Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T00:00:40.287Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Playing with medium: Intertextuality and phonomatic transformation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2022

Jeff Wragg Open the ORCID record for Jeff Wragg [Opens in a new window]
Jeff Wragg*
Affiliation:
Southern Institute of Technology, 133 Tay St, Invercargill, New Zealand E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In ‘Intertextuality and hypertextuality in recorded popular music’, S. Lacasse (in M. Talbot (ed.) The Musical Work: Reality or Invention?, Liverpool University Press, 2000) proposes a model for understanding intertextuality in recorded popular music. His model provides different ways one text may reference another, while simultaneously transforming the style and/or subject of the original text. Style and subject are two of the integral elements that make up a work, yet what is missing from Lacasse's model is the medium through which these elements are presented. This article addresses that gap by introducing three phonomatic referential practices (retronormativity, vinyl aesthetics and analogue allusion) that transform the medium of a referenced work alongside transformations of style and/or subject. It further expands the model by discussing self-quotation as a referential practice. The applicability of the expanded model is demonstrated using the music of Portishead, one of the bands that pioneered the trip hop genre in the 1990s.

Type
Article
Information
Popular Music , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , February 2022 , pp. 97 - 111
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Anderson, J. 1998. ‘Portishead: the same, only better’, Space Age Bachelor. http://www.space-age-bachelor.com/archives/portishead-the-same-only-better (accessed 6 September 2016).Google Scholar
Askerøi, E. 2013. ‘Reading pop production: sonic markers and musical identity’. PhD Dissertation, University of AgdeGoogle Scholar
Auner, J. 2000. ‘Making old machines speak: images of technology in recent music’, Echo, 2/2. http://www.echo.ucla.edu/Volume2-Issue2/auner/auner.pdfGoogle Scholar
Biddinger, M., and Yochim, E. 2008. ‘It kind of gives you that vintage feel: vinyl records and the trope of Death’, Media, Culture & Society, 30(2), pp. 183–95Google Scholar
Brøvig-Hanssen, R. 2013a. ‘Music in bits and bits of music: signatures of digital mediation in popular music recordings’. PhD dissertation, University of OsloGoogle Scholar
Brøvig-Hanssen, R. 2013b. ‘Opaque mediation: the cut-and-paste groove in DJ Food's “break”’, in Musical Rhythm in the Age of Digital Reproduction, ed. Danielsen, A. (New York, Ashgate), pp. 159–75Google Scholar
Chapman, D. 2008. ‘“That ill, tight sound”: telepresence and biopolitics in post-Timbaland rap production’, Journal of the Society for American Music, 2, pp. 155–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curwen, T. 1999. ‘Portishead: living it up’, The Mix, February, pp. 70–75Google Scholar
Eno, B. 1999. ‘The revenge of the intuitive: turn off the options, and turn up the intimacy’, Wired 7/1, http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.01/eno_pr.html (accessed 5 September, 2016)Google Scholar
Frith, S. 1996. Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press)Google Scholar
Goldberg, M. 1997. ‘For Portishead, it's always sour times’, https://vk.com/pages?oid=10471&p=Geoff_Barrow__For_Portishead%2C_It%26%2339%3Bs_Always_Sour_Times_(Addicted_To_Noise%2C_1997) (accessed 9 September 2016).Google Scholar
Goodwin, A. 1990. ‘Sample and hold: pop music in the age of digital reproduction’, in On Record: Rock, Pop, and the Written Word, ed. Frith, S. and Goodwin, A. (London, Routledge), pp. 258–73Google Scholar
Gunderson, P.A. 2004. ‘Danger Mouse's Grey Album, mash-ups, and the age of composition’, Post-Modern Culture, 15/1. https://instruct.uwo.ca/mit/3771-001/MashUP_Danger%20Mouse_Gunderson.pdfGoogle Scholar
Lacasse, S. 2018. Toward a model of transphonography', in The Pop Palimpsest: Intertextuality in Recorded Popular Music, ed. Burns, L. and Lacasse, S. (Ann Arbor, MI, University of Michigan Press), pp. 9–60Google Scholar
Lacasse, S. 2000. ‘Intertextuality and hypertextuality in recorded popular music’, in The Musical Work: Reality or Invention?, ed. Talbot, M. (Liverpool, Liverpool University Press)Google Scholar
Leydon, R. 2010. ‘Intertextuality and hypertextuality in recorded popular music’, in The Musical Work: Reality or Invention?, ed. Talbot, M. (Liverpool, Liverpool University Press), pp. 35–58Google Scholar
Metzer, D. 2003. Quotation and Cultural Meaning in Twentieth-century Music (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press)Google Scholar
Moore, A. 2001. Rock: The Primary Text (New York, NY, Routledge)Google Scholar
Moore, A. 2012. Song Means: Analysing and Interpreting Recorded Popular Song (Farnham, Ashgate)Google Scholar
Spicer, M. 2009. ‘Strategic intertextuality in three of John Lennon's Late Beatles songs’, Gamut, 2/1, pp. 347–76.Google Scholar
Thurmaier, D. 2014. ‘When borne by the red, white, and blue: Charles Ives and patriotic quotation’, American Music, 32/1, pp. 46–81Google Scholar
Toynbee, J. 2000. Making Popular Music: Musicians, Creativity, and Institutions (New York, Oxford University Press)Google Scholar
Williams, J.A. 2014. ‘Theoretical approaches to quotation in hip hop recordings’, Contemporary Music Review, 33/2, pp. 188–209CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zak, A.J. III 2001. The Poetics of Rock: Cutting Tracks, Making Records (Berkeley, CA, University of California Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Discography

Danger Mouse, The Grey Album. None. 2014Google Scholar
Andy, Horace. ‘You Are My Angel’, You Are My Angel. Soul Sound, None. 1973Google Scholar
Jay-Z, , The Black Album. Roc-A-Fella Records, B0001528-01. 2003Google Scholar
Buckley, Jeff, ‘Hallelujah’, Grace. Columbia, CK57528. 1994Google Scholar
Oswald, John, Plunderphonic. Mystery Tape Laboratory, None. 1989Google Scholar
Cohen, Leonard, ‘Hallelujah’, Various Positions. Columbia, CK66950. 1984Google Scholar
Massive Attack, ‘Karmacoma’, Protection. Wild Bunch, WBRLP2. 1994Google Scholar
Massive Attack, ‘Angel’, Mezzanine. Virgin, WBRLP4. 1998Google Scholar
Nirvana, ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, Nevermind. DGC, DGCD-24425. 1991Google Scholar
Floyd, Pink, ‘Wish You Were Here’, Wish You Were Here. Harvest, SHVL 814. 1975Google Scholar
Portishead, ‘Half Day Closing’, Portishead. Go! Beat, 539 435–2. 1997Google Scholar
Portishead, ‘Sour Times’, Dummy. Go! Beat, 828 553–2. 1994Google Scholar
Portishead, ‘Strangers’, Dummy. Go! Beat, 828 553–2. 1994Google Scholar
Portishead, ‘Humming’, Portishead. Go! Beat, 539 435. 1997Google Scholar
Portishead, ‘Only You’, Portishead. Go! Beat, 539 435–2. 1997Google Scholar
Portishead, ‘Western Eyes’, Portishead. Go! Beat, 539 435–2. 1997Google Scholar
The Beatles, ‘All You Need is Love’, All You Need is Love. Parlophone, R5620. 1967Google Scholar
The Beatles, The Beatles. Apple, PMC 7067/8. 1968Google Scholar
The Pharcyde, ‘She Said’, Labcabincalifornia. Delicious Vinyl, CDP7243 8 35102 2 2. 1995Google Scholar
The United States of America, ‘The American Metaphysical Circus’, The United States of America. Columbia, LP5211. 1968Google Scholar
Tricky, ‘Overcome’, Maxinquaye. 4th & Broadway, BRLP 610. 1995Google Scholar
Walter Carlos, Switched-On Bach. Columbia, MS 7194. 1968Google Scholar
Weather Report, ‘Elegant People’, Black Market. Columbia, CBS 81325. 1976Google Scholar
‘Weird Al’ Yankovic, , ‘Smells Like Nirvana’, Off the Deep End. Scotti Bros. Records, 72392 75256–2. 1992Google Scholar
Xzibit, ‘Symphony in X Major’, Man Vs Machine. Columbia, CK 85925. 2002Google Scholar