University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Music ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations Fall 11-15-2019 NPR'S TINY DESK CONCERT SERIES: VOCALITIES OF OUTRAGE AND ACTS OF GAIETY Aubrie M. Powell University of New Mexico Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/mus_etds Part of the Music Commons Recommended Citation Powell, Aubrie M.. "NPR'S TINY DESK CONCERT SERIES: VOCALITIES OF OUTRAGE AND ACTS OF GAIETY." (2019). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/mus_etds/30 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Music ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. Candidate Department This thesis is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Thesis Committee: , Chairperson NPR’S TINY DESK CONCERT SERIES: VOCALITIES OF OUTRAGE AND ACTS OF GAIETY by AUBRIE POWELL B.M., Music Composition, Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music, 2015 M.M., Music Composition, University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance, 2017 THESIS Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Music Music The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico December, 2019 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Ana R. Alonso-Minutti, for her supervision of my research and invaluable assistance in the writing of this thesis. Her guidance and wisdom helped the thesis take shape through discussions of a variety of relevant topics. I would like to thank Dr. Kristina Jacobsen for introducing me to the anthropology of music, ethnography, and songwriting, all aspect that in one form or another appear in this thesis. Dr. David Bashwiner’s course on music and emotion was influential to this project and helped me recognize the potential of acts of gaiety. All of my committee assisted in preparation for my fieldwork trip to Washington D.C. I would like to thank Lisa Moore and Dennis Powell, my parents, for supporting me through the frustrations of writing and graduate school. I would never have been able to attend courses or learn about all the social theory without their constant questions and challenges. My work on this thesis started when I took Dr. Amy Brandzel’s queer theory course in the fall of 2017 and started applying those ideas to the Eurovision Song Contest. Her course changed my perspective from the study of music, race, or gender to the overarching study of norms and deviance, qualities of which every field has plenty. I would have never kept on track without the feedback, tips, and discussions with Caitlin Grann, Ph.D. candidate in American Studies at the University of New Mexico and a friend willing to drive from Santa Fe to Albuquerque every Friday to meet. I would also like to thank Bob Boilen, Lauren Onkey, Morgan Smith, and Josh Rogosin for giving me their time and telling me about their experiences and visions for Tiny Desk. The support and encouragement of these individuals made my thesis and the research work behind it possible. iii NPR’S TINY DESK CONCERT SERIES: VOCALITIES OF OUTRAGE AND ACTS OF GAIETY by Aubrie Powell B.M., Music Composition, Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music, 2015 M.M., Music Composition, University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance, 2017 M.Mu., Music, University of New Mexico, 2019 ABSTRACT The Tiny Desk concert series features live video-recorded performances of artists at the desk of NPR Music’s Bob Boilen, the series’ main host. This thesis interrogates NPR Music’s values and the ways artists both manifest and queer those ideals in performance. I argue, in light of the 2016 election, performers challenge NPR Music’s taste system through two modes of subversion. The first mode considers vocalities of outrage specifically in the performances of Saul Williams and the Drive-By Truckers. These performers shift their social positions in expressions of outrage through vocality—as the embodied materiality of the voice and its constructed meanings (Freya Jarman-Ivens, 2011). The second mode considers acts of gaiety (Sara Warner, 2012), which sustain struggles for social change. These musical acts are shown in the performances of Common and Troker, who use moments of unexpected release to further engage their audience. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................. iii LIST OF EXAMPLES .......................................................................................................... vii LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................. viii LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................. x INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 1 NPR Music: History, Ideals, and Space ............................................................................ 9 Musical Power: Emotion, Queering, and Difference ..................................................... 12 Methodology ...................................................................................................................... 18 Chapter Overviews ........................................................................................................... 20 Chapter 1 - NPR, NPR MUSIC, AND TINY DESK .......................................................... 22 National Public Radio’s Background .............................................................................. 25 National Public Radio’s Funding .................................................................................... 27 National Public Radio’s Audience ................................................................................... 30 NPR Music: “Noncommercial” Digital Content ............................................................ 35 Tiny Desk: Audience and Impact .................................................................................... 39 Chapter 2 - THE RULES OF TINY DESK: JUNE 2016 - JUNE 2017 ........................... 45 Making a Tiny Desk .......................................................................................................... 47 The “Unofficial” Rules of Tiny Desk ............................................................................... 56 Rule #1: Originality ........................................................................................................ 56 Rule #2: Curation ............................................................................................................ 58 Rule #3: Intimacy ............................................................................................................ 61 Thirteen Months of Tiny Desk in Political Transition .................................................. 63 v Journalists and Genres .................................................................................................... 66 YouTube Views .............................................................................................................. 71 National Base .................................................................................................................. 73 Gender Representation .................................................................................................... 75 Social Commentary ......................................................................................................... 77 Chapter 3 - TANK AND THE BANGAS: THE “GOOD FOR YOU” ALTERNATIVE ................................................................................................................................................. 80 Alternative on Tiny Desk.................................................................................................. 84 NPR Values and Taste System ......................................................................................... 88 Tank and the Bangas ........................................................................................................ 98 Chapter 4 - VOCALITIES OF OUTRAGE: SAUL WILLIAMS AND THE DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS ........................................................................................................................ 111 Voice, Vocality, and Outrage ......................................................................................... 117 Validation and Subversion ............................................................................................. 128 Vocalities of Outrage ...................................................................................................... 136 Chapter 5 - MUSICAL ACTS OF GAIETY: COMMON AT THE WHITE HOUSE AND TROKER ................................................................................................................... 152 Common’s “Letter to the Free” ..................................................................................... 156 Troker’s “Príncipe Charro” .......................................................................................... 164 Mismatched Focus as Instrumental Vocalism .............................................................. 170 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................