Global Pop Studies 1

The information and resources provided on this and other other Global Pop Studies pages relate to the ‘Global Pop’ module that I have taught at Newcastle University since 2016 and to the broader research project that feeds into, and is informed by, my teaching in this area.

The Global Pop project traces the growth in awareness of musics from around the world from the early twentieth century onwards, an awareness made possible by developments in sound recording. From the first global recording boom of the 1920s to the contemporary mania for digging into the past (vinyl archaeology), sound recordings have been a primary means for listeners to experience otherness, for the music industry to diversify its market and for ‘experts’ (critics, DJs, collectors, academics) to attempt to master discourses around other cultures.

Reading, listening, viewing

First up are the general module playlists, compiled on Spotify, YouTube and SoundCloud. These provide an overview of the kinds of material explored on the module and in the research project.

Global Pop playlist

The next set of resources are the core and recommended reading, listening and viewing for each of the module sessions (current and historical). The list continues on the next Global Pop Studies page.

The Phonographic Event: Recording the World

Reading

Denning, Michael. ‘Decolonizing the Ear: The Transcolonial Reverberations of Vernacular Phonograph Music’. In Audible Empire: Music, Global Politics, Critique. Edited by Ronald Radano and Tejumola Olaniyan. Durham: Duke University Press, 2016, 25-44.

Elliott, Richard. ‘Sounding Out Popular Music History: A Musicological Approach’, in The Routledge Companion to Popular Music History and Heritage, edited by Sarah Baker, Catherine Strong, Lauren Istvandity and Zelmarie Cantillon (London: Routledge, 2018), 46-54.

Grossman, Rolf. ‘Phonographic Work’. In Sound as Popular Culture: A Research Companion. Edited by Jens Gerrit Papenburg and Holger Schulze. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2016, 355-66.

Denning, Michael. Noise Uprising: The Audiopolitics of a World Musical Revolution. London: Verso, 2015.

Eisenberg, Evan.The Recording Angel: Music, Records and Culture from Aristotle to Zappa.

Gronow, Pekka and Ilpo Saunio. An International History of the Recording Industry. Translated by Christopher Moseley. London: Cassell, 1998.

Katz, Mark. Capturing Sound: How Technology Has Changed Music. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.

Milner, Greg. Perfecting Sound Forever: The Story of Recorded Music. London: Granta, 2009.

Pickering, Michael and Emily Keightley. ‘Echoes and Reverberations: Photography and Phonography as Historical Forms’. Media History, Vol. 13, No. 2 (2007), pp. 273-88

Listening

Sexteto Habanero. ‘El Sonero’. The Music of Cuba / Soneros Cubanos / Recordings 1925 – 1930, Vol. 1. CD. Black Round Records. 2010.

Lucas Junot. ‘Fado dos Passarinhos’. Fado (Lisboa-Coimbra 1926-1931). CD.

Frémeaux & Associés FA 153, 1998.

Wilmoth Houdini. ‘Uncle Jo’ Gimme Mo’. Calypso Classics From Trinidad. LP. Folklyric. 9040. 1984.

Kalama’s Quartet. ‘Inikiniki Malie (Gentle Pinches Of The Wind)’. Early Hawaiian Classics 1927 – 1932. CD. Arhoolie / Folklyric 7028. 1993.

Kumasi Trio. ‘Asin Asin Part 2’. Living Is Hard: West African Music In Britain, 1927-1929. CD. Honest Jon’s Records. HJRCD33. 2008.

Below: Spotify playlist for this session (related: the playlist accompanying Michael Denning’s Noise Uprising)

Below: promo video for Longing for the Past: The 78 rpm Era in Southeast Asia, a box set released by Dust-to-Digital and an example of ‘phonographic archeology’.

Exotica and Holiday Records

Reading

Taylor, Timothy D. Strange Sounds: Music, Technology, and Culture. New York: Routledge, 2001. [Chapter 4]

Hayward, Philip. ‘The Cocktail Shift: Aligning Musical Exotica’. In Widening the Horizon: Exoticism in Post-War Popular Music, edited by Philip Hayward. Sydney: John Libbey, 1999, 1-18.

Elliott, Richard. ‘“Time and Distance Are No Object”: Holiday Records, Representation and the Nostalgia Gap’, Volume! 11, No. 1 (2014): 131-43.

Hayward, Philip, ed. Widening the Horizon: Exoticism in Post-War Popular Music. Sydney: John Libbey, 1999.

Kassabian, Anahid. ‘Would you Like Some World Music with your Latte? Starbucks, Putumayo, and Distributed Tourism’, Twentieth-Century Music 2, no. 1 (2004): 209-223.

Lanza, Joseph. Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-listening and Other Moodsong. London: Quartet, 1995.

Toop, David. Exotica: Fabricated Soundscapes in a Real World. London: Serpent’s Tail, 1999.

Adinolfi, Francesco. Mondo Exotica: Sounds, Visions, Obsessions of the Cocktail Generation. Edited and translated by Karen Pinkus and Jason Vivrette. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008.

Kun, Josh. Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.

Vale, Vivian and Andrea Juno, eds. Incredibly Strange Music, Vol. 1. San Francisco: Re/Search, 1993.

Vale, Vivian and Andrea Juno, eds. Incredibly Strange Music, Vol. 2. San Francisco, Re/Search, 1994.

Listening

Yma Sumac. ‘High Andes! (Ataypura!)’. Voice of the Xtabay. LP. Capitol Records H-244. 1952.

Martin Denny. ‘Quiet Village’. Exotica. LP. Liberty LRP 3034. 1957.

Arthur Lyman. ‘Jungle Fantasy’. Taboo Vol. 2. LP. HiFi Records R 822. 1960.

Esquivel and His Orchestra. ‘In a Persian Market’. Other Worlds Other Sounds. LP. RCA Victor LSP-1753. 1958.

Sondi Sodsai, ‘Sondi’. Sondi. LP. Liberty LRP 3110. 1959.

Exuma. ‘Exuma, the Obeah Man’. Exuma. LP. Mercury SR 61265. 1970.

Below: Spotify playlist for this session.

Other resources

Sandy Warner, The Exotica Girl on album sleeves

The Tiki Bar Resurgence of the Trump Era

Vinyl Vacations blog (available but no longer updated)

Link to an article from May 2017 by Sarah Burke: ‘Abolish the Tiki Bar‘

The World Music Boom

Reading

Connell, John and Chris Gibson, ‘World Music: Deterritorializing Place and Identity in Progress’. Human Geography 28, no. 3. (2004): 342-361.

Barker, Hugh & Yuval Taylor. Faking It: The Quest for Authenticity in Popular Music.London: Faber and Faber, 2007. [Ch. 9 on Buena Vista Social Club]

Brennan, Timothy. ‘World Music Does Not Exist’. Discourse 23, no. 1 (2001): 44-62.

Feld, Steven. ‘A Sweet Lullaby for World Music’. Public Culture 12, no.1 (2000): 145-171.

Frith, Simon. ‘The Discourse of World Music’. In Western Music and its Others, edited by Georgina Born and David Hesmondhalgh. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000, 305-22.

Goodwin, Andrew and Joe Gore. ‘World Beat and the Cultural Imperialism Debate’. Socialist Review 3 (1990): 63-80.

Kassabian, Anahid. ‘Would You Like Some World Music with Your Latte? Starbucks, Putumayo, and Distributed Tourism’, Twentieth-Century Music 2, no. 1 (2004): 209-223.

Meintjes, Louise. ‘Paul Simon’s Graceland, South Africa and the Mediation of Musical Meaning’. Ethnomusicology 34 (1990): 37-73.

Taylor, Timothy D. Global Pop: World Music, World Markets. London: Routledge, 1997.

Born, Georgina and David Hesmondhalgh, eds. Western Music and its Others. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000.

Connell, John and Chris Gibson. Sound Tracks: Popular Music, Identity, and Place. London: Routledge, 2003.

Radano, Ronald and Tejumola Olaniyan, eds. Audible Empire: Music, Global Politics, Critique. Durham: Duke University Press, 2016.

Listening

King Sunny Adé and His African Beats. ‘365 Is My Number / The Message’. Juju Music. LP. Mango MLPS 9712. 1982.

Salif Keita. ‘Wamba’. Soro. LP. Stern’s Africa STERNS 1020. 1987.

Paul Simon. ‘The Obvious Child’. The Rhythm Of The Saints. LP. Warner Bros. Records ‎7599-26098-1. 1990.

Sheila Chandra. ‘Dhyana And Donalogue’. Weaving My Ancestors’ Voices. CD. Real World CDRW24. 1992. Buena Vista Social Club. ‘Chan Chan’. Buena Vista Social Club. CD. World Circuit WCD 050.

Below: Spotify playlist for this session

Other resources

Afropop Worldwide feature on King Sunny Adé by Banning Eyre [archived version available via Wayback Machine]

Review of King Sunny Adé’s 2010 album Baba Mo Tunde by Richard Elliott [Tiny Mix Tapes]

Sheila Chandra page at Real World website.

‘Paul Simon’s Graceland: the acclaim and the outrage’ (The Guardian, 2012). ‘As the 25th anniversary celebrations build for the groundbreaking album, Robin Denselow recalls the huge controversy it caused’.

Video: Paul Simon, ‘Under African Skies’ trailer (2012).

Paul Simon – The Boy In The Bubble (Live from The African Concert, 1987)

Paul Simon Cheered in Zimbabwe Concert (AP News, 14 February 1987)

SABC News feature on Joseph Shabalala following his death on 11 February 2020

World Music 2.0

Reading

Burkhalter, Thomas. ‘Sound Studies across Continents’. In Sound as Popular Culture: A Research Companion. Edited by Jens Gerrit Papenburg and Holger Schulze. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2016, 89-95.

Beyer, Theresa, Thomas Burkhalter and Hannes Liechti, eds. Seismographic Sounds: Visions of a New World. Bern: Norient, 2015. [excerpts provided]

Burkhalter, Thomas. ‘World Music 2.0: Updated and Expanded’. In Sound as Popular Culture: A Research Companion. Edited by Jens Gerrit Papenburg and Holger Schulze. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2016, 313-23.

Coleman, E. Gabriella. ‘Ethnographic Approaches to Digital Media’. Annual Review of Anthropology 39 (2010): 487-505.

Cottrell, Stephen. ‘Ethnomusicology and the Music Industries: An Overview’. Ethnomusicology Forum 19, No.1 (2010): 3-25.

Crawford, Kate. ‘Following You: Disciplines of Listening in Social Media’. In The Sound Studies Reader, edited by Jonathan Sterne. London: Routledge, 2012, 79-70.

Hsu, Wendy F. ‘Digital Ethnography Toward Augmented Empiricism: A New Methodological Framework’. Journal of Digital Humanities 3, No. 1 (Spring 2014). http://journalofdigitalhumanities.org/3-1/digital-ethnography-toward-augmented-empiricism-by-wendy-hsu/

Stobart, Henry. ‘Rampant Reproduction and Digital Democracy: Shifting Landscapes of Music Production and Piracy in Bolivia’. Ethnomusicology Forum 19, No. 1 (2010): 27-56.

Bolter, Jay David, and Richard Grusin. Remediation: Understanding New Media. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press, 2000.

Burgess, Jean and Joshua Green. YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture. Cambridge: Polity, 2009.

Geertz, Clifford. The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. New York: Basic Books, 2000.

Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press, 2008.

Jenkins, Henry and David Thorburn, eds. Democracy and New Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003.

Listening

Nguzunguzu, ‘Mecha’. Skycell. EP. Fade To Mind FADE008, 2013.

Los Tigres del Norte. ‘La Bala’. Realidades. CD. Fonovisa 002187702. 2014.

David Opp. ‘Sakata Helicobtir Min Tiraz Sikorsky’. Video available on YouTube and Vimeo.

Zavoloka. ‘Slavyenna’. Volya. CD EP. Kvitnu KVITNU 34. 2014.

Bad Copy. ‘Esi Mi Dobar’. Krigle. CD. Mascom MCR CD 207. 2013.

Videos