‘Where do I begin the story?’
Collective memory, biographical authority and the rock biography
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.v3i1.65Keywords:
biography, Bob Dylan, collective memory, discourse, fan culturesAbstract
This article is concerned with three main areas. Firstly it examines how the rock biography might be active in the creation of a collective memory of popular culture. Secondly, it examines how the stylistic conventions and institutional pressures of publishing have a major effect upon what type of narrative is constructed within the rock biography. Thirdly, the article is concerned with how audiences and fan cultures engage with those common narratives. Using Robert Shelton’s 1986 biography of Bob Dylan, No Direction Home as an example, the article argues that the biographer’s project necessitates the construction of a biographical authority which is achieved through the use of certain techniques and tropes. It will further suggest that this biographical authority is by no means stable and is affected by the biography’s reception in a wider critical landscape.
References
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Kansteiner, W. 2002. ‘Finding Meaning in Memory: A Methodological Critique of Collective Memory Studies Author(s)’. History and Theory 41.2 (May): 179–97. doi:10.1111/00182656.00198
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Lewis, George H. 1992. ‘Who Do You Love: The Dimensions of Musical Taste’. In Popular Music and Communication, ed. James Lull, 134–51. London: Sage.
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Lipsitz, G. 1990. Time Passages: Collective Memory and American Popular Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Pekacz, J. T. 2004. ‘Memory, History and Meaning: Musical Biography and its Discontents’. Journal of Musicological Research 23: 39–80. doi:10.1080/01411890490276990
Pickering, S. 1971. Praxis: One: Existence, Men and Realities. Santa Cruz, CA: Nowels Publications.
Scaduto, A. 1971. Bob Dylan: An Intimate Biography. New York: Grosset & Dunlap.
Schwartz, Barry. 1991. ‘Social Change and Collective Memory: The Democratization of George Washington’. American Sociological Review 56.2 (April): 221–36. doi:10.2307/2095781
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Shelton, R. 1968. (personal correspondence). Letter to Corlies Smith, 13 February 1968 (Viking Press).
——1986. No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan. London: Penguin.
——1990. Behind the Shades: Studies in Dylanology. Manuscript in Shelton Collection. Institute of Popular Music. University of Liverpool.
Spitz, B. 1988. Dylan: A Biography. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Strachan, R. 2003. ‘Moral Panic’. In The Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World: Volume I: Media, Industry and Society, eds John Shepherd, David Horn and Dave Laing. London: Continuum.
Stratton, J. 1982. ‘Between Two Worlds: Art and Commercialism in the Record Industry’. The Sociological Review 30: 267–85.
Thornton, S. 1990. ‘Strategies for Reconstructing the Popular Past’. Popular Music 9.1: 87–95.
Toynbee, J. 1993. ‘Policing Bohemia, Pinning up Grunge: The Music Press and Generic Change in British Pop and Rock’. Popular Music 12.3: 289–300.
Weberman, A. J. 1973. ‘Great Moments in Rock’. OZ (January–February): 47–8.
Bauldie, John. 1996. ‘In Memoriam: Robert Shelton’. The Telegraph 54: 8–23. Richmond, Surrey: Wanted Man.
Confino, Alon. 1997. ‘Collective Memory and Cultural History’. The American Historical Review 102/5: 1386–1403. doi:10.2307/2171069
Fiske, J. 1992. ‘The Cultural Economy of Fandom’. In The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media, ed. Lisa A. Lewis. London: Routledge.
Frith, S. 1983. ‘Rock Biography’. In Popular Music 3: Producers and Markets. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gray, M. 1984. A Dictionary of Literary Terms. Beirut: York Press.
Greimas, A. J. 1966. Sémantique structurale. Recherche de méthod. Paris: Larousse.
Hadju, D. 1997. ‘Bob Dylan’s Big Break: One performance in 1961 transformed a scruffy Greenwich Village nobody into a rising folk star’. ew.com <http://www.ew.com/ew/ article/0,,289543,00.html> accessed 5 August 2008.
Halbwachs, M. 1941. La Topographie Legendaire des Evangiles. (The Legendary Topography of the Gospels). Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Hesmondhalgh, D. and K. Negus. 2002. ‘Popular Music Studies: Meaning, Power and Value’. In Popular Music Studies, eds D. Hesmondhalgh and K. Negus, 1–10. London: Arnold.
Heylin, C. 1991. Behind The Shades: Dylan the Biography. London: Penguin.
Hirsch, P. M. 1972. ‘Processing Fads and Fashions: An Organization Set Analysis of Cultural Industry Systems’, American Journal of Sociology 77 (University of Chicago Press) reprinted in On Record: Rock, Pop and the Written Word, eds Simon Frith and Andrew Goodwin, 127–39. New York: Pantheon, 1990.
Jensen, J. 1992. ‘Fandom as Pathology’. In The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media, ed. Lisa A. Lewis. London: Routledge.
Kansteiner, W. 2002. ‘Finding Meaning in Memory: A Methodological Critique of Collective Memory Studies Author(s)’. History and Theory 41.2 (May): 179–97. doi:10.1111/00182656.00198
Levine, M. L. 1987. (Personal correspondence) letter to Robert Shelton, 20 April 1987.
Lewis, George H. 1992. ‘Who Do You Love: The Dimensions of Musical Taste’. In Popular Music and Communication, ed. James Lull, 134–51. London: Sage.
Lewis, L. A., ed. 1992. The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media. London: Routledge.
Lipsitz, G. 1990. Time Passages: Collective Memory and American Popular Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Pekacz, J. T. 2004. ‘Memory, History and Meaning: Musical Biography and its Discontents’. Journal of Musicological Research 23: 39–80. doi:10.1080/01411890490276990
Pickering, S. 1971. Praxis: One: Existence, Men and Realities. Santa Cruz, CA: Nowels Publications.
Scaduto, A. 1971. Bob Dylan: An Intimate Biography. New York: Grosset & Dunlap.
Schwartz, Barry. 1991. ‘Social Change and Collective Memory: The Democratization of George Washington’. American Sociological Review 56.2 (April): 221–36. doi:10.2307/2095781
Selden, R. 1989. A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Shelton, R. 1968. (personal correspondence). Letter to Corlies Smith, 13 February 1968 (Viking Press).
——1986. No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan. London: Penguin.
——1990. Behind the Shades: Studies in Dylanology. Manuscript in Shelton Collection. Institute of Popular Music. University of Liverpool.
Spitz, B. 1988. Dylan: A Biography. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Strachan, R. 2003. ‘Moral Panic’. In The Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World: Volume I: Media, Industry and Society, eds John Shepherd, David Horn and Dave Laing. London: Continuum.
Stratton, J. 1982. ‘Between Two Worlds: Art and Commercialism in the Record Industry’. The Sociological Review 30: 267–85.
Thornton, S. 1990. ‘Strategies for Reconstructing the Popular Past’. Popular Music 9.1: 87–95.
Toynbee, J. 1993. ‘Policing Bohemia, Pinning up Grunge: The Music Press and Generic Change in British Pop and Rock’. Popular Music 12.3: 289–300.
Weberman, A. J. 1973. ‘Great Moments in Rock’. OZ (January–February): 47–8.
Published
2008-11-23
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Strachan, R. (2008). ‘Where do I begin the story?’: Collective memory, biographical authority and the rock biography. Popular Music History, 3(1), 65-80. https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.v3i1.65
