5.0 Speaking and Singing
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
University of Huddersfield Repository Gibson, Ryan Markus The Role of Accent in Popular Music: An Interdisciplinary Approach Original Citation Gibson, Ryan Markus (2015) The Role of Accent in Popular Music: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Masters thesis, University of Huddersfield. This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/26193/ The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the items on this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners. Users may access full items free of charge; copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided: • The authors, title and full bibliographic details is credited in any copy; • A hyperlink and/or URL is included for the original metadata page; and • The content is not changed in any way. For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/ 1 The Role of Accent in Popular Music: An Interdisciplinary Approach BY Ryan Markus Gibson Student Number: 0408350 Course: MA: Modern English Language Supervised by: Jim O'Driscoll University of Huddersfield April 2015 2 Abstract In the thirty years that have passed since Peter Trudgill first published his study of British pop-song pronunciation, and fifteen years since Paul Simpson published his follow-up study of accents in pop and rock singing (1999), there have been several changes in the way linguists approach the sociolinguistics of singing. These changes include Franz Andres Morissey's introduction of sonority as a factor behind choosing particular phonological features, and the ongoing and evolving criticism of Trudgill's original assertion that singers were (and possibly still are) trying to 'imitate' Americans. The present study argues that existing theories are insufficient, and proposes a new framework for dealing with phonological choice in song, centred around three separate but unavoidably interrelated values that influence style choice – aesthetic, sonority, and indexicality. Unlike many related studies, it places emphasis on the interdisciplinary nature of the subject, drawing upon the work of musicologists, philosophers and linguists, in an attempt to bring a fresh perspective on the phenomenon. Special attention is given to the notion that singers use accents to create (or be appropriate to) a particular aesthetic. The view is taken that music scenes act as unique speech communities that possess both socially and musically derived linguistic norms that all members accept (both performers and audience), but only few actively utilise in their language use (the singers). 3 Table of Contents Abstract.................................................................................................................................................2 1.0 Introduction....................................................................................................................................4 1.1 Overview....................................................................................................................................4 1.2 Data............................................................................................................................................5 1.3 Why?..........................................................................................................................................6 1.4 Outline.......................................................................................................................................8 2.0 Previous work on speaking style..................................................................................................11 2.1 Labov.......................................................................................................................................11 2.2 Giles and Coupland..................................................................................................................12 2.3 Bell...........................................................................................................................................13 3.0 Previous work on singing style.....................................................................................................16 3.1 Acts of Conflicting Identity.....................................................................................................16 3.2 Another look at accents in pop and rock singing.....................................................................18 4.1 Genre and Scene......................................................................................................................19 4.2 Analysing Popular Music.........................................................................................................23 5.0 Speaking and singing....................................................................................................................25 5.1 A technical approach................................................................................................................26 5.2 A contextual and indexical approach.......................................................................................29 5.3 Creative phonology..................................................................................................................32 6.0 The ASI framework......................................................................................................................35 6.1 Aesthetic and artistry...............................................................................................................36 6.2 Sonority and singability...........................................................................................................42 6.3 Indexicality and identity..........................................................................................................46 6.4 Art and identity........................................................................................................................53 6.5 Musical sound as an aesthetic index of scene and genre.........................................................55 7.0 Case Studies..................................................................................................................................56 7.1 Sonority and singability preference.........................................................................................57 7.2 Identity and indexicality in modern iterations of bluegrass and folk.....................................64 7.3 Language style as an aspect of genre.......................................................................................69 8.0 Conclusion....................................................................................................................................77 10 Bibliography..................................................................................................................................79 10.1 Discography...........................................................................................................................79 10.2 References..............................................................................................................................80 4 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Overview The sociolinguistic study of singing styles is typically concerned with two (often overlapping) questions; 1. Why do people change/modify their accent when they sing? 2. Why do people use [x] accent (and not [y] accent)? Thus far, these two questions have been approached from either a purely linguistic background, where the theoretical frameworks of language have been applied (Morrisey 2008, O'Hanlon 2006, Beal 2009, Simpson 1999), or have been approached from a purely musical background, where concerns of sociolinguistics have been minimal or non-existent (Durant 1984, Till 2010, Potter 1998). The sociolinguistic-only presumption made by most linguists working in this field is based on the fact that singers use words, use language(s), and it therefore makes a degree of sense that theories relating entirely to speech processes and identity frameworks will naturally apply to la nguage in music. In making this presumption they are certainly not wrong, but red flags must be raised when musical concerns are being ignored. The question to bear in mind is - are singers only motivated by factors such as social distance or identity in making style-choices? I believe there is another motivation – namely the aesthetic motivation that chiefly drives style-choice in musical contexts. It is for this reason that I wish to challenge the traditional sociolinguistic account of pop music pronunciation, by drawing together the breadth of work undertaken by both linguists and musicologists in what amounts to an interdisciplinary approach to accent analysis in the context of music. As Seeger writes, 'the safest assumption...would be that until we have good reason to believe otherwise, the speech and music 5 factors should be treated as equally important' (Seeger, 1958, p.4). I shall also take into account the various concerns of philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, music journalists and practitioners of other academic disciplines that relate to the topic at hand. The purpose