Nostalgia in Indie Folk by Claire Coleman
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WESTERN SYDNEY UNIVE RSITY Humanities and Communication Arts “Hold on, hold on to your old ways”: Nostalgia in Indie Folk by Claire Coleman For acceptance into the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 20, 2017 Student number 17630782 “Hold on, hold on to your old ways” – Sufjan Stevens, “He Woke Me Up Again,” Seven Swans Statement of Authentication The work presented in this thesis is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, original except as acknowledged in the text. I hereby declare that I have not submitted this material, either in full or in part, for a degree at this or any other institution. .............................................................................................. Claire Coleman Acknowledgements This thesis could not have been completed without the invaluable assistance of numerous colleagues, friends and family. The love, respect and practical support of these people, too many to name, buoyed me through the arduous privilege that is doctoral research. With special thanks to: The Supers – Dr Kate Fagan, Mr John Encarnacao and Associate Prof. Diana Blom My beloved – Mike Ford My family – Nola Coleman, Gemma Devenish, Neale Devenish, and the Fords. The proof-readers – Alex Witt, Anna Dunnill, Pina Ford, Connor Weightman and Nina Levy. My choir families – Menagerie, Berlin Pop Ensemble and Dienstag Choir Administrative staff at Western Sydney University Dr Peter Elliott Ali Kirby, Kate Ballard, Carol Shepherd, Kathryn Smith, Judith Schroiff, Lujan Cordaro, Kate Ford and the many cafes in Perth, Sydney and Berlin that allowed me to buy one coffee and stay all day to write. Contents List of figures and illustrations Introduction 7 Growing Up Millennial 11 Vintage, Retro, Remakes: Post-millennial nostalgia 15 Nostalgia Overload: Haters Gonna Hate 20 New Tech, Old Sounds: Nostalgic Indie Folk 26 Analysing Indie Folk Music 31 Zoom-In, Zoom-Out 36 Songs and People: Nostalgia in Indie Folk Culture 43 Chapter One: Understanding Nostalgia 4 5 Constructing Nostalgia 48 Early Nostalgia 52 Two Nostalgias: Affective and Stylistic 57 Nostalgia in Indie Folk 65 Chapter Two: Indie / Folk Origins 6 8 Indie: A Nostalgic Manifesto 73 Folk’s Mythologies: Heritage and Authenticity 81 Indie Folk: The Nostalgia Factory 91 - Sufjan Stevens 92 - Joanna Newsom 96 - Bon Iver 100 (Re)Constructing Indie Folk 105 Chapter Three: Nature 1 0 8 Eden and Wild Nature Tropes in Indie Folk 115 Nature For Escape, Healing, Inspiration in For Emma 119 Landscape and Winter in For Emma 128 Newsom’s Ys : the Pastoral and the Wild 134 Boundary Disruptions in Ys’ cover art 145 Indie Folk’s Nostalgic Nature 149 Chapter Four: Home and Domesticity 1 5 4 Nostalgia for a Lost Adulthood? Indie folk, Home and Millennials 161 Circumnavigating Homesickness: Vernon’s Wisconsin 164 “Bless Our House and Its Heart So Savage”: Intimacy and Newsom 169 Kitsch and Collecting: Home and Aesthetic Nostalgia 172 Carrie and Lowell and the “Traditional” Family Archetype 181 Domesticity and Gender in Indie Folk: Vocal Grain and Production Elements 188 - Sufjan Stevens’ Constructed Intimacy 191 - Joanna Newsom’s Ambiguous Vocal Grain 195 - Masculinity and Falsetto in Bon Iver 200 Domestic Anxiety: Indie Folk’s Longing For Home 204 Chapter Five: Belief and Ontology 2 0 7 Reverent Irreverence: Bowerbirding in 22, A Million 213 Newsom and the Numinous Everyday 221 Stevens and the Nostalgic Sacred 231 Bowerbirding Nostalgic Ontologies 244 Conclusion 2 4 6 Bibliography 2 5 3 Discography 2 7 0 Appendices 2 7 3 List of Figures and Illustrations Fig. 1: Zoom -In Zoom -Out – initial information. (copyright Claire Coleman 37 2017) Fig. 2: Zoom -In Zoom -Out – song at first level of magnification. (copyright 38 Claire Coleman 2017) Fig. 3: Zoom -In Zoom -Out – song at second level of magnification. (copyright 39 Claire Coleman 2017) Fig. 4: Zoom -In Zoom -Out – song in cultural context. (copyright Claire Coleman 40 2017) Fig. 5: Zoom -In Zoom -Out – song in genre context. (copyright Claire Coleman 41 2017) Fig. 6 : Characteristics of Indie Folk chart (copyright Claire Coleman 2015) 68 Fig 7: Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago , front cover image. Used with permission. 130 Fig. 8: Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago, inside cover image. Used with 131 permission. Fig. 9 : Table outlining variations in Joanna Newsom’s “Only Skin” from 4’25” – 141 7’52”. Fig. 10: Joanna Newsom Ys , front cover image. Used with permission. 147 Fig. 11: Joanna Newsom The Milk -Eyed Mender front and back cover images. 174 Used with permission. Fig. 12: Joanna Newsom Have One On Me front cover image. Used with 175 permission. Fig. 13: Bon Iver 22, A Million , CD cover front (right) and back (left) by Eric 218 Timothy Carlson. Used with permission. “Hold on, hold on to your old ways”: Nostalgia in Indie Folk 7 Introduction Introduction We were bored, and amazed In accord, in a daze All before our time It was before our time – Joanna Newsom, “Make Hay” 1 This thesis was, in part, inspired by beards. In the first decade of the new millennium, I noticed a sharp uptick in the number of men in my social circle sporting beards. And not just any beards. These beards were thick and lustrous, requiring a significant time investment for maintenance and general beard care. Beard wearers looked like time travellers from the Victorian era, or lost hippies from the 1970s, or anachronistic disco dancers. The facial hair reinstatement trend was not limited to beards; some adherents preferred to style themselves after a 1980s Chevron-moustachioed Tom Selleck, or sported something flamboyant and stylised across their upper lips in the fashion of Salvador Dali. The indie folk genre of popular music was populated particularly densely with beards (see appendix one), as demonstrated in the backwoods hick styling of Sam Beam from Iron and Wine, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, or virtually every member of Fleet Foxes. In the cases of J. Tillman of Father John Misty, Alex Ebert of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and singer-songwriter Devendra Banhart, the beards supplemented their modern-day prophet schtick, lending the wearers an air of secular pseudo-spirituality. The beards indie folk musicians, and indeed members of the public, were sporting seemed intimately linked to 1 Joanna Newsom, “Make Hay”, outtake from Divers , Chicago: Drag City, compact disc, 2015. Released via YouTube to mark the album’s first anniversary October 23, 2016. Accessed August 25, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGoqZ4zWSsg “Hold on, hold on to your old ways”: Nostalgia in Indie Folk 8 Introduction other aspects of the wearers’ personas; they were one facet of a complex and multi-layered communication of identity and ideology. I was not alone in noting the increased beardedness around me. In support of beard wearers of the world, the World Beard and Moustache Association was inaugurated in November 2004, and exists “to promote the worldwide appreciation of beards and moustaches”. 2 Bespoke beard care products including oils, balms and waxes became readily available on the market. Researchers tracked the fortunes of the beard across history, 3 theorised its role in the construction of sexual difference or masculinity, 4 considered the identity politics of cultivating or shaving one’s beard 5 and examined the gender implications of being a hirsute woman. 6 In 2014 a study into beardedness and the perceived attractiveness of men 7 was reported in the popular press with the proposal that society had reached “peak beard”, and that the trend would start to unwind. 8 Instead, subsequent years have seen young adult men experimenting with ornamental beard options, decorating their bristles with coloured dyes, flowers, or glitter. 9 The great beard trend of our times is not a random incident occurring in isolation, but is a visible indicator of a more widespread and entrenched fascination with 2 World Beard and Moustache Association. “About”. World Beard and Moustache Association website. Accessed May 23, 2017. http://www.wbma.eu/about/ 3 Christopher Oldstone-Moore, “The Beard Movement in Victorian Britain,” Victorian Studies 48, no. 1 (2005): 7 – 34; Christopher Oldstone-Moore, “Mustaches and Masculine Codes in Early Twentieth-Century America,” Journal of Social History 45, no. 1 (2011): 47 – 60. 4 Will Fisher, “The Renaissance Beard: Masculinity in Early Modern England,” Renaissance Quarterly 54, no. 1 (2001): 155 – 187. 5 Morris Dickstein, “About Face,” Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art 48 (2011): 109 – 113. 6 Rachel Burgess, “Feminine Stubble,” Hypatia 20, no. 3 (2005): 230 – 237. 7 Zinnia J. Janif, Robert C. Brooks and Barnaby J. Dixson, “Negative frequency dependent preferences and variation in male facial hair,” Biology Letters 10, no. 4 (2014): 1 – 4. 8 Mark Berman, “A new study says we may have reached ‘peak beard,’” The Washington Post , news website, April 16, 2014. Accessed July 3, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post- nation/wp/2014/04/16/a-new-study-says-we-may-have-reached-peak-beard/?utm_term=.ec01d8e24ef2; Oliver Milman, “Fashion-conscious men warned we may have reached ‘peak beard,’” The Guardian , news website, April 16, 2014. Accessed July 3, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2014/apr/16/fashion- conscious-men-warned-we-may-have-reached-peak-beard; Scott Christian, “Science Says We’ve Reached ‘Peak Beard,’ But Does That Mean You Should Shave?” GQ , men’s fashion magazine, April 16, 2014. Accessed July 3, 2017. http://www.gq.com/story/beard-trend-peak-saturation-study 9 See, for example, the photographic work of Brian and Jonathan, or The Gay Beards, who started their platform in July 2014, just after the peak beard study was published. (“Home”, The Gay Beards, website. Accessed July 3, 2017. https://www.thegaybeards.com/) “Hold on, hold on to your old ways”: Nostalgia in Indie Folk 9 Introduction past trends and styles.