"Rock and roll never forgets": Memory, history and performance in the tribute band scene.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Meyers, John Paul.

Contributor:

University of Pennsylvania.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Music.

Ethnology.

Research.

United States--Research.

United States.

0323.

0326.

0413.

Local Subjects:

0323.

0326.

0413.

Physical Description:

219 pages

Contained In:

Dissertation Abstracts International 73-06A.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

text file

Summary:

Tribute bands are groups of musicians who perform “note-for-note” versions of the songs of previous bands, with the conviction that it is important that they re-create music of the past as “authentically” as possible. Tribute bands shed light on many of the most interesting research questions that ethnomusicologists and music historians have explored in other contexts, including the relationship between live performance and recordings, the ubiquity of covers and copies, and the uneasy tension between originality and imitation. Perhaps most importantly, tribute bands are a key participant in a widespread development in popular music culture: the rise of what I term “historical consciousness in popular music,” a sense that the past in popular music is worth taking seriously and commemorating—and, in the case of tribute bands, worth re-performing. Based on ethnographic research conducted throughout the United States and in Buenos Aires and Mexico City, this dissertation explores tribute bands as both conforming with and presenting a challenge to the dominant rock ideology: the set of implicit and explicit guidelines that determine how rock music is produced and consumed. By paying such attention to re-creating the details and nuances of past popular music recordings, tribute bands are a key participant in the debate that argues that these performances are, in fact, properly historical. Tribute bands are also a key means of disseminating popular music from the 1960s and the 1970s to younger generations and around the globe, as tribute band performances are multigenerational sites and thriving tribute band scenes can be found in many countries around the world. As scholars, we need to adjust our views of popular music culture to take account for phenomena like the founding of popular music museums, the production of documentary films about popular music, the publication of dozens of books narrating its history, and the proliferation of tribute bands; perhaps these acts of retrospection themselves constitute a new norm, a new state of affairs for the production and consumption of popular music.

Notes:

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-06, Section: A, page: 1981.

Adviser: Carol Ann Muller.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 2011.

Local Notes:

School code: 0175.

ISBN:

9781267200068

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.