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Durham E-Theses Rockin' all over the world: The Assimilation of Rock Music in Five European Countries (a comparative study) KOUVAROU, MARIA How to cite: KOUVAROU, MARIA (2014) Rockin' all over the world: The Assimilation of Rock Music in Five European Countries (a comparative study), Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/10745/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 “Rockin’ all over the world”: The Assimilation of Rock Music in Five European Countries (a comparative study) Maria Kouvarou PhD Music Department Durham University 2014 Maria Kouvarou “Rockin’ all over the world”: The Assimilation of Rock Music in Five European Countries Abstract This dissertation examines the historical process of assimilation of rock musical idioms in five European countries: Britain, France, Germany (East and West), Greece, and Italy in the period between 1955 and 1985. Taking a comparative approach, it is argued that the process of assimilation unfolds in a number of distinct stages that can be clearly identified in each of these five countries, albeit with differences due to the particularities of each country’s pre-existing popular music culture, political conditions, and media structure. I propose that there are four main stages that can be identified: (1) a period of reception when rock’n’roll was largely enjoyed and copied as a fad of foreign origin; (2) a period of more creative imitation where an imitative rock idiom arose within each country, partly in response to media efforts to institutionalize and domesticate it, and partly in response to the influence of the ‘British Invasion’; (3) a period of development characterized by a self-conscious blending of indigenous elements with rock idioms; and finally, (4) a point where the assimilation of rock music finally becomes more intuitive, rock idioms freely interacting with distinctive national/indigenous features to produce new hybrids. By taking an overarching socio-cultural approach to popular music and its development which emphasizes both top-down (i.e., institutionalized) as well as bottom-up (e.g., underground) musical activities, this study examines the factors that led to the full assimilation of what was initially American rock’n’roll through tracing the changes that occurred in the popular music contexts of each of these five European countries during these four phases. It is argued that the full assimilation of rock idioms led to the creation of new hybrid musical languages that, despite the features they have in common, nevertheless also carry the particularities of their specific national contexts in which socio-political situations, nation-state policies, economic conditions, and the everyday activities of the people exist with and in relation to an ever-present, shared and, most importantly, imagined historical and cultural past. “Rockin’ all over the world”: The Assimilation of Rock Music in Five European Countries (a comparative study) Maria Kouvarou PhD Music Department Durham University 2014 Table of Contents Declaration and Statement of Copyright ........................................................................................ iv Acknowledgements ..........................................................................................................................v Part I Chapter 1: Introduction ...............................................................................................................1 Aims and Rationale ..........................................................................................................................1 Problems to be addressed ................................................................................................................3 Methodology .................................................................................................................................15 Literature Review ..........................................................................................................................18 Structure: Outline and Overview ...................................................................................................29 Chapter 2: Contexts and Concepts .............................................................................................32 1. Musical Context ‘…lose your mind, out of control, I now pronounce you rock’n’roll…’: Interpreting rock’n’roll 35 ‘…I don’t belong here…’: national popular musics before and alongside rock’n’roll ..................44 2. Conceptual Context ‘…everything’s political’: popular music and politics...................................................................51 ‘We’re all living in America, Amerika is wunderbar’: Americanization; cultural imperialism or democratic liberalization? ..............................................................................................................57 ‘When I’m one with the world and my mind’: the paradox of globalization ...............................66 ‘Mother should I trust the government?’: the influence of the nation-state on popular music ....72 ‘You are here with me to stay’: rock, authenticity, national identity .............................................77 In Conclusion .................................................................................................................................87 i Part II Chapter 3: ‘Let’s get it started in here’: Reception (ca.1955-62) ............................................89 ‘Pleased to meet you…where you from? And what’s your name?’: the first encounter with rock’n’roll .....................................................................................................................................92 ‘Now when the seasons change, oh, we don’t stay the same’: social changes, economic developments and the rise of the teenager in Europe .....................................................................94 ‘…daddy please stop yelling…’: rock’n’roll and ‘moral panics’ ................................................103 ‘It’s (not) only rock’n’roll’: American culture, moral panics and politics ...................................117 ‘I just wanna hear some rock’n’roll’: early indigenous rock’n’roll productions .........................121 In Conclusion ...............................................................................................................................133 Chapter 4: ‘You’ll see it’s true, someone like me can learn to be like someone like you’: Imitation (ca.1962-67) ................................................................................................................140 ‘Trying to get it like me…can’t get it like me’: imitation, mimesis, mimicry .............................141 1. First stage of imitation: the process of institutionalization ..............................................149 ‘You’re gonna be institutionalized – you’ll gonna get brainwashed with bloodshot eyes’: domesticating rock’n’roll culture .................................................................................................151 ‘Join the crazed institution of the stars’: musical manipulation ..................................................166 Meanwhile in Britain… ...............................................................................................................173 2. Second stage of imitation: imitation through active music-making ................................175 ‘Everybody wants to be like you, show me what to do’: British Invasion and European beat-boom movements ...................................................................................................................................175 Language selection and rock ........................................................................................................186 In Conclusion ...............................................................................................................................189 ii Part III Chapter 5: ‘…all I want to do is be more like me and be less like you…’: Development through the incorporation of national elements (ca.1968-76) ................................................194 ‘What’s going on?’: the socio-political context in late 1960s and 1970s ....................................197 ‘Last year’s dream was a terrible scheme’: counterculture, underground networks, politics and rock music ....................................................................................................................................207 ‘We live in a political world’: placing music in a political context .............................................210 ‘It’s all in the music’: discussing the new rock styles ..................................................................223 Progressive rock ...............................................................................................................224