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When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", University of Southampton, name of the University School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination http://eprints.soton.ac.uk UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON FACULTY OF HUMANITIES Music Volume 1 of 2 Phono-somatics: gender, embodiment and voice in the recorded music of Tori Amos, Björk and PJ Harvey by Sarah Boak Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy October 2015 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF HUMANITIES Music Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy PHONO-SOMATICS: GENDER, EMBODIMENT AND VOICE IN THE RECORDED MUSIC OF TORI AMOS, BJÖRK AND PJ HARVEY Sarah Boak This thesis is a feminist enquiry into the relationship between gender, embodiment and voice in recorded popular music post-1990. In particular, the study focuses on the term ‘embodiment’ and defines this term in a way that moves forward from a simple understanding of representing the body in music. The expression of embodied subjectivity through the voice is crucial to this interpretation, and therefore is the central concern of this thesis. I describe this relationship between embodiment and voice in recorded music as phono-somatic. From the Greek, ‘phono’ suggests not only voice and sound, but also the process of recording itself. ‘Soma’ is the Greek for body. By connecting the two, phono-somatic as a term highlights the interplay between body and voice through the recorded medium. Central to the analysis of phono-somatics is an exploration of the concept of ‘the feminine’. The 1990s saw a new kind of female artist emerge, writing songs that focused on intimate topics of sexuality, gender and the body in an explicit, direct way. This study looks at the work of three artists – PJ Harvey, Björk and Tori Amos – who make challenges to dominant conceptions of gender and sexuality and looks at how they use phono-somatic strategies in their work. The thesis explores three key areas: feminine vocality and pleasure, embodied trauma and maternal bodies. It analyses the ways in which these women performers use an embodied language in their musical practices, of what this language is made, and of what it allows them to speak. Through the analysis, this study demonstrates that phono-somatic practices are used to move past representation, into embodied experience whereby norms around gender and sexuality can be challenged. Table of Contents Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... i List of Figures .............................................................................................................. iv DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP .................................................................................... v Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................... vi Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................... 1 1.1 Thesis structure ........................................................................................................ 3 1.2 Methodology ............................................................................................................ 4 1.3 Embodiment........................................................................................................... 10 1.4 Gender: Feminism and the feminine ..................................................................... 13 1.5 Voice ....................................................................................................................... 18 1.6 Musicology and approaches to analysis ................................................................ 20 1.7 Musical context of the 1990s ................................................................................. 25 Chapter 2: Embodied Voices: feminine vocality and female pleasure ................. 31 2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 31 2.1.1 Paralanguage ........................................................................................... 33 2.1.2 Lexical Breakdown ................................................................................... 34 2.2 Feminine phono-somatics...................................................................................... 35 2.2.1 Feminine vocality ..................................................................................... 35 2.3 Voice and sexuality ................................................................................................ 38 2.3.1 Female orgasm in popular culture ........................................................... 38 2.3.2 Queer vocality .......................................................................................... 44 2.4 PJ Harvey ‘The Dancer’ (1995) ............................................................................... 45 2.5 PJ Harvey ‘The Letter’ (2004) ................................................................................. 49 2.6 Björk ‘Cocoon’ (2001) ............................................................................................ 52 2.7 Björk ‘All is Full of Love’ (1997) .............................................................................. 55 2.8 Tori Amos ‘Icicle’ (1994)......................................................................................... 58 2.9 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 59 i Chapter 3: Violence embodied: traumatised bodies and post-9/11 ..................... 61 3.1 Traumatised bodies and the voice ........................................................................ 61 3.2 Narrative and witnessing ....................................................................................... 64 3.3 Gender, bodies and violence ................................................................................. 65 3.4 Individual and collective violence in the post-9/11 world .................................... 66 3.5 Tori Amos ‘I Don’t Like Mondays’ (2001) .............................................................. 67 3.6 Tori Amos ‘Me and a Gun’ (1991) ......................................................................... 73 3.7 PJ Harvey ‘Bitter Branches’ (2011) ........................................................................ 76 3.8 PJ Harvey ‘The Words that Maketh Murder’ (2011) ............................................. 81 3.9 PJ Harvey ‘Down by the Water’ (1995) ................................................................. 83 3.10 Björk ‘Earth Intruders’ (2007) ................................................................................ 84 3.11 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 88 Chapter 4: Maternal Bodies ................................................................................ 91 4.1 Popular music and the maternal body .................................................................. 92 4.2 Theorising the maternal body ............................................................................... 93 4.3 Tori Amos: Visible maternities .............................................................................. 95 4.4 Tori Amos ‘Spark’ video (1998) ............................................................................. 97 4.5 Tori Amos ‘Your Cloud’ (2002) ............................................................................ 100 4.6 Tori Amos ‘Playboy Mommy’ (1998) ................................................................... 104 4.7 Björk ‘It’s in our hands’ video (2002) .................................................................. 108 4.8 Björk ‘Mouth’s Cradle’ (2004) ............................................................................. 112 4.9 PJ Harvey ‘C’mon Billy’ (1995) ............................................................................. 116 4.10 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 117 Chapter 5: Conclusion ...................................................................................... 119 5.1 Historicising the case study artists ...................................................................... 120 5.1.1 Sexually explicit culture ......................................................................... 120 5.1.2 Sexual violence in popular culture ........................................................ 123 5.1.3 Politics and 9/11 .................................................................................... 124 5.2 Feminist theory during the period ...................................................................... 126 ii 5.2.1 Essentialism ..........................................................................................