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The untimely deaths of Amy Winehouse (2011) and Whitney Houston
(2012), and the 'resurrection' of Tupac Shakur for a performance at
the Coachella music festival in April 2012, have focused the media
spotlight on the relationship between popular music, fame and
death. If the phrase 'sex, drugs and rock'n'roll' ever qualified a
lifestyle, it has left many casualties in its wake, and with the
ranks of dead musicians growing over time, so the types of death
involved and the reactions to them have diversified. Conversely, as
many artists who fronted the rock'n'roll revolution of the 1950s
and 1960s continue to age, the idea of dying young and leaving a
beautiful corpse (which gave rise, for instance, to the myth of the
'27 Club') no longer carries the same resonance that it once might
have done. This edited collection explores the reception of dead
rock stars, 'rock' being taken in the widest sense as the artists
discussed belong to the genres of rock'n'roll (Elvis Presley),
disco (Donna Summer), pop and pop-rock (Michael Jackson, Whitney
Houston, Amy Winehouse), punk and post-punk (GG Allin, Ian Curtis),
rap (Tupac Shakur), folk (the Dutchman Andre Hazes) and 'world'
music (Fela Kuti). When music artists die, their fellow musicians,
producers, fans and the media react differently, and this book
brings together their intertwining modalities of reception. The
commercial impact of death on record sales, copyrights, and print
media is considered, and the different justifications by living
artists for being involved with the dead, through covers, sampling
and tributes. The cultural representation of dead singers is
investigated through obituaries, biographies and biopics, observing
that posthumous fame provides coping mechanisms for fans, and
consumers of popular culture more generally, to deal with the
knowledge of their own mortality. Examining the contrasting ways in
which male and female dead singers are portrayed in the media, the
book
Barbara Lebrun traces the evolution of 'protest' music in France
since 1981, exploring the contradictions that emerge when artists
who take their musical production and political commitment
'seriously', cross over to the mainstream, becoming profitable and
consensual. Contestation is understood as a discourse shaped by the
assumptions and practices of artists, producers, the media and
audiences, for whom it makes sense to reject politically
reactionary ideas and the dominant taste for commercial pop.
Placing music in its economic, historical and ideological context,
however, reveals the fragility and instability of these
oppositions. The book firstly concentrates on music production in
France, the relationships between independent labels, major
companies and the state's cultural policies. This section provides
the material background for understanding the development of rock
alternatif, France's self-styled 'subversive' genre of the 1980s,
and explains the specificity of a 'protest' music culture in
late-twentieth-century France, in relation to the genre's tradition
in the West. The second part looks at representations of a
'protest' identity in relation to discourses of national identity,
focusing on two 1990s sub-genres. The first, chanson neo-realiste,
contests modernity through the use of acoustic instruments, but its
nostalgic 'protest' raises questions about the artists' real
engagement with the present. The second, rock metis, borrows from
North African and Latino rhythms and challenges the 'neutral'
Frenchness of the Republic, while advocating multiculturalism in
problematic ways. A discussion of Manu Chao's career, a French
artist who has achieved success abroad, also allows an exploration
of the relationship between transnationalism and anti-globalization
politics. Finally, the book examines the audiences of French
'protest' music and considers festivals as places of
'non-mainstream' identity negotiation. Based on first-hand
interviews, this section highlights the vocabulary of emotions that
audiences use to make sense of an 'alternative' performance,
unveiling the contradictions that underpin their self-definition as
participants in a 'protest' culture. The book contributes to
debates on the cultural production of 'resistance' and the
representation of post-colonial identities, uncovering the social
constructedness of the discourse of 'protest' in France. It pays
attention to its nation-specific character while offering a wider
reflection on the fluidity of 'subversive' identities, with
potential applications across a range of Western music practices.
Barbara Lebrun traces the evolution of 'protest' music in France
since 1981, exploring the contradictions that emerge when artists
who take their musical production and political commitment
'seriously', cross over to the mainstream, becoming profitable and
consensual. Contestation is understood as a discourse shaped by the
assumptions and practices of artists, producers, the media and
audiences, for whom it makes sense to reject politically
reactionary ideas and the dominant taste for commercial pop.
Placing music in its economic, historical and ideological context,
however, reveals the fragility and instability of these
oppositions. The book firstly concentrates on music production in
France, the relationships between independent labels, major
companies and the state's cultural policies. This section provides
the material background for understanding the development of rock
alternatif, France's self-styled 'subversive' genre of the 1980s,
and explains the specificity of a 'protest' music culture in
late-twentieth-century France, in relation to the genre's tradition
in the West. The second part looks at representations of a
'protest' identity in relation to discourses of national identity,
focusing on two 1990s sub-genres. The first, chanson neo-realiste,
contests modernity through the use of acoustic instruments, but its
nostalgic 'protest' raises questions about the artists' real
engagement with the present. The second, rock metis, borrows from
North African and Latino rhythms and challenges the 'neutral'
Frenchness of the Republic, while advocating multiculturalism in
problematic ways. A discussion of Manu Chao's career, a French
artist who has achieved success abroad, also allows an exploration
of the relationship between transnationalism and anti-globalization
politics. Finally, the book examines the audiences of French
'protest' music and considers festivals as places of
'non-mainstream' identity negotiation. Based on first-hand
interviews, this section highlights the vocabulary of emotions that
audiences use to make sense of an 'alternative' performance,
unveiling the contradictions that underpin their self-definition as
participants in a 'protest' culture. The book contributes to
debates on the cultural production of 'resistance' and the
representation of post-colonial identities, uncovering the social
constructedness of the discourse of 'protest' in France. It pays
attention to its nation-specific character while offering a wider
reflection on the fluidity of 'subversive' identities, with
potential applications across a range of Western music practices.
The untimely deaths of Amy Winehouse (2011) and Whitney Houston
(2012), and the 'resurrection' of Tupac Shakur for a performance at
the Coachella music festival in April 2012, have focused the media
spotlight on the relationship between popular music, fame and
death. If the phrase 'sex, drugs and rock'n'roll' ever qualified a
lifestyle, it has left many casualties in its wake, and with the
ranks of dead musicians growing over time, so the types of death
involved and the reactions to them have diversified. Conversely, as
many artists who fronted the rock'n'roll revolution of the 1950s
and 1960s continue to age, the idea of dying young and leaving a
beautiful corpse (which gave rise, for instance, to the myth of the
'27 Club') no longer carries the same resonance that it once might
have done. This edited collection explores the reception of dead
rock stars, 'rock' being taken in the widest sense as the artists
discussed belong to the genres of rock'n'roll (Elvis Presley),
disco (Donna Summer), pop and pop-rock (Michael Jackson, Whitney
Houston, Amy Winehouse), punk and post-punk (GG Allin, Ian Curtis),
rap (Tupac Shakur), folk (the Dutchman Andre Hazes) and 'world'
music (Fela Kuti). When music artists die, their fellow musicians,
producers, fans and the media react differently, and this book
brings together their intertwining modalities of reception. The
commercial impact of death on record sales, copyrights, and print
media is considered, and the different justifications by living
artists for being involved with the dead, through covers, sampling
and tributes. The cultural representation of dead singers is
investigated through obituaries, biographies and biopics, observing
that posthumous fame provides coping mechanisms for fans, and
consumers of popular culture more generally, to deal with the
knowledge of their own mortality. Examining the contrasting ways in
which male and female dead singers are portrayed in the media, the
book
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