Turning Into Bluegrass: Characterizing a Genre through Comparative Analysis (original) (raw)
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Machines and Music: Instrumental Contributions to Bluegrass
Popular Music, 2021
In the performance of bluegrass fiddle tunes, each repetition of the tune is generally played on a different instrument. I argue that the degree to which the instrument can influence the motivic material in improvised passages is beyond idiomaticism – where phrases might suit one instrument more than another – to the point where melodic pitch collections are shaped by the instrument itself. By combining post-human philosophies with music theories that emphasise instrument–player relationships, this essay shows how non-humans exercise agency in bluegrass improvisation. The resultant instrument-influenced passages contrast with each other, as each is played on a different instrument. This can help to signify formal structure within a performance, while the recurrence of particular instrument-influenced elements can be seen as a genre marker in bluegrass.
Musik aus zweiter Hand / Second Hand Music, ed. Albrecht Riethmüller and Frédéric Döhl, in Spektrum der Musik, 2017
Ever since the mid-1950s, it has been common to speak of the birth of rock ’n roll as a revolution. However accurate this label, it obscures some important continuities, such as the degree to which many rock songs have been based on songs from the preceding generations. In the many cover songs like Fats Domino’s recording of the 1940 hit, “Blueberry Hill,” a link to earlier styles has always been evident. I identify a different kind of debt to earlier songs. From the earliest days of rock, many songwriters found ideas in older songs that they reworked in new songs. The songs I examine have taken the title and subject of an earlier song, translating an old idea into something that would appeal to their younger audience. Drawing on translation theory and film theory discussions of movie remakes, I discuss song “reworkings” to describe this relationship. The reworkings that I have identified transform songs that were originally written for Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, or films before 1950 into rock and pop songs written after. Although reworkings are related to the phenomenon of answer songs, answer songs normally respond to very recent hits, not older, often forgotten, songs. As with film, ideas that were successful before 1950 lost little of their power in the years that followed. Balancing all of the revolutionary elements of the new style, there was also an artistic evolution.
Bill Monroe, Bluegrass Music, and the Politics of Authorship
Cambridge Companion to the Singer-Songwriter
Focusing on the early career of bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe, this chapter explores the tensions that emerge between songwriting practice and conventional views of authorship in the commercial music industry. Monroe began his professional performing career in the 1930s amidst a quickly evolving recording industry. During this period, underdeveloped copyright legislation enabled industry executives and artists to secure copyright in ways that did not necessarily reflect the songwriting process. Authorship claims were even murkier in the country music industry where artists regularly recorded, ‘arranged’, and/or asserted ownership of a vast repertoire of ‘traditional’ material. While most of Monroe’s songwriting credits are sound, a number of ambiguous authorship claims have surfaced. In some instances, erroneous credits stem from the politics of ensemble composition. More often, however, it appears he was adopting conventional industry practice and attitudes towards songwriting and ownership. In addition to providing a profile of one of the most celebrated singer-songwriters in bluegrass and country music, this chapter aims to broaden our understanding of the songwriting process and demonstrate how authorship is not only determined by creative practice, but is influenced by the mechanisms of the commercial music industry.