Journal of World Popular Music

Rebels Without a Cause? Polish Rock and Metal Music After 1989

2021-01-08T14:51:42+00:00

The 1980s are considered the boom of Polish rock music which over time has become glorified thanks to extensive journalistic and scientific literature. However, there are still few resources about Polish music from the 1990s, after the political transformation. Yet since 1989, profound changes have taken place in Polish popular music. The predominant influences of punk rock and New Wave gave way to grunge, Britpop, thrash metal and rapcore. At the same time, the mainstream of Polish rock underwent market standardization and commercialization, leading to a loss of its raw sound and heroic character. For many, it was a time of great commercial success. What had previously been sown, blossomed and gave way to the second boom of Polish rock. The aim of this article is to explore this rich creativity in a broad, transdisciplinary perspective. It is also an attempt to answer the questions: Does rock work only in times of political crisis? Can rebellion become a commodity for sale?

“Icelandic Music or Music from Iceland?” The Image of Icelandic Popular Music in British Media

2021-10-27T23:27:53+00:00

This article aims to understand the image of Icelandic music as it is portrayed in three British media outlets and how this relates to the country of origin and the national image of Iceland. Using qualitative methods, the authors analysed 195 articles about Icelandic music. The image of Icelandic music has strong connections with Icelandic nature, whether imagined (other-worldly) or real (e.g., lava formations and glaciers). This is particularly true for Björk’s and Sigur Rós’s music. Findings indicate that these artists, specifically the eccentric Björk, have paved the way for a symbolically loaded “Icelandic sound” and, accordingly, have built a strong image of Icelandic music. At the same time, emerging popular artists from Iceland, such as Of Monsters and Men and Kaleo, go against this trend by following a different path which does not match established expectations for Icelandic music, thus shifting the focus from Icelandic music towards music from Iceland.

Ethnography in Western Popular Music Research Revisited

2021-10-27T23:38:45+00:00

In this article, I focus on ethnomusicological and popular music studies’ examinations of Western popular music cultures, and provide a critique of some of their methods. Further, my main aim is not to propose a new method, but to suggest a re-emphasis of some of the fundamental ethnographic approaches in studying Western popular music cultures. These include participatory observation, grounded ethnography, materialism, thick description, and cultural relativism. To substantiate these arguments, I examine my own ethnographic research of American DIY (“do-it-yourself”) venues and scenes as an example of a participatory research of living and touring with DIY participants and studying their everyday lives. I recount my fieldwork methods and experiences and demonstrate how the focus on non-musical and private aspects of American DIY music cultures can produce a better understanding of their musical and public sides. Finally, I also argue how the proposed methodological re-evaluation can help to decolonize music studies.

Sound Ties, ‘Rising from the Depths of Brine and Regions of Fire Deeper Still’

2021-09-09T10:23:31+00:00

Pacific Indigenous scholars have long emphasized the role of relationality for Pacific Islanders’ epistemologies. In this article, the author rethinks music in terms of the procedural knowledge inherent in and specific to popular music-making by exploring the latter as knowledge practices in Micronesia. This approach opens new vistas on the relationality at the heart of Western Pacific music-making. The author calls the musical manifestation of that relational capacity sound ties, suggesting that if, following Epeli Hau‘ofa, Oceania is “humanity rising from the depths of brine”, then it is not least the sound ties of knowing in and through music that mould that very humanity of people who are at home with the sea into aquapelagic assemblages that are, after all, so much more than water and land.

Farzaneh Hemmasi. 2020. Tehrangeles Dreaming: Intimacy and Imagination in Southern California’s Iranian Pop Music.

2021-03-16T00:42:11+00:00

Farzaneh Hemmasi. 2020. Tehrangeles Dreaming: Intimacy and Imagination in Southern California’s Iranian Pop Music. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 245pp. ISBN 978-1-4780-0836-1 (pbk)

Theodosiou, Aspasia (Sissy), and Eleni Kallimopoulou. 2020. Music Communities in Twenty-first-century Greece: Sonic Glances in the Field.

2021-03-28T17:23:59+00:00

Theodosiou, Aspasia (Sissy), and Eleni Kallimopoulou. 2020. Music Communities in Twenty-first-century Greece: Sonic Glances in the Field. Athens: Pedio Publications. 528pp. ISBN 9789606352461 (pbk)

Sara Arenillas Meléndez. 2020. Discursos, identidades y transgresión en la música popular española (1980–2010): El caso del glam rock y sus variantes [Discourses, Identities and Transgression in Spanish Popular Music (1980–2010): The Case of Glam Rock and Its Variants].

2021-10-01T16:50:32+00:00

Sara Arenillas Meléndez. 2020. Discursos, identidades y transgresión en la música popular española (1980–2010): El caso del glam rock y sus variantes [Discourses, Identities and Transgression in Spanish Popular Music (1980–2010): The Case of Glam Rock and Its Variants]. Madrid: Sociedad Española de Musicología. 387pp. ISBN 978-84-86878-89-4 (pbk)

Editors’ Introduction

2021-12-07T11:21:11+00:00