Island Studies Journal, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2012, pp. 69-98 Islands and Islandness in Rock Music Lyrics Daniele Mezzana CERFE (Centro di Ricerca e Documentazione Febbraio ‘74) Rome, Italy
[email protected] Aaron Lorenz Law & Society, Ramapo College New Jersey, USA
[email protected] and Ilan Kelman Center for International Climate and Environmental Research - Oslo (CICERO) Oslo, Norway
[email protected] ABSTRACT: This paper presents a first exploration, qualitative in character, based on a review of 412 songs produced in the period 1960-2009, about islands in rock music as both social products and social tools potentially contributing to shaping ideas, emotions, will, and desires. An initial taxonomy of 24 themes clustered under five meta-themes of space, lifestyle, emotions, symbolism, and social-political relations is provided, together with some proposals for further research. Keywords: abductive method; art; islandness; rock music; social construction © 2012 Institute of Island Studies, University of Prince Edward Island, Canada Introduction: Rock Music and Islands: Looking for a Link “[…] in an age when nothing is physically inaccessible or unknowable, the dream of the small, remote and undiscovered place has become so powerful” (Gillis, 2004: 148) This article presents a first exploration, qualitative in character, of how rock music lyrics and song titles portray islands, islandness, and island features. It examines the island aspects of a socio-cultural trend expressed in as far-reaching a medium as that of rock music. Here, we adopt a broad definition of ‘rock music’, including different expressions of this genre, starting with the emergence of rock in the late 1950’s to early 1960’s, and moving towards more current expressions including art rock, progressive rock, punk and reggae (Wicke, 1990; Charlton, 2003).