514-3689-c976p4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169200/original/file-20170514-3689-c976p4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169200/original/file-20170514-3689-c976p4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169200/original/file-20170514-3689-c976p4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ukraine’s O.Torvald performs the song Time in the final.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gleb Garanich/Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ukraine’s 2016-winning song 1944 referred to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-history-behind-ukraine-eurovision-song-about-stalins-deportation-of-crimean-tatars-55267">Stalin’s deportation of the Crimean Tartars</a>, and was interpreted by many – certainly by Russia – as commentary on the more recent annexation of Crimea. This prompted speculation about whether Russia would submit an entry at all in 2017. </p>
<p>Next, staff from Ukraine’s broadcaster walked out of the organising committee. Finally, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-11/russia-ukraine-clash-leaves-sour-note-at-eurovision/8513612">Russian-Ukrainian tensions</a> over Crimea reached boiling point (again) when Ukrainian authorities banned Russian contestant Yulia Samoylova from entering the country because a 2014 visit to the Crimea violated Ukrainian law. The European Broadcasting Union offered two solutions that would enable Russian participation, but Russia elected instead to withdraw from the contest.</p>
<p>With this in mind, Portugal offers a fairly benign respite from the political turmoil of 2016-17 - Sabrol’s challenge to pop music notwithstanding. I look forward to seeing what they, the rest of Europe and, of course, Australia have to offer. See you again at 5am next May.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77396/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jess Carniel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As always, Eurovision 2017 blended pop and politics. Russia was missing from the Ukrainian-hosted contest, and the UK had healing words, post Brexit.Jess Carniel, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/774952017-05-10T23:04:24Z2017-05-10T23:04:24ZWhat I discovered inside Edinburgh’s museum of musical instruments<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168750/original/file-20170510-28075-1nvsx94.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">St Cecilia's Hall.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Cecilia%27s_Hall">Wikimedia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>You can’t often travel around the world, traversing six centuries in just ten paces. But that’s the offering at Edinburgh’s Musical Instruments Museum, one of the world’s leading collections of its kind. Situated just off the Royal Mile in the Scottish capital, it reopened on May 11 after three years of refurbishment. </p>
<p>The museum is housed in St Cecilia’s Hall, the oldest purpose-built concert hall in Scotland. This Georgian grande dame of British music history has just completed a <a href="http://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/library-museum-gallery/museums-and-galleries/musical-instrument-museums/sch">£6.5m redevelopment project</a>. I arranged a sneak preview of the collection ahead of the opening to see what it has in store. </p>
<p>The study of musical instruments, known as organology, is an often overlooked branch of music. Yet in the age before sound recording, nothing can get us as close to the musical soundscapes of Mozart and Bach as the actual tools of their time. </p>
<p>St Cecilia’s Hall consolidates a collection it previously shared with another building. Spread over four galleries, it displays a selection of some 6,000 instruments (there’s also an online repository of sounds <a href="http://www.euchmi.ed.ac.uk/ujia.html">here</a>). </p>
<h2>Peacocks and sax appeal</h2>
<p>Stepping from the entrance vestibule into the Laigh Hall gallery on the ground floor, you are whisked from the Renaissance to the 21st Century, from North America to Asia and back again. A small violin with no sides, made before the shape we know today became the norm, is by the Bassano family – a famous group of Italian instrument makers employed at the court of Henry VIII. </p>
<p>A few paces to the right is the visually enticing Indian mayuri. From the 19th century, and also probably from a courtly setting, it is carved and richly decorated to look like a peacock to represent <a href="http://www.sanatansociety.org/hindu_gods_and_goddesses/saraswati.htm">Saraswati</a>, the Hindu goddess of music. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168719/original/file-20170510-28078-rkp1th.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168719/original/file-20170510-28078-rkp1th.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168719/original/file-20170510-28078-rkp1th.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168719/original/file-20170510-28078-rkp1th.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168719/original/file-20170510-28078-rkp1th.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168719/original/file-20170510-28078-rkp1th.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168719/original/file-20170510-28078-rkp1th.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168719/original/file-20170510-28078-rkp1th.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The 19th-century mayuri.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://images.is.ed.ac.uk/luna/servlet/detail/UoEart~2~2~73102~164129:Peacock-vina---top-view?qvq=q%3Apeacock%3Bsort%3Awork_creator_details%2Cwork_title%2Cwork_display_date%2Cwork_technique&sort=work_creator_details%2Cwork_title%2Cwork_display_date%2Cwork_technique&mi=16&trs=23#">University of Edinburgh</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Through into the Wolfson gallery, you are accosted by a four-and-a-half-foot serpent: a wind instrument. Originally devised in the late 16th century, it was meant to be used for church music, but was also included in orchestral works by composers such as Mozart and Wagner. This <a href="http://collections.ed.ac.uk/mimed/record/18242?highlight=contrabass+serpent">oversized example</a>, known technically as a contrabass serpent, is a more recent creation made around 1840. </p>
<p>Keeping the serpent company is a quartet of saxophones from the workshop of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Antoine-Joseph-Sax">Adolphe Sax</a>, the Belgian who invented them in the 1840s. Like the serpent’s influence on the bass range of the orchestra with the ultimate creation of the tuba, Sax’s invention had most impact on jazz and pop. Behind these somewhat clunky originals is a sad story, however: Sax died in poverty in 1894 at the dawn of jazz.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168723/original/file-20170510-28092-5d0pbr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168723/original/file-20170510-28092-5d0pbr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168723/original/file-20170510-28092-5d0pbr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1033&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168723/original/file-20170510-28092-5d0pbr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1033&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168723/original/file-20170510-28092-5d0pbr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1033&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168723/original/file-20170510-28092-5d0pbr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1299&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168723/original/file-20170510-28092-5d0pbr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1299&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168723/original/file-20170510-28092-5d0pbr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1299&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Ye olde Gibson.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://images.is.ed.ac.uk/luna/servlet/detail/UoEart~2~2~51942~104337:English-guitar--W-Gibson----FRONT?qvq=q%3Agibson%3Bsort%3Awork_creator_details%2Cwork_title%2Cwork_display_date%2Cwork_technique&sort=work_creator_details%2Cwork_title%2Cwork_display_date%2Cwork_technique&mi=6&trs=101">University of Edinburgh</a></span>
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<p>At the other side of the gallery, a selection of plucked and bowed western instruments display a variety lost to 19th-century orchestral standardisation. An English guitar by William Gibson from 1772 sits beside an electric Fender Telecaster: the former used mainly by women to display their talents and attract an eligible husband, and the latter vice versa two centuries later. </p>
<p>A tiny dancing-master’s fiddle from the mid-17th century, known as a pochette, was used to accompany dance lessons in preparation for the frequent balls and assemblies – essentially an early form of speed dating. </p>
<p>There’s also a clutch of <em>violas d’amore</em>, or violas of love. As well as the name and eye-catching design, additional resonant strings create an unusual sweet and enveloping sound that would undoubtedly have been used to woo the opposite sex. </p>
<h2>Ebony and ivory</h2>
<p>The two upstairs galleries house countless keyboard instruments, many still frequently used in concert. Dressed in slightly unsympathetic red leather panels, the Binks gallery exhibits instruments from the famed <a href="http://www.ruckersgenootschap.be/HIS.php">Ruckers workshop of Antwerp</a>, the <a href="http://aviolinslife.org/stradivari/">Stradivari</a> of the harpsichord world. </p>
<p>Beside these examples of perfection sit fakes and forgeries, such as the Goermans harpsichord of 1764, altered in the 1780s by the French craftsman <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pascal-Taskin">Pascal Taskin</a>. Taskin made the instrument appear not only a hundred years older, but to also hail from the Ruckers family. That Goermans was still making harpsichords in Paris at the time just a short walk from Taskin’s workshop raises questions of his complicity. </p>
<p>Next door in the 1812 gallery is a clavichord made in Hamburg by Johann Adolph Hass, one of the best makers of his generation. Made in 1763 – the year St Cecilia’s Hall was built – it would effectively be impossible to reproduce today with its use of tortoiseshell, mother-of-pearl, rosewood, kingwood and ivory. </p>
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<p>There is also a dinky harpsichord known as an octave spinet. Reminiscent of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuQBjuySvyw">Schroeder’s toy piano</a> in Peanuts, it could be easily transported for use during travel, or moved around the home to accompany singing – quiet instruments such as spinets and clavichords were designed for domestic use. </p>
<p>It sits next to the Burkat Shudi harpsichord of 1766, an impressive instrument with two keyboards. It had a variety of stops to vary its tone, which was used before the more versatile piano became the parlour mainstay. Believed to have been owned by the Duke of Hamilton in Naples, the below painting by the Italian artist Pietro Fabris places the duke and Kenneth MacKenzie, 1st Earl of Seaforth, at a concert party with Mozart and his father Leopold. </p>
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<span class="caption">Pietro Fabris: Kenneth Mackenzie at home in Naples.</span>
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<p>The Hamiltons were musical, and it is <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2002/mar/04/entertainment/et-swed4">noted that</a> the Mozarts visited their home in 1770 and that Hamilton’s first wife, Catherine, performed on the harpsichord for the great composer. She is likely to have played on this Shudi, which raises the possibility that Mozart himself may have passed his hands over its keys. The instrument is still playable today, so it is possible to briefly inhabit Mozart’s Neapolitan soundscape on a visit to the museum. </p>
<p>In sum, Edinburgh boasts a thrilling collection of bygone instruments. Most museums let us passively observe history, but the musical palettes on display here are a chance to truly step back in time. It shows how organology can improve our understanding of the past from a more cultural perspective than most museum artefacts. This is not just a collection of musical instruments, it is a snapshot of who we were before.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77495/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachael Durkin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Scottish capital is reopening a well kept secret: one of the world’s finest collections of vintage sound machines.Rachael Durkin, Lecturer in Music, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/761872017-04-21T10:30:35Z2017-04-21T10:30:35ZPurple Reign: the sublime mystery of Prince<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165915/original/file-20170419-2392-140onma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/budapest-hungary-aug-9-rock-pop-89857048">Northfoto/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A year on from his death and Prince remains firmly in the public consciousness as an iconic force in the world. Ever since the news that he was found dead at his Paisley Park estate of an <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36436767">accidental drug overdose</a> aged just 57, the music world, fans and public alike have sought to mark his contribution both to music and wider culture. </p>
<p>Prince once <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/feb/19/urban.popandrock">told the Guardian</a>:
“What’s missing from pop music is danger. There’s no excitement and mystery.” Reflecting on his death and the public reaction and media coverage since April 2016, this may well be key to his iconic status. Perhaps he provided just that which he said was missing. He gave us danger, mystery and excitement in a way no other artist did. </p>
<p>And in a culture where oversharing is standard, Prince remained an elusive star. It appeared that few people really knew him. He was reluctant to discuss anything but music with the media. He didn’t allow interviewers to record him and responded in ways that tended towards the cryptic, which many found frustrating.</p>
<p>As someone who has admired his career for decades, it is also his ability to access the sublime that was so captivating. To transcend boundaries throughout his career that cemented his status in life and perhaps even more so in death. Once <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/a-final-visit-with-prince-rolling-stones-lost-cover-story-20160502">describing himself</a> as “music” itself, Prince was the embodiment of being oneself and expressing that through music.</p>
<h2>Sublime</h2>
<p>The concept of the sublime – the quality of greatness or grandeur that inspires awe and wonder – emerged in the 17th century. The emotions it inspires have been a source of inspiration for artists and writers ever since. While not easily applied to many figures in contemporary popular culture, this term is fitting for an artist as prolific as Prince. </p>
<p>First and foremost, this was evident through his musical output. A virtuoso musician, Prince was adept at revealing the elegance in many genres of music. He presented exquisite melodies and lyrics wrapped up in an ornate and often dramatic package. His 2007 Super Bowl halftime show – widely considered to the best of any artist – exemplifies his performance style.</p>
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<p>His performance aesthetic was unlike anyone else’s and he pioneered an approach that has been much copied but never rivalled. Prince was bold, unapologetic and mesmerising. His approach was not to self-censor but to celebrate his preoccupation with sex – in songs like Cream and Sexy MF – and let the public decide whether or not they liked it.</p>
<p>Another aspect of Prince’s sublimity was evident in the way he displayed a distinct disregard for boundaries. His refusal to accept limits or preconceived ideas surrounding genre, race or gender was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/apr/21/prince-broke-expectations-black-american-men-musical-genius-performances">evident</a> in almost every part of his work. In so much of his musical output, race and gender struggles were front and centre.</p>
<p>Prince transcended gender norms in ways that had rarely been seen in mainstream music. He played with racial, sexual and gender signifiers in such a bold way and rejected black patriarchal stereotypes and cliches.</p>
<p>His sensual style left a subversive mark upon popular culture and certainly one that expanded expressions of gender and eroticism for both performers and the consumers of his image and music far beyond the conventional. He was <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/04/23/prince-gender-masculinity-femininity_n_9760080.html">both macho and feminine</a> and embraced gender ambiguity. There are many examples where this is evident, not least the cover for Prince’s 1988 Lovesexy album in which he poses nude.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166259/original/file-20170421-12655-1r87476.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166259/original/file-20170421-12655-1r87476.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166259/original/file-20170421-12655-1r87476.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166259/original/file-20170421-12655-1r87476.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166259/original/file-20170421-12655-1r87476.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166259/original/file-20170421-12655-1r87476.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166259/original/file-20170421-12655-1r87476.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Prince’s 1988 Lovesexy album.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/emsef/27043295701/in/photolist-axPoQ-GokyYB-drgp57-29pNU-drfDdk-dodTuN-qvPiWy-2BDy6X-pydE8G-2JPwNG-vDVDD-2JKcWn-Fy7Efz-drfCUH-vThrG-DeN9p-HcHXCZ">Matt Sephton/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Time magazine <a href="http://entertainment.time.com/2012/04/20/top-10-controversial-album-covers/slide/prince-lovesexy/">declared it</a> “One of the most controversial album covers of all time”. Not only does Prince present himself naked but he incorporates conventionally feminine iconography. Flowers burst into bloom all around him, his arm covers his chest and he gazes demurely into the distance. </p>
<p>Then, in 1993, he changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol that fused the male and female symbols together.</p>
<p>Prince was a <a href="http://www.independent.ie/style/celebrity/celebrity-news/mentor-prince-a-champion-for-women-singer-janelle-monae-35442094.html">champion of women</a>. He worked with many female musicians and engineers throughout his career. He produced and mentored numerous female groups and wrote songs that became hits for female pop stars, including Chaka Khan, Sinéad O’Connor, Sheena Easton, and the Bangles. </p>
<p>His rebellion against music industry straight-jacketing was one of the defining elements of his artistry. Just after turning 18, Prince signed a six-figure deal with Warner Bros. The contract stated that Prince would produce his own albums, starting his career with a highly unusual degree of artistic control. </p>
<p>In the mid-1980s, after the multimedia success of Purple Rain, he convinced Warner Bros to help him launch the Paisley Park Records label from his Minneapolis estate. But by the 1990s, he was appearing in public with the word “slave” on his cheek as a symbol of his <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/aug/10/history-prince-contractual-controversy-warner-paisley-park#img-1">dispute with the record company</a>.</p>
<p>It is rare that the term sublime can be used to truly describe an artist. But Prince was so brilliant and impossibly prolific that – whether loved or despised – it is hard to argue against it. He offered us new ways of seeing ourselves and those around us through his life and his music. And for that, he will remain forever sublime.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76187/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kirsty Fairclough works for University of Salford. Purple Reign: An interdisciplinary conference on the life and legacy of Prince is a three-day international academic conference hosted by the School of Arts and Media at the University of Salford and the Department of Recording Industry, Middle Tennessee State University, USA. The conference, taking place between 24th-26th May will provide fresh perspectives on the creative and commercial dimensions of Prince’s career, re-examining the meanings of his work in the context of his unexpected death.</span></em></p>A year after Prince’s death, fans the world over are still coming to terms with the loss of an uncompromising musical and cultural visionary.Kirsty Fairclough, Senior Lecturer in Media and Performance, University of SalfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/706152016-12-21T12:24:11Z2016-12-21T12:24:11ZJo Cox charity single: there’s no going back in the merging of pop and politics<p>It might seem odd, at a time when politicians are held in such low esteem, that a group of British MPs are part of a project that’s in the running to win an iconic popularity contest – the <a href="http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/prime-minister-theresa-may-backs-single-in-memory-of-jo-cox-aiming-for-official-christmas-number-1__17498/">Christmas Number 1 spot in the singles chart</a>. </p>
<p>Alongside a host of musicians including Steve Harley, David Gray and KT Tunstall, a cross-party group of MPs is appearing on a single to raise funds for the charitable foundation set up to continue the work of Batley and Spen MP <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/jo-cox-28509">Jo Cox</a>, who was murdered by hard-right winger Thomas Mair in the run-up to the Brexit referendum.</p>
<p>It’s a cover of the Rolling Stones song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqMl5CRoFdk">You Can’t Always Get What You Want</a>, also recently in the news when <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/donald-trump-the-rolling-stones-mick-jagger-responds-to-use-of-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want-a7407151.html">Donald Trump used it</a> after his victory speech. Cox’s internationalist, progressive vision was utterly at odds with Trump’s ethos, so there’s an aspect of the charity single that could be read as trying to reclaim the song from reactionary forces.</p>
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<p>But there are other factors at play, too. The single confirms the convergence of the popular cultural and political mainstreams. This trend has been increasingly evident from the political end for a long time. The New Labour 1997 campaign’s use of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmwqEg-06Ww">Things Can Only Get Better</a> was perhaps the high watermark of electoral success in conjunction with pop. It certainly illustrated the political turn towards a media friendly strategy in the “news bite” culture, and the increasing prominence, if not prevalence, of spin that followed in the wake of rolling television news and the expansion of the internet. </p>
<p>Public relations aside, it’s also unsurprising that politicians would naturally lean towards appearing on the Jo Cox single. Generations of MPs have now grown up with rock. The Parliamentary band MP4, whose members appear on the single, is an ongoing endeavour, as is the <a href="http://louderthanwar.com/rock-the-house-calls-for-musicians-to-enter-contest-with-finals-in-parliament/">Rock the House</a> competition. </p>
<p>Philip Hammond’s <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-38293156">decision to waive VAT on the single</a>, likewise, echoes not just the Stones’ decision to forgo their royalties from it but the “official” endorsement of previous chancellors to facilitate charitable releases. This was <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2016/07/13/music-tax-the-prime-minister-how-live-aid-changed-the-uk-and-the-world/#29aa1769cdad">a bone of contention</a> in the case of Do They Know It’s Christmas, which kick-started the charity single trend in 1984.</p>
<h2>Activism to fundraising</h2>
<p>But this Stones cover also reveals how the convergence of political activism and popular music has evolved since the 1980s. Post Live Aid, activist pop has slowly but surely moved from the realm of the social towards the commercial.</p>
<p>Pop’s interventions in activism and the policy sphere used to involve a stronger grassroots component at the forefront. From the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/aug/10/folk.politicsandthearts">Aldermaston</a> marches in the 1950s, where popular jazz marching bands provided the soundtrack, to the CND, through to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/apr/20/popandrock.race">Rock Against Racism</a> in the 1970s, political pop tended to be driven from the local sphere upwards. Drawing on this dynamic, and the association with a “counter culture” that had opposed the Vietnam war in the 1960s, the likes of Joan Baez appealed to a “rock community” at Live Aid. “This is your Woodstock,” were her opening remarks. </p>
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<p>But Geldof’s Live Aid emphasis was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUoSIf55FN0">explicitly on fundraising</a> and the use of top-down star power to both drive home the point and fill the coffers. This represented a profound shift in the association of pop and politics.</p>
<p>Consider the phenomenon of the “charity single” and the ironies and paradoxes that it embodies. On the one hand, it could be said to dilute pop’s capacity to speak for the margins, in the mainstream at least. Certainly the Stones – fronted by Sir Mick Jagger – have long made their peace with the establishment since the fraught relationship that existed when they wrote You Can’t Always Get What You Want. This was once a band clouded by controversy in the wake of <a href="https://www.iorr.org/talk/read.php?1,1755802,1756208">drug busts</a> and associations with <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopfeatures/6690506/The-Rolling-Stones-at-Altamont-the-day-the-music-died.html">Hells Angels</a>. No longer.</p>
<p>But while it is becoming easier for politicians to get directly involved in the pop process, the charity single may also make it easier for pop stars to have a direct effect – certainly one that’s measurable – albeit primarily in financial terms. Despite <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jun/24/g8.debtrelief">controversies</a> after the fact about the long-term effect of Live Aid, there’s little question about its fundraising capacity. Or about it cementing the idea of musicians as actors on the political stage.</p>
<h2>Shifting cultures</h2>
<p>This also echoes broader, underlying cultural and political shifts since the end of the 1970s. There’s been a general move away from notions of collective activity, community and the role of the state, towards the concept of individual responsibility. <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Rockin_the_Boat.html?id=wpbuz4Td3_4C&redir_esc=y">Reebee Garofalo</a> has compared the Live Aid model to Woodstock as representatives of pop politics: the latter embodying a communitarian ethos, the former framing the audience as consumers.</p>
<p>The ostensible onus on individuals to make a difference by digging into their wallets has been a central feature of pop’s claim to benefiting the public good since Live Aid. But even when there has been mobilisation around an issue and a specific policy focus, as with <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/thelive8event/lineupandartists/">Live 8 in 2005</a>, the scale of success is debatable. Arguably Geldof’s greatest diplomatic achievement at Live 8 was less in brokering any <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5128344.stm">lasting G8 action on third world debt</a> than getting the fractious <a href="http://ultimateclassicrock.com/pink-floyd-live-8-reunion/">members of Pink Floyd onto the same stage again</a> after decades of animosity. </p>
<p>This isn’t to decry the charity model. Nor to deny the activism that takes place further away from the pop centre – there’s still a need for a line between grassroots action and the corridors of power. In the long run, these changes just shine a light on the evolution of musical forms, and consequently their social and political positioning. With grassroots work increasingly oriented towards the internet, it’s perhaps inevitable that maturing forms like rock gravitate towards a space closer to the media and political centre.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70615/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam Behr receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council</span></em></p>MPs and rock songs may seem like odd bedfellows, but the charity single marks a longstanding shift in how music mobilises the masses.Adam Behr, Lecturer in Popular and Contemporary Music, Newcastle UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/681822016-11-03T16:02:48Z2016-11-03T16:02:48ZEarworms: why some songs get stuck in our heads more than others<p>Having a song stuck in one’s head, known as an earworm, is an experience that <a href="http://pom.sagepub.com/content/40/2/236">over 90% of us have on a regular basis</a>. In the last 10 years or so, researchers have begun to investigate this phenomenon, exploring such topics as how the earworm experience varies depending on <a href="http://www.doc.gold.ac.uk/%7Emas03dm/papers/MP2014_INMI_OCD_Mullensiefen.pdf">one’s personality traits</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/i-just-cant-get-you-out-of-my-head-how-to-eradicate-earworms-58094">how to get rid of an unwanted earworm</a>. This research has revealed a variety of important results, but one question remains that has still not been entirely answered: how do songs get into our heads in the first place?</p>
<p>There are a variety of reasons why a song might appear as an earworm that have little to do with the music itself. For instance, <a href="http://pom.sagepub.com/content/40/3/259">survey research</a> has indicated that earworms are commonly attributed to the recent or repeated hearing of a song. Some participants in this study also reported earworms triggered by memory associations, such as a word or image that reminded them of the lyrics to a song – I’ve had this experience several times on hearing the word “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvBfHwUxHIk">umbrella</a>”.</p>
<p>Additionally, we know that mood can have an impact, with some people reporting that they always get the same earworm when they are stressed, or people experiencing a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26122757">fast-tempo earworm</a> when they are in a very alert mood. And of course <a href="http://pom.sagepub.com/content/43/3/375">familiarity</a> with a song is a key contributor. Songs that you don’t know very well are less likely to pop up as earworms, possibly because earworm tunes need to be learnt to a high level in order for the brain to be able to replay them spontaneously without deliberate effort.</p>
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</figure>
<h2>What about the music?</h2>
<p>Despite this variety of extra-musical factors, the common anecdotal belief that certain features of the music itself could make a song more “catchy” or prone to getting stuck in one’s head had not yet been addressed in detail by researchers. But <a href="http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/aca-aca0000090.pdf">research that I have recently published</a> with my colleagues Daniel Müllensiefen, Sebastian Funnel, and Lauren Stewart represents the first large-scale study to specifically investigate the musical features that might increase the “earworminess” of a piece of music.</p>
<p>In this study, we surveyed 3,000 people and asked them what songs they most frequently experienced as earworms. From this, we were able to develop a list of the “top-named earworm” tunes from the years 2010-2013 (when the survey was conducted). This particular study focused exclusively on pop music, although we hope in future to extend this work to include other genres. The list is as follows:</p>
<ol>
<li><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrO4YZeyl0I">Bad Romance</a> by Lady Gaga</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c18441Eh_WE">Can’t Get You Out Of My Head</a> by Kylie Minogue</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcjzHMhBtf0">Don’t Stop Believing</a> by Journey</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY">Somebody That I Used To Know</a> by Gotye</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEPTlhBmwRg">Moves Like Jagger</a> by Maroon 5</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F57P9C4SAW4">California Gurls</a> by Katy Perry</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ">Bohemian Rhapsody</a> by Queen</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niqrrmev4mA">Alejandro</a> by Lady Gaga</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bESGLojNYSo">Poker Face</a> by Lady Gaga</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m1EFMoRFvY">Single Ladies</a> by Beyoncé / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYEDA3JcQqw">Rolling in the Deep</a> by Adele (tied for 10th place)</p></li>
</ol>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Most offending earworm.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Once we had this list of top earworms, we took the top 100 earworm tunes and created a comparable set of 100 tunes that had never been named as earworms by our survey participants. We made sure our non-earworm tunes were by similar artists and had achieved similar popularity, as measured by the UK music charts, since we know that recent hearing and familiarity with a song can have an influence on whether it becomes an earworm. So, for instance, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrO4YZeyl0I">Bad Romance</a> by Lady Gaga was matched to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Abk1jAONjw">Just Dance</a> – another popular Lady Gaga song that was not named as an earworm in the survey by anyone.</p>
<p>We then compared the earworm versus non-earworm songs in terms of over 80 features, including things like their pitch range, interval content, and rhythmic variability.</p>
<h2>Earworm qualities</h2>
<p>We found three melodic features to be key in predicting whether a song had been named as an earworm:</p>
<ol>
<li><p><strong>Tempo</strong>: Earworm tunes tended to be faster in tempo (speed) than non-earworms. The idea that our brain likes to throw upbeat tunes at us more often than slow tunes could be due to the <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09298215.2015.1084331?journalCode=nnmr20">relationship between movement and earworms</a> – many people get earworms when engaging in periodic movement like walking, running, or brushing their teeth.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Generic melodic shapes</strong>: Earworm tunes tended to have more generic overall melodic contours (shapes) than non-earworm songs. One example of a very common melodic contour is a rising pattern followed by a falling one, as seen in the first section of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and many other nursery rhymes, as well as the chorus to Bad Romance. Having a generic melodic shape might help our brain to be able to recall a song more easily and rehearse it in the mind.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Unusual interval patterns</strong>: Earworm tunes also tended to have some unique intervals, such as a larger number of leaps or an occasional bigger leap than is expected in “the average pop song”. The idea that earworm tunes need to be generally easy to remember in terms of melodic shape but also contain some unique patterns of intervals could be due to the brain searching for a sort of “Goldilocks” level of complexity in a melody – a melody that is not too simple but not too complex to remember either.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>So why should we care about what makes some songs stick in our heads more than others? </p>
<p>Research on earworms can help to inform us about how and why our brains spend up to 40% of our days thinking thoughts that are unrelated to our present task at hand. Ongoing research is investigating whether earworms might serve any functional purpose in our lives, such as helping us to memorise newly learnt music or regulating our moods throughout the day. </p>
<p>Research into the causes and “cures” for earworms may also have clinical applications in helping people experiencing conditions known as “<a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0887618514000851">musical obsessions</a>” or “<a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1532-5415.1989.tb05877.x/full">musical hallucinations</a>” to prevent or alleviate particularly problematic instances of imagined tunes.</p>
<p>And perhaps in the future, these factors could be of use to aspiring songwriters looking to create the perfect earworm song.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/68182/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kelly Jakubowski has received funding from the Leverhulme Trust for this research. </span></em></p>Results of the first large-scale study to specifically investigate the musical features that might increase the ‘earworminess’ of a song.Kelly Jakubowski, Music Psychologist, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/603992016-06-13T15:00:26Z2016-06-13T15:00:26ZBrexit and Britpop: Europeans have stronger cultural links to the UK thanks to English language music<p>As the European referendum campaigners try to outdo each other with spectacular claims and counterclaims about the risks and benefits of remaining in or leaving the EU, what has become clear is that it is <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/36407446">not just the Tory party</a> that is deeply divided on the issue, but <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/06/eu-referendum-leave-campaign-closes-gap-to-narrowest-margin-yet/">Britain as a whole</a>. </p>
<p>The ambivalence is even part of the “in” rhetoric, with statements frequently prefaced by assurances that the politician is “no lover of European bureaucracy” or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTLzRHrGHds">some such qualification</a>. And there are suspicions that even at the top there is a lack of wholehearted support for the European project, with both <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-35743994">Jeremy Corbyn</a> and <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/eu-referendum-dont-misread-eurosceptic-david-cameron-over-brexit-boris-johnson-warns-a6772006.html">David Cameron</a> having been accused of previously tending towards Euroscepticism.</p>
<p>The British problem with Europe is something which is not found to the same extent on the continent: not only do most people there <a href="https://www.cer.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/attachments/pdf/2011/essay_eurosceptic_19dec08-1345.pdf">feel more positive</a> about the “European Project”, but they also <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/mar/21/europe-britain-icm-poll">feel warmer</a> towards Britain than Britons feel towards their neighbours across the Channel.</p>
<p>The reasons for these feelings are obviously complex, but something which can play an important role is music. The English composer Vaughan Williams believed that folk songs could encapsulate the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VzxZBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA68&lpg=PA68&dq=vaughan+williams+folk+songs+spirit+of+a+nation&source=bl&ots=B0BdNCEhEo&sig=PqyA1ohg8dhMteWOcwTHS9w93ug&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZtfjVzJXNAhXMIsAKHQo0BvEQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=vaughan%20williams%20folk%20songs%20spirit%20of%20a%20nation&f=false">spirit of a nation</a>, and researchers today are finding strong links between <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Music-and-Identity-Politics/Biddle/p/book/9781409430384">music and identity</a> – be it national, regional, ethnic, or related to language or subculture. Many aspects of identity are mediated and reinforced by music. </p>
<p>Whereas Vaughan Williams harked back to an age when folk music was the staple of ordinary people, today its place has been taken by popular music. In fact, popular music, from rock to dubstep, cuts across social classes in a way that very few other art forms can. Crucially, it also crosses national boundaries, but it does so in unequal ways.</p>
<h2>The same songsheet</h2>
<p>The French top 40 singles chart at the time of writing is <a href="http://www.billboard.com/charts/france-songs">dominated by English songs</a>, which make up three-quarters of the list. In the same week’s chart for Europe, the first non-English song <a href="http://top40-charts.com/chart.php?cid=31">comes in at number 25</a>. In the German chart for this period, only <a href="http://top40-charts.com/chart.php?cid=12">six out of 40 tracks are not in English</a>. Most of these English titles are by British or US artists, though occasionally they will be by European acts singing in English. </p>
<p>This is not a recent phenomenon. Since the Beatles cut their teeth performing in the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/artsandculture/7949677/The-Beatles-in-Hamburg-50-years-on-from-the-bands-first-concert.html">red light district of Hamburg</a> in the early 60s, English language popular music, largely from England, has been an intimate part of the soundtrack of young people’s lives on the continent. This is reflected in the album listings, with seven out of 10 top-selling albums of all time in Germany being in English by acts which include Phil Collins, Genesis and Queen. </p>
<figure>
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</figure>
<p>Clearly this is not just about young people today, but young people over the last 50 years; in other words, most people alive now. It almost goes without saying that this traffic is mainly one way: the <a href="http://www.officialcharts.com/charts/uk-top-40-singles-chart/">equivalent charts</a> in the UK are all in English. The all-time charts do include one European band – ABBA – but of course they are known through their English language renditions in the UK (although they did sing in other languages).</p>
<p>This means that popular music sung in English, much of it from Britain, is part of the identity of continental Europeans. It gives them a deep connection with British culture which simply does not exist in the other direction. Sure, there are exceptions such as Kraftwerk and the Gipsy Kings, bands which had an impact in the UK, but even here one can ask to what extent the British fans understand the foreign lyrics. And this raises another key aspect of this phenomenon: language. </p>
<h2>Cultural learning</h2>
<p>When British children learn French or German at school, their exposure to that language will be mainly in the classroom. However, German and French children have their language lessons hugely reinforced by all sorts of other sources, chief among them: popular music. The result is that they have a much more comfortable and personal relationship with contemporary British culture, than British children do with that of the continent.</p>
<p>Of course, many people from the UK have experience of Europe, particularly of holiday, second home and expat/retirement destinations such as Tuscany, the Dordogne or Magaluf. But these are enjoyed for their weather, history or general atmosphere. </p>
<p>Often they serve to reinforce stereotypes about Europeans rather than to soften them. They are also places where British people tend to congregate, forming communities <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/11193034/Unsociable-British-expats-fail-to-make-local-friends.html">more than integrating</a> with the locals. For the British, Europe remains essentially alien, in a way that the US and Australia are not, and this is again because of the language and popular culture links with the old Empire. Britain shares rock stars, celebrities, TV and films with the Anglophone world in a much more fluid and mutual way than with EU countries.</p>
<p>The powerful influence of English (language) popular music helps to explain why for most Europeans the UK is a natural and welcome partner. The UK is not just a part of their continent, but also part of their world-view; not only a neighbour, but a member of the family; indeed, Britain is a part of their inner lives. </p>
<p>Europeans might see the EU referendum in the words of a Queen/David Bowie song that many of them know by heart:</p>
<p><em>“Under pressure that burns a building down,
Splits a family in two…</em></p>
<p><em>Watching some good friends,
Screaming, Let me out!”</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60399/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jochen Eisentraut does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Music has helped Europeans develop a better understanding of British culture than Brits will ever have of Europe.Jochen Eisentraut, Lecturer in Music, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/601302016-06-10T10:10:28Z2016-06-10T10:10:28ZIn obesity fight, UK’s heavy-handed soda tax beats US’ watered-down warning<p>Soda drinks are under attack in the US and the UK, but the weapons employed on the two fronts are different. </p>
<p>In the US, San Francisco <a href="http://time.com/3915485/san-francisco-soda-warning-label/">enacted a law</a> last year that requires advertisements for soda and sweetened drinks to alert consumers: “WARNING: drinking beverages with added sugar(s) contributes to obesity, diabetes and tooth decay.” The law <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/05/18/soda-makers-must-issue-ad-warning-san-francisco/84532214/">was set to take effect</a> in July but was <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/san-franciscos-sugary-drinks-warnings-delayed-pending-appeal-1465404121">just put on hold</a> by a federal judge, pending appeal. </p>
<p>On the other side of the Atlantic, UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced the introduction of a “<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/mar/19/sugar-tax-all-fizz-or-weighty-blow-obesity">soda tax</a>.” Starting in April 2018, a tax of 24 pence (36 cents) and 18 pence will be levied on each liter of high-sugar or low-sugar fizzy drinks, respectively. The tax is not only intended to cut soda consumption, but is projected to raise <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2016/mar/16/will-a-sugar-tax-actually-work-budget">£520m</a> (US$757m) in revenue in the first year alone. </p>
<p>Which of these approaches is more likely to accomplish its intended goal, a reduction in obesity? </p>
<p>Evidence from behavioral, economic and health research suggests that the heavy-handed approach is not only more likely to succeed, but in fact does not go far enough. </p>
<h2>Two approaches to policy</h2>
<p>The difference between the above US and UK approaches to the obesity epidemic raging in both countries reflects more general differences in policy: the UK tends to have a heavy hand, while the US adopts a lighter touch.</p>
<p>For example, governments in both countries have grown alarmed with low savings for retirement – resulting in large part from the transition from plans with defined benefits to plans with defined contributions (a euphemism for “save for your own retirement”). As a result, both countries have enacted legislation aimed at getting more employees to save by automatically enrolling them in a retirement savings plan.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/workplace-pensions-employers">UK approach</a>, however, is much more aggressive, mandating – rather than encouraging, as in the U.S. – automatic enrolment. Employers must pay a contribution alongside their employees. Right now, the minimum contribution is 2% of salary with both paying half, but from 2019 that will climb to 8%, with 3% paid by the employer. The government pitches in with tax relief on contributions. Early withdrawals are prohibited, and there is already <a href="http://citywire.co.uk/new-model-adviser/news/webb-new-govt-must-prioritise-pension-auto-escalation/a797743">increasing pressure</a> to ramp up contribution levels still further. </p>
<p>Differences between the UK and US approaches to health care are even more striking, but too <a href="http://www.health.org.uk/sites/default/files/HowDoesTheNHSCompareWithHealthSystemsInOtherCountries.pdf">well-known</a> to warrant describing.</p>
<p>On the other hand, Philadelphia may soon be following the UK’s more heavy-handed approach. The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/09/upshot/novel-strategy-puts-big-soda-tax-within-philadelphias-reach.html?_r=0">city council plans to hold a final vote</a> on June 16 on whether to pass a 1.5 cent per ounce tax on sweetened drinks, which would be the first soda tax in the US.</p>
<h2>Lessons from the war on tobacco</h2>
<p>The war on tobacco has taught us some <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(05)66521-X/fulltext">valuable lessons</a> about which approaches have been most successful at <a href="http://www.who.int/gho/tobacco/policies/en/">curtailing smoking</a>, from warnings and taxes to outright bans. </p>
<p>For example, there is <a href="http://www.who.int/tobacco/global_report/2015/en/">mixed evidence</a> that <a href="http://www.cochrane.org/CD011244/TOBACCO_tobacco-packaging-design-reducing-tobacco-use">warning labels alone</a> reduce cigarette consumption. </p>
<p>On the other hand, there is much <a href="http://www.bmj.com/content/321/7257/358.short">stronger evidence</a> that the <a href="http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/8/2/196.full">combination</a> of warnings, <a href="http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/21/2/172.full">higher taxes</a> and <a href="http://www.cochrane.org/CD005992/TOBACCO_does-legislation-ban-smoking-reduce-exposure-secondhand-smoke-and-smoking-behaviour">bans</a> on smoking in <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)60521-9/fulltext?rss%3Dyes">public environments</a> together have had a substantial impact.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125981/original/image-20160609-7096-l6csbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125981/original/image-20160609-7096-l6csbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125981/original/image-20160609-7096-l6csbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=774&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125981/original/image-20160609-7096-l6csbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=774&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125981/original/image-20160609-7096-l6csbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=774&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125981/original/image-20160609-7096-l6csbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=973&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125981/original/image-20160609-7096-l6csbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=973&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125981/original/image-20160609-7096-l6csbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=973&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A company put up posters like these in its cafeterias to steer employees away from sugary sodas and toward zero-calorie beverages. It didn’t work.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Labels alone don’t work</h2>
<p>So is there any scientific support for San Francisco’s soda warning? In general, there is very little evidence that <a href="http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/28/6/w1110.full">calorie labels</a> or warnings about added sugars will have much of an effect. </p>
<p>Most studies have shown that simply informing people about the caloric content of food and drink <a href="http://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/sds/docs/loewenstein/EatingByTheNumbers.pdf">has little impact</a> on how much they consume. Nor have more creative approaches, such as telling consumers how many minutes they would have to run on a <a href="http://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/sds/docs/loewenstein/ImpactPriceDiscounts.pdf">treadmill</a> to burn off the calories from a can of soda. </p>
<p>The best prospect for labeling to have an effect is through a kind of <a href="http://www.annualreviews.org/eprint/5tASysE9n8dAIecvtVkK/full/10.1146/annurev-economics-080213-041341">“Tell-tale Heart” effect</a>, whereby food retailers and producers change their offerings or improve the nutritional content of existing selections in response to feared consumer reactions, even if such fears are only imaginary, like in the eponymous Edgar Allan Poe story. </p>
<h2>How about a soda tax?</h2>
<p>Realistically, there isn’t a lot of evidence that a soda tax will have much of an impact either, certainly on obesity but even on <a href="http://www.ifs.org.uk/uploads/budgets/budget2016/budget2016_ks.pdf">soda consumption</a> itself. </p>
<p>More worryingly, a soda tax is <a href="http://www.ifs.org.uk/bns/bn49.pdf">regressive</a> because low-income families tend to consume more soda than more affluent families. The new policy adds yet one more tax on activities, such as smoking, drinking and playing the lottery, that lower-income individuals are more likely to engage in. </p>
<p>If the tax had a disproportionately greater impact on how much soda and calories lower-income people consume, then the overall effect would be less regressive. But existing research provides little grounds for hope that a soda <a href="http://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/8203">tax</a>, by itself, will do so.</p>
<h2>Tip of iceberg</h2>
<p>Furthermore, why target soda for a tax when low pop prices are just the tip of the iceberg of the mispricing of unhealthy foods? In our view, the main problem with the soda tax is that it doesn’t go far enough. </p>
<p>All forms of “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/fat-economics-9780199213863?cc=gb&lang=en&">junk food</a>,” not just soda, have become progressively cheaper than healthy alternatives in recent decades. According to <a href="http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.26.021304.144628">economists</a>, this is largely responsible for the <a href="http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/social-issues-migration-health/obesity-and-the-economics-of-prevention_9789264084865-en#page1">obesity epidemic</a>. </p>
<p>Moreover, the attraction of nutritionally poor food arises not only from its low, and dropping, monetary cost, but also by time costs. Personal time constraints further enhance the appeal of prepared and takeaway foods. </p>
<p>What is more, “supersizing” practices, such as pricing large and high-calorie meals in ways that make them seem like deals, are common in the food and retail industries, and likely to be especially attractive to families who are financially strapped. The <a href="http://www.voxeu.org/article/changing-economic-factors-and-rise-obesity">ubiquitous availability</a> of junk food creates a constant temptation for consumers, particularly for those from <a href="http://www.voxeu.org/article/obesity-s-rise-let-s-have-courage-tax-junk-food">low-income families</a>, who often reside in neighborhoods with little access to good-quality or fresh food. </p>
<h2>A comprehensive approach</h2>
<p>One possible rationale for a soda tax is that the government should start by attacking the most egregious problems, and sweetened drinks are an especially attractive bull’s-eye for policymakers given their lack of almost any nutritional component. They’re also the single <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/sugary-drinks-fact-sheet/">largest source</a> of sugars for children aged 11 to 18. </p>
<p>But to have any prospect of significantly improving diet, a more comprehensive “junk food tax” would have to be levied on a much <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/20/sugar-tax-good-idea-go-after-processed-foods-next">broader range</a> of <a href="http://www.ifs.org.uk/uploads/publications/bns/BN180.pdf">sugary</a>, fatty and <a href="http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Goodfood/Pages/the-eatwell-guide.aspx">nutritionally poor foods and drinks</a>. </p>
<p>If only soda is taxed, moreover, there is the risk of unintended <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167487014001068">compensatory effects</a> in which consumers end up indulging more in other unhealthy, and tax-exempt, foods or drinks. </p>
<p>To be really effective, such a tax on junk food should be combined with a comprehensive assault on the problem – similar to the fight against tobacco. This should include subsidizing health foods, like fruits and vegetables, as well as regulating ads. </p>
<p>Warning labels can be a part of this, but governments hoping to turn the tide on the obesity epidemic should also regulate unhealthy default options on menus, and supersizing practices – such as former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-06-26/new-york-big-soda-ban-rejected-by-n-y-top-court-as-overreach">failed effort</a> to ban oversized sodas.</p>
<p>At the same time, revenue from any taxes levied should go toward helping low-income families: for example, by subsidizing healthy foods, since low-income families will be most hurt by the tax. </p>
<p>Posting calories and warning consumers is fine as far as it goes, as is a soda tax, but in our view these policies don’t go nearly far enough.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60130/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Behavioral research shows why a heavy-handed approach like the UK’s soda tax works better than the mere warning that San Francisco wants to put in advertisements.Matteo M. Galizzi, Assistant Professor of Behavioural Science, London School of Economics and Political ScienceGeorge Loewenstein, Professor of Economics and Psychology, Carnegie Mellon UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/587412016-05-05T19:50:45Z2016-05-05T19:50:45ZFriday essay: the quest for legacy – how pop music is embracing high art<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121344/original/image-20160505-19838-5y4f78.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Beyonce's baseball bat wielding spree in Lemonade, left, bears more than a passing resemblance to the work of Swiss video artist Pipilotti Rist.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Left, still from Lemonade (2016), right, still from Ever is Over All (1997) </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>From stadiums to galleries, the new frontier for today’s mega pop star is high art. Mass popularity has its charms – sales, world tours, legions of followers – but the legacy-conferring power of art is now the ultimate sign of one’s status within Western culture.</p>
<p>The rallying cry of “witness me, the artist” is the new mantra of pop royalty – from Beyoncé, Jay-Z and Lady Gaga to Kanye, and even Rihanna. Still, is this embrace of high art a phenomenon worth celebrating? Or, might it be seen more cynically, as a case of superstars using art to bestow credibility on their work in defiance of their own mass appeal?</p>
<p>Admittedly, there has never been a clear, dividing line between the pop and art world – and why should there be? Some of the most creative musicians in recent memory – David Bowie, Keith Richards, David Byrne, Brian Eno to name a few – began to study or pursued training in the visual arts. </p>
<p>In Australia, members of the 80’s band Mental as Anything met at art school in Sydney and Nick Cave studied painting before pursuing his music. More recently, Sia, the daughter of Adelaide artist and art lecturer, Leone Furler, has become recognisable for the giant wigs that cover her face, her remarkable voice and her artful music videos featuring various dance collaborations. </p>
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<p>Nor can we overlook the phenomenon of art rock that emerged in the sixties. Some of the most remarkable turning points in music history have been credited to the artistic turn in the work of The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds (1966), The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), and The Velvet Underground & Nico’s eponymous (1967) album under the influence of Andy Warhol’s New York Factory scene.</p>
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<p>While the emergence of the concept album took hold in the 70s, the pioneers of the music video age – Madonna, Michael Jackson and even Prince – understood the visual possibilities of the pop song better than many of their contemporaries. Their work endures for its blend of powerful music and evocative storytelling through videos such as Like a Prayer, Thriller, and When Doves Cry.</p>
<p>But today, the story is different. A song, mostly, is not enough. This is not to say that image is everything, but rather that one’s stake in the pop world depends on musical and visual novelty. For today’s pop leaders, this increasingly means sidestepping the boardrooms of marketing professionals in search of the artistic underground.</p>
<h2>Making art out of Lemonade</h2>
<p>Beyoncé’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/beyonces-lemonade-tell-all-or-fizzy-soap-operatic-art-object-58513">high-concept visual album Lemonade</a>, for instance, takes listeners on a bold new form of musical storytelling in the style of Prince’s Purple Rain (1984), Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker (1988) or, perhaps more recently Kanye West’s 35 minute film Runaway (2010) and Lana Del Rey’s Tropico (2013).</p>
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<p>For years, Beyoncé has been consciously attempting to shed herself of her Destiny’s Child/Top 40 persona. Lemonade accomplishes that. Equal parts high-art and high-profile, it tackles the personal and the political, solitude and sisterhood and the emotional wounds of infidelity against the backdrop of race in America today.</p>
<p>A tapestry of song, visuals and locales, Beyoncé plays the survivor, a women-in-healing, trying to come to terms with the emotional aftermath of a love gone wrong. With cinematic grandeur, the album swims in evocative visuals of nature’s mysterious powers (which have drawn <a href="http://blogs.indiewire.com/criticwire/a-lot-of-people-are-comparing-beyonces-lemonade-to-terrence-malick-20160425">comparisons to the work of Terrence Malick</a>), and spoken word narratives, including <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/27/entertainment/warsan-shire-beyonce-lemonade/index.html">the poetry of London-based, Kenya-born Somali writer Warsan Shire</a>.</p>
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<p>References to high art abound. Beyoncé infamous <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3555858/Beyonce-smashes-car-baseball-bat-debuts-new-music-Lemonade-visual-album.html">baseball bat wielding sequence</a> in the song Hold Up pays homage to the work of Swiss artist <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a56RPZ_cbdc">Pipilotti Rist, whose 1997 video installation Ever is Over All</a> featured a woman walking down a street smashing car windows. Some have accused Beyoncé
of appropriation rather than <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/beyonce-accused-of-stealing-swiss-artists-work-for-fiery-hold-up-video-clip-20160503-gokwvq.html">homage</a>. </p>
<p>Last year, such concerns were expressed about Drake’s video for <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/10/22/drake_s_hotline_bling_video_resembles_james_turrell_s_light_installations.html">Hotline Bling</a> which was strikingly similar to the light installation pieces of American artist, James Turell.</p>
<p>Beyoncé also collaborated with <a href="http://www.okayafrica.com/news/beyonce-lemonade-laolu-senbanjo-sacred-art-of-the-ori/">Nigerian visual artist Laolu Senbanjo, whose sacred body painting</a> features in the film.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121335/original/image-20160505-19736-1w7m7x9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121335/original/image-20160505-19736-1w7m7x9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121335/original/image-20160505-19736-1w7m7x9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121335/original/image-20160505-19736-1w7m7x9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121335/original/image-20160505-19736-1w7m7x9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121335/original/image-20160505-19736-1w7m7x9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121335/original/image-20160505-19736-1w7m7x9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121335/original/image-20160505-19736-1w7m7x9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Beyonce on the cover of Garage Magazine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Garage</span></span>
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<p>Observant Instagram followers of Queen Bey, meanwhile, will have noticed signs earlier this year of her increasing contact with the high art world. In collaboration with Swiss-born, New York-based Urs Fischer and Garage magazine (<a href="http://garagemag.com/beyonce-interview/">Spring/Summer 2016 edition</a>), Beyoncé offered her thoughts on art via the magazine’s app. On its cover, she was photographed with cornrows, amidst a thick swirl of pastels painted by Fischer. In the interview, she discussed Andy Warhol and her interest in modern art, name-dropping some of her favourite artists (Tracey Emin, Kara Walker, Aaron Young and Donald Judd).</p>
<p>What’s interesting about this new period of Beyoncé’s work is that she has reinvented herself as the Benjamin Button of the pop world – apparently becoming younger, less bourgeois and more defiant with age.</p>
<p>While most have certainly embraced her newly, empowered voice, other fans, however, wonder if the less complicated, <a href="http://www.gigwise.com/blogs/106621/beyonce-new-album-lemonade-review-no-hit-song-rihanna-kanye-west">radio-friendly Beyoncé</a> will ever return.</p>
<h2>Yellow Basquiat in my kitchen corner</h2>
<p>In his own plea for artistic cred on his 2013 album, Magna Carta, Holy Grail, Beyoncé’s husband Jay Z’s hyper-capitalist dreams come to the fore. In the song Picasso Baby, Jay name-drops icons of the art world (Rothko, Bacon, Basquiat etc).</p>
<p>In homage to the reigning queen of performance art herself, Marina Abramovic, Jay adapted her (2010) MoMA installation, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/31/arts/design/31diva.html">The Artist is Present</a> – in which she sat six days a week, seven hours a day in a chair for a “silent opera”.</p>
<p>Jay did a <a href="http://pitchfork.com/news/51474-jay-z-performing-picasso-baby-for-six-straight-hours-today-apparently/">six-hour performance</a> of his Picasso Baby at at Pace Gallery in NYC. In the video of this, directed by Mark Romanek (who also did his “99 Problems” video and is one of the directors of Beyoncé’s Lemonade), Jay raps to a room full of carefully selected artistic and cultural leaders ranging from actor/director Judd Apatow to filmmaker Jim Jarmusch to artist Andreas Serrano to Abramovic herself.</p>
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<p>Both Jay-Z and Abramovic were on good terms, until in <a href="http://www.spikeartmagazine.com/en/articles/i-will-never-do-it-again">an interview with Spike magazine,</a> she accused Jay of not meeting his end of the business deal – namely, a sizable donation to her new Marina Abramovic institute of performance art in upstate New York. The mutually-contrived deal turned into <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/may/20/jay-z-substantial-donation-maria-abramovic">an awkward PR debacle for both camps</a>. (Jay-Z’s people later confirmed that a donation had, in fact, been made and Abramovic apologized for the oversight.)</p>
<p>What’s unique (but slightly predictable) about Jay’s celebration of the art world is how he fantasies about it. Picasso Baby is less homage to great art for art’s sake, more reverence of the reckless spoils of the “good” life. Art is worshipped as a sign of cultural power and extreme wealth:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Yellow Basquiat in my kitchen corner <br>
Go ahead lean on that shit Blue, you own it.</p>
</blockquote>
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<span class="caption">Jay-Z is a noted collector of street artist Jean Michel Basquiat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump, 1982</span></span>
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<p>While some might argue that Picasso Baby is a “gateway hit” that opens younger fans up to the history of art, ultimately, the song never really embraces it as anything other than “art consumed by consumerism,” as one NPR commenter suggested.</p>
<p>We are not far away here from 19th century British cultural critic Matthew Arnold’s observations about the elitism of high culture. It is valued, he wrote, out of,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>sheer vanity or else as an engine of social or class distinction separating its holder like a badge or title, from other people who have not got it.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>From Queen Bey to Rhi Rhi</h2>
<p>Recently, Barbadian bad-girl Rihanna has also thrown herself into the art game. On her latest effort, Anti (2016), the art partnerships are numerous: Israeli-born artist <a href="http://www.roynachum.com/">Roy Nachum </a>and poet <a href="http://www.etonline.com/news/173552_rihanna_unveils_groundbreaking_new_album_art_featuring_childhood_photo_is_it_called_anti/">Chloe Mitchell</a> worked on the liner notes, and there were enough producers and writers to staff their own soccer team.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121331/original/image-20160505-19765-njhrrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121331/original/image-20160505-19765-njhrrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121331/original/image-20160505-19765-njhrrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121331/original/image-20160505-19765-njhrrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121331/original/image-20160505-19765-njhrrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121331/original/image-20160505-19765-njhrrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121331/original/image-20160505-19765-njhrrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121331/original/image-20160505-19765-njhrrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Album art for Anti (2016).</span>
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<p>The lead single, Work, was highly anticipated and ultimately a head scratcher. Her canoodling with Drake in the song’s video was predictably sexy but missed the feverish mystery suggested by the very powerful Antigone/Oedipal hallucination of <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/rihanna-cover-artist-on-how-he-crafted-groundbreaking-anti-imagery-20151020">the cover art</a>. (On the album, a young Rihanna – eyes covered by a crown too big for her head – holds a balloon and is smothered by a blood red stain that she cannot see).</p>
<p>With songs like Woo and Work there’s a blatant disconnect between the music and imagery. Arguably, Rhianna appears to be swimming in artistic waters well over her head and not satisfying her <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/what-to-listen-to/rihanna-anti-album-review-rihanna-without-the-hits/">Top 40 fan base either</a>.</p>
<p>Still, the recently released video for Needed Me, (directed by indie art renegade <a href="http://www.gagosian.com/artists/harmony-korine">Harmony Korine</a>) has a <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2101441/">Springbreakers</a> meets <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086250/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Scarface</a> meets Viceland in Miami documentary feel to it, making Korine the perfect accomplice to Rihanna’s nihilistic turn. With a simple, yet devilishly dark storyline, Rihanna plays the elegant, savage murderess, taking care of business the only way she knows how.</p>
<h2>Pablo does Picasso</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121334/original/image-20160505-19779-51no1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121334/original/image-20160505-19779-51no1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121334/original/image-20160505-19779-51no1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121334/original/image-20160505-19779-51no1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121334/original/image-20160505-19779-51no1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121334/original/image-20160505-19779-51no1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121334/original/image-20160505-19779-51no1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121334/original/image-20160505-19779-51no1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kanye West dances during his the presentation of his fashion collection during the 2016 New York Fashion Week, which was also a listening party for his ‘The Life of Pablo’ album.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">REUTERS/Andrew Kelly</span></span>
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<p>Then there’s Kanye. The insufferable “think” pieces on his latest album, The Life of Pablo (2016), the Twitter meltdowns and ego-mania have reached peak decibel level, but it should be noted that as a former art school student, Kanye embodies the “child-like curiosity” that German philosopher Frederick Nietzsche discusses so fondly in many of <a href="https://philosophynow.org/issues/94/The_Twin_Souls_of_Oscar_Wilde_and_Friedrich_Nietzsche">his aphorisms on art and creation</a>. </p>
<p>In interviews, it would appear that he can’t get his dreams on paper – or into the factory – fast enough. He has also suggested that the paintings of Picasso, Matisse have inspired his work. In a 2013 interview <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/arts/music/kanye-west-talks-about-his-career-and-album-yeezus.html">Behind Kanye’s Mask</a> with The New York Times, discussing his recent love for the history of architecture, he refers to himself as “a minimalist in a rapper’s body.”</p>
<p>West’s art idols are a unique blend of European and American artists/innovators (Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, George Condo, Pablo Picasso, Marco Brambilla, Vanessa Beecroft, just to name a few – and let’s not forget his collaboration with Japanese artist Takashi Murakami during his Graduation period either).</p>
<p>For a recent collaboration with filmmaker Steve McQueen, West opened up about <a href="http://www.artnews.com/2015/07/27/kanye-west-would-trade-his-grammys-to-be-in-an-art-context-the-rapper-discusses-his-new-steve-mcqueen-directed-video-at-lacma/">having his work seen primarily as art</a>, adding:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I would trade all my Grammys – or, maybe, two Grammys – to be able to be in an art context.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For his new album, he collaborated with relatively unknown <a href="http://www.thefader.com/2016/02/11/who-is-peter-de-potter-the-artist-behind-kanye-wests-new-album-cover">Belgian artist Peter de Potter</a> for the cover art. West’s artistic influences, fashion tastes (Givenchy, Balmain, Raf Simons) and interests in design, (The UK’s Daily Mail <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3482281/Kanye-West-visiting-Ikea-base-Sweden.html">caught him returning from a meeting with IKEA in Sweden earlier this month</a>), suggest an explorer’s spirit and a sense of genuine creative experimentation.</p>
<p>Vanessa Beecroft, one of West’s collaborators for his recent fashion/performance pieces, (the Adidas Yeezus fashion shows, the Yeezus tours, and some Art Basel projects) has spoken positively of the <a href="http://www.highsnobiety.com/2016/03/16/vanessa-beecroft-working-with-kanye-west/">artistic freedom he allows on their projects</a>. Indeed American fashion has been revitalised by his street style alone. Consider the <a href="http://ca.complex.com/sneakers/2016/03/adidas-yeezy-boost-march-line-up">week-long lineup</a> outside any store releasing new editions of his Adidas Yeezus shoes.</p>
<p>West’s tireless quest for artistic perfection and new forms of visual expression is a welcome wake-up call to the increasingly blasé world of both high art and mainstream rap. Even if he raps about anal bleaching and “fame-thirsty” New York models, his obsession with garnering high-art legitimacy has generated some of the most interesting fusions of art, fashion and music in recent years.</p>
<h2>When Koons met Gaga met Botticelli</h2>
<p>Of course it would be impossible to discuss recent pop/high art collaborations without mentioning Lady Gaga’s undervalued 2013 release ARTPOP. The album’s cover art featured a prominent collaboration with Jeff Koons, with fractured pieces of Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus (1484-6) spliced into the background.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121337/original/image-20160505-19747-1biq2ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121337/original/image-20160505-19747-1biq2ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121337/original/image-20160505-19747-1biq2ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121337/original/image-20160505-19747-1biq2ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121337/original/image-20160505-19747-1biq2ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121337/original/image-20160505-19747-1biq2ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121337/original/image-20160505-19747-1biq2ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121337/original/image-20160505-19747-1biq2ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Album art for ARTPOP (2013).</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In interviews, Gaga appears to be highly articulate on the subject of artistic processes and influences.</p>
<p>She cites Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet as a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/understanding-lady-gaga/2011/02/14/AByv3jH_story.html">major source of artistic inspiration</a> and has a quote of his about the necessity of making art tattooed on her upper left forearm. With ARTPOP, her intention was to <a href="http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/132-lady-gagas-artrave-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-the-extravagant-album-launch/">bridge the world of pop and art</a> in ways that mass culture has never seen before.</p>
<p>Her powerful and unique songs, such as Artpop and Venus realised the goal. However, sales were lacklustre. Critics questioned whether her <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/11/artpop-review-lady-gaga-s-album-wants-to-be-everything-but-is-nothing-at-all.html">“art game” was as strong as her marketing prowess</a>, with some all-too-literal songs such as “Donatella” and “Fashion”.</p>
<h2>Legacy building</h2>
<p>Artistic legacy is clearly pop’s new watchword. Still, today’s pop stars might want to pay heed to Aristotle, whose observations about the process of artistic creation still ring true. “The aim of art,” he wrote, “is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance”.</p>
<p>History teaches us that many artistic experiments flourish and fade. The true artists of our day (regardless of the medium) create works that connect with the complexities of the human soul in ways that crass materialism and persona-mongering cannot. </p>
<p>No amount of artistic referencing or posturing will take the place of original, inspired and soul-searching work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58741/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Blair McDonald does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From Beyoncé and Lady Gaga to Kanye and even Rihanna, pop royalty is crazy for high art. Is this a phenomenon worth celebrating or are pop stars mining the art world to gain credibility?Blair McDonald, Lecturer in Journalism, Communications and New Media, Thompson Rivers UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/583082016-04-22T13:26:54Z2016-04-22T13:26:54ZPrince’s gift was that he stepped right out of racism’s symbolic logic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119851/original/image-20160422-17405-1p11ztc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Prince performing during his 'Diamonds and Pearls Tour' in London in 1992.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Dylan Martine</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>One of the most influential modern artists, Prince, died on Thursday April 21 2016 at the age of 57. The genre-busting pop-funk-R&B-rock singer/songwriter sold more than 100 million records in his extraordinary music career, which spanned nearly 40 years. But his influence stretched way beyond just music. Dr Vashna Jagarnath of Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, explains to The Conversation Africa’s arts and culture editor Charles Leonard why she teaches her history students about Prince.</em></p>
<p><strong>Why does Prince matter?</strong></p>
<p>This is a difficult question for me to answer because there are so many reasons why <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/apr/21/prince-was-someone-you-just-couldnt-understand">Prince</a> matters. Prince not only matters for all the apparent reasons – his musical genius, his ability to fuse a range of sounds and create something magical – but also for the cultural work, the political work, he did for so many of us. </p>
<p>At the heart of imperialism and colonialism has been the project of dehumanisation – of what philosopher <a href="http://www.lewisrgordon.com/biography/">Lewis Gordon</a>, drawing on Latin-American historian and theorist <a href="http://enriquedussel.com/Home_en.html">Enrique Dussel</a>, argues pushes most of humanity to the underside of modernity. Colonial subjects were produced as “natives” and locked out of the modern. Vital to this process of <a href="http://pages.uoregon.edu/vburris/reification.pdf">reification</a> and exclusion was the right of the powerful to continuously define and determine the humanity of the powerless. </p>
<p>As a result, black people globally have always been defined, and their identity limited and read, through a variety of discriminatory lenses. But Prince as the body, the spirit and the artist, like his music, has always been indefinable. This inability to define him, to box him up, meant that it was impossible to limit him and his full humanity. Prince took a position at the cutting edge of the contemporary, of the modern.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Prince performing one of his major hits, ‘Purple Rain’, which was first released in 1984.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Prince is often compared with another genius, <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/david-bowie-mn0000531986/biography">David Bowie</a>. There are some similarities, but at the same time there is a key difference: Prince was not, like Bowie, a chameleon. While Bowie adopted and discarded different personas, Prince was always one persona that sat comfortably with his myriad of conflicting and complementary selves. </p>
<p>By embracing his full humanity in all its complexity Prince allowed so many of us to see the possibility of living life on our own terms, without being defined from the outside or, as philosopher <a href="http://blog.oup.com/2011/12/fanon/">Frantz Fanon</a> put it, “encased”. Prince did this work for us, so that we could have a vision of what this all-embracing self could look like. After Prince, we knew very well, as black people, that we should not ever limit ourselves, no matter how much we are being externally defined. </p>
<p>And of course part of this is that Prince was a black man in America who owned his sexuality without collapsing into the hyper-masculinity that white racism has often imposed on black men.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Prince’s apocalyptic hit ‘Sign O’ the Times’, which also showcases his guitar-playing prowess.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>How do you involve Prince and his music in your lectures?</strong></p>
<p>I always use music to teach. I think music is a fundamental pedagogical tool. It has the ability to convey so much and complements other sources, such a texts, film etc. It has the ability to capture the spirit of a moment or concept. </p>
<p>For example, when I used to teach <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/karl-marx-9401219#london">Karl Marx</a>’s concept of alienation to first-year students I would start the class by playing singer <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/bruce-springsteen-mn0000530745/biography">Bruce Springsteen</a>’s <em>Factory</em>. I also teach a course on the history of modern South Africa and every lecture begins with a song. For example, I play <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/hugh-masekela-mn0000830319/biography">Hugh Masekela</a>’s <em>Stimela</em> when teaching the section on migrant labour. </p>
<p>I use Prince when I teach about the decimation of the <a href="http://gradestack.com/CBSE-Class-10th-Course/The-Age-of/The-Decline-of-the/15065-3002-4399-study-wtw">cotton industry</a> in India. I play <em>Paisley Park</em>. I use this song as a hook. It allows me to tell the history of the paisley design (which Prince so loved) and its etymology, as well as the destruction of the cotton industry in India. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.paisleypower.com/#!history-of-paisley/c9ar">paisley design</a> is ancient and, by many accounts, originated as a representation of the Zoroastrian tree of life. In different parts of India it came to represent different types of leaves. In the south of India it represents the mango leaf. </p>
<p>In India this design has a variety of different names, including “buta”. But during colonialism the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/modern/independence1947_01.shtml">British Raj</a> destroyed the cotton industry in India and moved most material production to Britain.</p>
<p>One of the key towns where the material manufacturing was moved was Paisley, in Scotland. One of the products this town became famous for producing was the <a href="http://www.victoriana.com/Shawls/paisley-shawl.html">Kashmiri shawl</a>, which had the paisley design. Since then the term paisley has been used to describe this design.</p>
<p><strong>How does he resonate with your students?</strong></p>
<p>They like the story and the song, but many of them don’t really think about Prince or understand his significance, which is sad. I then obviously go on a rant explaining the significance of Prince.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Prince composed several songs for other artists – here’s his version of Sinead O'Connor’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>What kind of legacy does he leave behind?</strong></p>
<p>In terms of his work he leaves behind an exceptionally rich legacy. There is a huge catalogue of unreleased material that will hopefully make its way to us over the years. As a cultural icon his legacy is immense.</p>
<p>Especially now, when there are serious challenges to what are understood as normative identities, Prince’s significance will grow. Hopefully the younger generation will engage with him around issues of race, gender and art. Prince was free – a free black man in America. He stepped right out of the symbolic logic of racism. That matters.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58308/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vashna Jagarnath does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Superstar Prince’s impact went far beyond the realm of music. His relevance stretched beyond the concert hall into many lecture rooms.Vashna Jagarnath, Senior Lecturer, History Department, Rhodes UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.