COMMUNICATOR BETWEEN WORLDS: BJÖRK REACHES BEYOND THE BINARIES Edwin F. Faulhaber A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS December 2008 Committee: Kimberly Coates, Advisor Robert Sloane ii ABSTRACT Kimberly Coates, Advisor Icelandic pop star Björk has spent her career breaking down boundaries, blurring lines, and complicating binaries between perceived opposites. Examining a variety of both primary and secondary sources, this study looks at the ways that Björk challenges the binary constructions of “high” and “low” art, nature and technology, and feminism and traditional femininity, and also proposes that her uniquely postmodern approach to blurring boundaries can be a model for a better society in general. This study contends that Björk serves as a symbol of what might be possible if humans stopped constructing boundaries between everything from musical styles to national borders, and as a model for how people can focus on their commonalities while still respecting the freedom of individual expression. This is particularly important in the United States of America, a place where despite its infinite potential for cultural pluralism and collaboration, there are as many (or more) divisions between people based upon race, class, gender, and religion as anywhere else in the world. iii Dedicated to Morgaine iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my committee, Dr. Kim Coates and Rob Sloane, for all of their suggestions and encouragement while I wrote this thesis. I would also like to thank Dr. Don McQuarie and Gloria Enriquez Pizana for their support and assistance, as well as a host of wonderful professors who laid the groundwork for this thesis by inspiring me along the way: Rob, Kim, Drs. Rebecca Mancuso, Maisha Wester, Donald Callen, Sridevi Menon, and Rob Buffington. Thank you to all of my friends and colleagues who have kept me sane (mostly) during the process. I would particularly like to thank Rob for his friendship, advice, and inspiration as my teacher, faculty partner, thesis reader, and friend during my time in Bowling Green. This thesis would not exist had it not been for the love and support of my wife Evin and my mother Margo, who stuck by me and endured the stress of my odd research methods while watching my son, Miles, and daughter, Morgaine. Thank you so much! You have proven that all is indeed full of love. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1 Short Biography......................................................................................................... 6 CHAPTER ONE: BETWEEN “HIGH” AND “LOW”........................................................ 23 “Indie Cred” vs. Mainstream “Sell-out”: The Fame Game...................................... 25 “Fuck Styles, Fuck Categories”................................................................................. 37 Building Bridges Between “Fine” and “Folk”.......................................................... 44 The “Populist Experimentalist”................................................................................. 51 CHAPTER TWO: BETWEEN NATURE AND TECHNOLOGY..................................... 60 Keep On Marching: How By Moving Forward We Go Back .................................. 66 Techno, Naturally: Responding to the Tyranny of the Guitar .................................. 72 Democratizing Sound: Responding to the Tyranny of Techno................................ 80 Ego Trippin’: How We Forgot That We Are Nature................................................ 85 CHAPTER THREE: BETWEEN FEMININITIES.............................................................. 95 The “Exotic Elf Woman-Child”: Iceland and Björk’s Femininity ........................... 98 The “F” Word: Björk & Feminism ........................................................................... 104 The Other “F” Word: Can a Fashionista Be a Feminist?.......................................... 111 Big Time Sensuality: Defining Her Own Sexy......................................................... 117 “Nana Na Nana”: The “Warrior of Love” ................................................................ 124 Unison: “One Plus One Equals Three”..................................................................... 133 CONCLUSION.......... ............................................................................................................ 143 WORKS CITED AND CONSULTED.................................................................................. 157 1 INTRODUCTION Is she vegetable or mineral? —John S. Hall (King Missile) Let’s unite tonight. —Björk (“Unison”) A Björk is a Björk is a Björk. Like Gertrude Stein’s famous line about a rose, it’s really best to skip the adjectives and adverbs, the metaphors and similes, if you want to talk about Björk. Since the time Stein posited that “a rose is a rose is a rose,” the phrase has often been read as a modernist rejection of the flowery descriptions of the Romantic era, and an attempt to free the word from its past connotations and symbols (Stein). However, the phrase also points to the postmodern conception of the ambiguity of meaning in general. But just what is postmodernism? Though it is a contentious term, postmodernism is most often described as a response to the loss of faith in modernism’s “grand narratives” of human progress through science and rationalism (Wheale 9). This is accomplished in art and literature through such methods as eclecticism (mixing of styles), parody, irony, simulacrum, and surrealism (Wheale 42-51). This breakdown sounds very simple, like there is an easy binary between modernist and postmodernist culture. In truth, the two are not as different as they seem. Take Stein’s rose for example: though Stein is considered a modernist, her famous phrase also reflects postmodernity. For instance, can a rose be described as anything else other than simply a rose, considering the endless possible meanings of the word to different people in different situations? In other words, can we really count on descriptive language to explain something that is in essence subjective and thus defies categorization in the first place? The modernist 2 distrust of representation, ie “the rose is red,” is clearly taken to the next level by the postmodernist distrust of the word “rose” itself. Similarly, attempting to fit Björk’s art and philosophy into any single category is as sticky as it is tricky. When one says “Björk,” one refers not to something singular, but to a host of multiplicities and ambiguities: singer, musician, composer, dancer, fashionista, artist, mother, actress, tastemaker, weirdo, celebrity, mystery, Viking, sex symbol, pixie, girl, woman, warrior, lover, pagan, mystic, technological innovator, feminist, and housewife, just to name a few. Her art has been described as everything from mainstream to underground, pop to avant-garde, electronic to organic, beautiful to abrasive, progressive to retrogressive, political to apathetic, cutesy to sexy, pugilistic to peacemaking, and often simply as strange, bizarre, or ridiculous. Thus, as with Stein’s “rose,” perhaps it is just easier to say “Björk.” With an artist who symbolizes so many seemingly contrasting identities and styles, it is easy to see why music journalist Evelyn McDonnell claims that Björk is the “world’s first post- rock star” (McDonnell 46). The term “post-rock,” coined by music journalist Simon Reynolds to describe pop/rock acts who are influenced more by electronic styles, dance music, jazz, and classical music than older, blues based rock ’n’ roll, seems to also imply a certain postmodernity. One important facet of postmodernism is that it is seen “as blurring or destroying distinctions between established cultural hierarchies . .” (Wheale 34). It does not seem accidental, then, that McDonnell also calls Björk’s music “sincere post-modern bricolage” (McDonnell 52). In this light, Björk could very well be the ultimate example of a postmodern figure. She has spent her career breaking down boundaries, blurring lines, and complicating binaries. She has soaked up many different influences from many different places, creating her own wild synthesis; in the 3 process, she has brought together concepts, styles, and identities that most people would see as polar opposites. This is what makes Björk “Björk.” But why should this matter to someone uninterested in her music, music in general, in postmodernism, or in cultural analysis? I believe that Björk’s philosophy and approach to making music can be a model for a better society, and I believe that her recent work suggests that she might agree with me, as she continues to tackle broader and more humanitarian topics. Björk serves as a symbol of what might be possible if we stopped competing, stopped viewing the world in black and white, and stopped drawing lines in the sand. This is particularly important in the United States of America, a place with infinite potential to create something new from a multitude of different cultures and at the same time a place where people are as divided by race, class, gender, and religion as much or more than anywhere else in the world. The U.S. needs Björk. What follows will be a textual analysis of the specific ways that make Björk’s approach to music (and life) so special: her refusal to conform to socially established boundaries and binaries,