This article offers original insights into the construction of musical meaning through an intensi... more This article offers original insights into the construction of musical meaning through an intensification and bricolage of postmodern discourse as a result of music video as online media. The discussion contributes to contemporary popular music scholarship by discussing the ‘Stranger People’ video by Doprah, an indie band from Christchurch, New Zealand, with particular focus on Japanese imagery and online social media. The significance of ‘Stranger People’ is that it received a great deal of international attention via social and other media. The article focuses on not only the means of video production, distribution, and consumption, but also the threads of cultural knowledge that are generated through media response to sight and sound and how this creates and re-creates meaning for fans and artists alike. The video serves as a particularly useful case for acknowledging and analysing the extent to which Japanese pop culture has become enmeshed in global cultural flows, and as a site for critical discussion on the localised and creative response to Japanese cultural flows.
This article explores how indigenous socialities underpin the production of popular music in the ... more This article explores how indigenous socialities underpin the production of popular music in the Papua New Guinea (PNG) capital Port Moresby, which is a major centre for popular music production in Melanesia. The primary focus concerns home-based studios that were in operation between 2007 and 2011, which produced the distinctive PNG style of popular music known as lokal musik. Their operative structures reflect a Melanesian kinship-based socio-cultural framework—called the wantok system—that connects individuals through networks of obligation, exchange and reciprocity. These affiliations are conceptually grounded in the notion of ples, which is an indigenous concept pertaining to one's identity and ‘place’ of origin. This article outlines how ples underpins the production of lokal music at every stage. It also shows ples to be fundamental in the local categorisations of musical styles, which share characteristics with introduced electronically produced pop, but are interpreted through musical, lyrical and instrumental variants that pertain to specific places. These places are usually linguistically and culturally distinctive, and are almost always rural. From a theoretical standpoint, this paper considers popular music within an indigenous epistemological framework and seeks to provide a new production-focused perspective on the local cultural significance of popular music in PNG.
This article examines the production and reception of local popular music in Papua New Guinea (PN... more This article examines the production and reception of local popular music in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and draws on ethnographic research undertaken in recording studios in Port Moresby, a major centre for music production in Melanesia. Specifically, the linguistic and musical content of two contrasting albums, Gera Verere by the band Waterfall Tunes and Cool as Ice by soloist Flora Suve, are compared in the way they were constructed, promoted and marketed. Both albums were released in 2009 by a newly established record label called Spaida Trakz. The label’s perspective on the relative success versus failure of both albums (in terms of sales) informs the analysis and was attained through participant observations at the record company’s offices and complemented by a series of interviews with its staff. These insights demonstrate how perceptions concerning place and cultural identity were both exploited or neglected by Spaida Trakzin its attempt to connect these albums with local consumers. Through this comparison, this article examines the broader sociocultural processes that underpin the operation of the recording industry in Port Moresby, and explores PNG popular music’s capacity to reflect and embody indigenous knowledge.
This paper explores the notion of indigenous cultural identity in Australia and New Zealand by ex... more This paper explores the notion of indigenous cultural identity in Australia and New Zealand by examining how indigenous culture is represented in popular music, specifically, through ‘known’ signifiers of indigenous culture. This paper argues that these signifiers are limited to specific instrumentation, musical characteristics such as rhythm and melody, and indigenous language. These findings are reached through an examination of the extant literature on indigenous popular music in Australia and New Zealand, and by applying the same methods these studies employ to a comparison of indigenous popular music from these countries. Music from the groups Yothu Yindi (from Australia), and Moana and the Moahunters (from New Zealand) is analysed, demonstrating how signifiers of indigenous culture are perceived to have roots in traditional culture. This paper concludes by presenting an Australasian framework through which signifiers of indigenous identity have been identified and discussed in academic literature, and argues that the limitations of semiotic analysis has restricted the exploration of popular music’s capacity to express indigenous identity.
This paper explores the capacity for commercially recorded popular music to sustain local culture... more This paper explores the capacity for commercially recorded popular music to sustain local culture by presenting the ways in which recordings by the band Paramana Strangers from Papua New Guinea are imbued with meanings that are understood locally as having roots in traditional culture. I present examples in the form of song texts from the album Matha Wa! (1981) to demonstrate how traditional metaphors and cultural practices surrounding music composition are sustained through popular song traditions. I focus my analysis on what the song composers deem important, and explore ways that recordings are utilized to sustain culture, not only as ‘documentations’ of culture, but also through the practices of music making and sharing. By doing so, indigenous ways of knowing and imparting knowledge are given priority, providing local perceptions about traditional culture and its sustainability.
This article explores the confluence of nostalgic discourses about popular music and recording an... more This article explores the confluence of nostalgic discourses about popular music and recording and production in practice. It draws on the authors’ involvement in recent recording projects by the band The Chills, whose 1980’s and early 1990’s outputs are credited as being highly influential in the indie rock genre. The article offers new perspectives on the broader context through which technical decisions are made in recording processes, and articulates how these decisions can be understood as compromises that reflect tensions between nostalgic ideological rhetoric, and the demands of production practices in contemporary commercial contexts.
Wilson, O. (2011). Papua New Guinea: Popular music and the continuity of tradition: An ethnograph... more Wilson, O. (2011). Papua New Guinea: Popular music and the continuity of tradition: An ethnographic study of songs by the band Paramana Strangers. In G. Baldacchino (Ed.), Island songs: A global repertoire (pp. 119-134). Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.
Recorded music forms the basis of much popular music research, yet the formative political and cr... more Recorded music forms the basis of much popular music research, yet the formative political and creative issues that surround popular music production rarely receive scholarly attention. Studies that do examine popular music production tend to focus on the recording process, which is theorised as form of social action embedded in various interpreted meanings and contexts. These studies (notably Diamond 2005, Moehn 2005, Porcello 2005, Porcello 1998) have emphasised that the ultimate significance of popular music lies not within the recorded text, but in the individual musical encounters that manifest through its production and reception. Additionally, the newly formed Journal on the Art of Record Production, as well as a number of recent monographs have been instrumental in establishing a scholarly discourse that explores 'encounters' through the production process, and have positioned the recording studio as a central site within this discourse (Frith and Zagorski-Thomas 2012, Greene and Porcello 2005, Meintjes 2003, Negus 1999, Theberge 1997). Gibson (2005) and Zagorski-Thomas (2008) on the other hand, have challenged the perceived importance of recording studios in the broader production process. These scholars both assert that most of the energy and work that propels the production process actually takes place outside of the recording studio, and suggest that the study of popular music production should encompass a broad scope that transcends the confines of the recording-studio site (Gibson 2005, p.193, Zagorski-Thomas 2008, p.191, see also Samuels et al. 2010). This paper supports this assertion, and presents an auto-ethnographic chronological overview of the production of a commercial-label funded single. The single this paper explores is called Handshake Of The Heartache, which was written, arranged and performed by my own group, Knives at Noon.3 This case study draws particular attention to the importance of processes that took place outside of the recording studio since the band's formation in 2007, to 2012 when the single was released, and highlights the capacity of seemingly non-musical issues to affect the recording process and the resulting recorded product.
This article offers original insights into the construction of musical meaning through an intensi... more This article offers original insights into the construction of musical meaning through an intensification and bricolage of postmodern discourse as a result of music video as online media. The discussion contributes to contemporary popular music scholarship by discussing the ‘Stranger People’ video by Doprah, an indie band from Christchurch, New Zealand, with particular focus on Japanese imagery and online social media. The significance of ‘Stranger People’ is that it received a great deal of international attention via social and other media. The article focuses on not only the means of video production, distribution, and consumption, but also the threads of cultural knowledge that are generated through media response to sight and sound and how this creates and re-creates meaning for fans and artists alike. The video serves as a particularly useful case for acknowledging and analysing the extent to which Japanese pop culture has become enmeshed in global cultural flows, and as a site for critical discussion on the localised and creative response to Japanese cultural flows.
This article explores how indigenous socialities underpin the production of popular music in the ... more This article explores how indigenous socialities underpin the production of popular music in the Papua New Guinea (PNG) capital Port Moresby, which is a major centre for popular music production in Melanesia. The primary focus concerns home-based studios that were in operation between 2007 and 2011, which produced the distinctive PNG style of popular music known as lokal musik. Their operative structures reflect a Melanesian kinship-based socio-cultural framework—called the wantok system—that connects individuals through networks of obligation, exchange and reciprocity. These affiliations are conceptually grounded in the notion of ples, which is an indigenous concept pertaining to one's identity and ‘place’ of origin. This article outlines how ples underpins the production of lokal music at every stage. It also shows ples to be fundamental in the local categorisations of musical styles, which share characteristics with introduced electronically produced pop, but are interpreted through musical, lyrical and instrumental variants that pertain to specific places. These places are usually linguistically and culturally distinctive, and are almost always rural. From a theoretical standpoint, this paper considers popular music within an indigenous epistemological framework and seeks to provide a new production-focused perspective on the local cultural significance of popular music in PNG.
This article examines the production and reception of local popular music in Papua New Guinea (PN... more This article examines the production and reception of local popular music in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and draws on ethnographic research undertaken in recording studios in Port Moresby, a major centre for music production in Melanesia. Specifically, the linguistic and musical content of two contrasting albums, Gera Verere by the band Waterfall Tunes and Cool as Ice by soloist Flora Suve, are compared in the way they were constructed, promoted and marketed. Both albums were released in 2009 by a newly established record label called Spaida Trakz. The label’s perspective on the relative success versus failure of both albums (in terms of sales) informs the analysis and was attained through participant observations at the record company’s offices and complemented by a series of interviews with its staff. These insights demonstrate how perceptions concerning place and cultural identity were both exploited or neglected by Spaida Trakzin its attempt to connect these albums with local consumers. Through this comparison, this article examines the broader sociocultural processes that underpin the operation of the recording industry in Port Moresby, and explores PNG popular music’s capacity to reflect and embody indigenous knowledge.
This paper explores the notion of indigenous cultural identity in Australia and New Zealand by ex... more This paper explores the notion of indigenous cultural identity in Australia and New Zealand by examining how indigenous culture is represented in popular music, specifically, through ‘known’ signifiers of indigenous culture. This paper argues that these signifiers are limited to specific instrumentation, musical characteristics such as rhythm and melody, and indigenous language. These findings are reached through an examination of the extant literature on indigenous popular music in Australia and New Zealand, and by applying the same methods these studies employ to a comparison of indigenous popular music from these countries. Music from the groups Yothu Yindi (from Australia), and Moana and the Moahunters (from New Zealand) is analysed, demonstrating how signifiers of indigenous culture are perceived to have roots in traditional culture. This paper concludes by presenting an Australasian framework through which signifiers of indigenous identity have been identified and discussed in academic literature, and argues that the limitations of semiotic analysis has restricted the exploration of popular music’s capacity to express indigenous identity.
This paper explores the capacity for commercially recorded popular music to sustain local culture... more This paper explores the capacity for commercially recorded popular music to sustain local culture by presenting the ways in which recordings by the band Paramana Strangers from Papua New Guinea are imbued with meanings that are understood locally as having roots in traditional culture. I present examples in the form of song texts from the album Matha Wa! (1981) to demonstrate how traditional metaphors and cultural practices surrounding music composition are sustained through popular song traditions. I focus my analysis on what the song composers deem important, and explore ways that recordings are utilized to sustain culture, not only as ‘documentations’ of culture, but also through the practices of music making and sharing. By doing so, indigenous ways of knowing and imparting knowledge are given priority, providing local perceptions about traditional culture and its sustainability.
This article explores the confluence of nostalgic discourses about popular music and recording an... more This article explores the confluence of nostalgic discourses about popular music and recording and production in practice. It draws on the authors’ involvement in recent recording projects by the band The Chills, whose 1980’s and early 1990’s outputs are credited as being highly influential in the indie rock genre. The article offers new perspectives on the broader context through which technical decisions are made in recording processes, and articulates how these decisions can be understood as compromises that reflect tensions between nostalgic ideological rhetoric, and the demands of production practices in contemporary commercial contexts.
Wilson, O. (2011). Papua New Guinea: Popular music and the continuity of tradition: An ethnograph... more Wilson, O. (2011). Papua New Guinea: Popular music and the continuity of tradition: An ethnographic study of songs by the band Paramana Strangers. In G. Baldacchino (Ed.), Island songs: A global repertoire (pp. 119-134). Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.
Recorded music forms the basis of much popular music research, yet the formative political and cr... more Recorded music forms the basis of much popular music research, yet the formative political and creative issues that surround popular music production rarely receive scholarly attention. Studies that do examine popular music production tend to focus on the recording process, which is theorised as form of social action embedded in various interpreted meanings and contexts. These studies (notably Diamond 2005, Moehn 2005, Porcello 2005, Porcello 1998) have emphasised that the ultimate significance of popular music lies not within the recorded text, but in the individual musical encounters that manifest through its production and reception. Additionally, the newly formed Journal on the Art of Record Production, as well as a number of recent monographs have been instrumental in establishing a scholarly discourse that explores 'encounters' through the production process, and have positioned the recording studio as a central site within this discourse (Frith and Zagorski-Thomas 2012, Greene and Porcello 2005, Meintjes 2003, Negus 1999, Theberge 1997). Gibson (2005) and Zagorski-Thomas (2008) on the other hand, have challenged the perceived importance of recording studios in the broader production process. These scholars both assert that most of the energy and work that propels the production process actually takes place outside of the recording studio, and suggest that the study of popular music production should encompass a broad scope that transcends the confines of the recording-studio site (Gibson 2005, p.193, Zagorski-Thomas 2008, p.191, see also Samuels et al. 2010). This paper supports this assertion, and presents an auto-ethnographic chronological overview of the production of a commercial-label funded single. The single this paper explores is called Handshake Of The Heartache, which was written, arranged and performed by my own group, Knives at Noon.3 This case study draws particular attention to the importance of processes that took place outside of the recording studio since the band's formation in 2007, to 2012 when the single was released, and highlights the capacity of seemingly non-musical issues to affect the recording process and the resulting recorded product.
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