Irish Popular Music and the Digital Era
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Provided by the author(s) and NUI Galway in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite the published version when available. Title Haunting noises: Irish popular music and the digital era Author(s) Lydon, Michael Publication Date 2020-11-16 Publisher NUI Galway Item record http://hdl.handle.net/10379/16283 Downloaded 2021-09-28T05:50:48Z Some rights reserved. For more information, please see the item record link above. HAUNTING NOISES: IRISH POPULAR MUSIC AND THE DIGITAL ERA ___________________________ Michael Lydon, M.A. Submitted for the Degree of Ph.D. to the National University of Ireland, Galway Research Supervisor: Dr. Méabh Ní Fhuartháin Centre for Irish Studies School of Geography, Archaeology, and Irish Studies College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Celtic Studies National University of Ireland, Galway July 2020 TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ....................................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................... v INTRODUCTION Noise’s Revolution in the Digital Era ....................................................................... 1 CHAPTER ONE Perfect Sound Forever to Digital Free Zone .......................................................... 13 Prelude: The Noisy Library of Babel and the Digital Free Zone ................... 13 Introduction: Responding to the Noisy Digital .............................................. 15 The First Phase of Music’s Digitalisation ...................................................... 16 The Second Phase of Music’s Digitalisation .................................................. 21 The Return of the King Format ...................................................................... 27 Noise as a Trigger of a Sonic Possible World ................................................ 31 Hauntological Metalanguage of Remembered Punctums .............................. 39 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 45 CHAPTER TWO Hear the Noisy Celtic Tiger Roar: Damien Dempsey and an Artisan use of Noise ...................................................... 48 Prelude: A Story of Difference ....................................................................... 48 Introduction: A Noisy Response .................................................................... 50 Our Damo: The Irish Popular Music Industry Responds ............................... 51 Dempsey and the Haunting of John McCormack’s Wall ............................... 57 The Celtic Warrior and Bubblegum Pop ........................................................ 62 The Sounds of the Raconteur of the Marginalised ......................................... 67 Our Sweet Guide: Dempsey, Embalming and Spectral Servitude ................. 71 Seizing the Day, Bringing the Noise .............................................................. 76 Shots and a Seriously Noisy Nation ............................................................... 83 Dempsey’s Tradition of Being a Noisy Tribune of the World ....................... 90 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 94 i CHAPTER THREE Our Noisy Woman: Sinéad O'Connor and the Feminisation of Noise ................ 97 Prelude: Sinéad, The Singer, and the Irish People ......................................... 97 Introduction: Our Noisy Woman .................................................................... 99 A Noisy Woman Emerges ............................................................................ 100 Creating the Noise of Others ........................................................................ 106 A Noisy Woman with a Haunting Noisy Voice ........................................... 109 The Haunting ‘She’ in Visual Form ............................................................. 115 A Noisy Woman’s Mastery of Environmental and Media Noise ................ 120 The Developing Noisiness of a Noisy Woman ............................................ 128 The Two Phases of Noise by a Noisy Woman ............................................. 134 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 143 CHAPTER FOUR Even Better Than the Real Thing: The Future of Noise in Irish Popular Music ........................................................ 145 Prelude: Noisy Bogmen ............................................................................... 145 Introduction: A Noisy Island’s Future ......................................................... 148 Weapons of Mass Deception and Record Production .................................. 149 Noise’s Virtue to Challenge Sound Ireland .................................................. 155 Noise as an Ill-bred Punctum and Spatial Ownership .................................. 160 David Kitt, Fionn Regan and the Liberation of Noise ................................. 165 Skylarkin’ and Noise’s Affordance of Virtue in Death ................................ 171 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 175 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................... 177 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................. 181 DISCOGRAPHY .................................................................................................... 200 FILMOGRAPHY ................................................................................................... 205 ii DECLARATION I, the Candidate, certify that the Thesis is all my own work and that I have not obtained a degree in this University or elsewhere on the basis of any of this work. _____________________________ Michael Lydon Date: iii ABSTRACT This research examines the response of Irish popular musicians to the changing modes of reception and production in the digital era. In this examination, the use of both media and environmental noise in the recording process is revealed to be crucial in facilitating attentive listening. To undertake this assessment, the temporal framework of Irish popular music’s digital era is shown to correspond with its revolutionary period between the early 1990s and mid-2010s. In addition, central to assessing the challenges facing Irish popular musicians is a contextualisation of the impact of dominant modes of reception in the digital era. To define a response to the creative impact of these dominant modes of reception, this study focuses on the production of an album and the inventive use of music, silence, and importantly noise to construct what the research outlines as a temporospatial expanses of sonic fiction. The musicians whose response is examined in this thesis include Damien Dempsey, Sinéad O’Connor, and Mic Christopher. To undertake this examination of Irish popular musicians’ response to the digital era, the thesis utilises the multi interpretive modes of enquiries afforded in Irish Studies to broaden an understanding of the response. In adopting an Irish Studies approach to cultural analysis, this research incorporates critical theories from Popular Music Studies; Sound Studies; Literature; Poststructuralist theories relating to hauntology and the omnipresence of the photographic image; and phonomusicology to arrive at a new critical approach to examine popular music’s creative response to the digital era. Ultimately, the thesis uncovers that Irish popular musicians in their response to the digital era utilise noise as part of a hauntological metalanguage of remembered punctums to construct temporospatial expanses of sonic fiction that propel the industry into a newly formed future; thus, revealing the haunting noises of Irish popular music in the digital era. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project would simply not have been possible without the continued encouragement and support of Dr. Méabh Ní Fhuartháin. Since I first met Méabh in 2007 when I was undertaking an evening Diploma course, she has proven to be an invaluable supervisor, mentor, and friend. I would like to thank all at the Centre for Irish Studies for their guidance and kindness during the past few years. Since undertaking a two-year Diploma course, through a four-year undergraduate study, and finally PhD research I have grown to appreciate the supportive and stimulating environment the Centre offers. It must be recognised that central to creating this environment is Samantha Williams, whose knowledge and support warrants special gratitude. I am also very grateful to Professor Louis de Paor, Dr. Verena Commins, Dr. Nessa Cronin, and Dr. Leo Keohane for their kindness, advice, and support as I worked my way through the thesis. This project has been generously funded as part of a Galway Music Fellowship by the Centre for Irish Studies and NUI Galway, which I have been grateful to receive. Throughout my research, I have been fortunate to work alongside Visiting Scholars from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Union College, and Willamette University. Of these scholars, I would like to thank in particular Dr. Anna Creadick, Dr. Kevin Dunn, Dr. Jack Harris, and Erik Hartman for invigorating conversations over long bus journeys. Alongside my