Narrative Paradigms, Musical Signifiers, and Form as Function in Country Music

Neal, Jocelyn R.

doi:10.1525/mts.2007.29.1.41

Cited by 26 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Country music scholar Jimmie N. Rogers (1989) cataloged the dominant themes in the lyrics of country music and found that the overwhelming majority of songs were written with respect to some type of romantic love ("hurtin' love," "cheatin' love," "happy love"). Jocelyn Neal (2007) added to this concept, mentioning that the time shift strategy found in songs (such as the Dixie Chicks' "Long Time Gone,") is a common lyric device found in country songs.…”

Section: Studies On Song Lyricsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Analysis of Common Songwriting and Production Practices in 2014-2015 Billboard Hot 100 Songs

Tough¹

2017

MEIEA Journal

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Over the past two decades, there have been multiple studies and analyses conducted to separate and identify the components of a hit song in popular music. Some of the research has focused on a body of work (corpus studies) while others have honed in on individual songs. This paper is a multi-factor analysis of popular music recordings that attained ranking on the Billboard Hot 100 charts over the period 2014 to 2015. The purpose of this research study is to define current practices used in modern songwriting and music production. It is the author's view that in today's commercial music market both songwriting and song production techniques share a good deal of overlap. Production and engineering techniques are becoming a much more important part of the composition in today's market, branching out from their historical role of simply reinforcing good tone or adding ear candy. Many modern hit songwriters are also producers and vice versa.By applying statistical analysis to a number of metrics, including tempo, form, introduction length, song length, archetypes, subject matter, and repetition of title, common trends of songwriting and music production were garnered. Items such as number of weeks on the Hot 100 and the song's peak position and number of songwriters and the song's peak position showed statistically significant relationships.Common practices identified in modern production and songwriting included, but were not limited to: 1) Writing songs about love and using the "Lover" archetype, 2) Using the song's title as the hook and repeating it multiple times, 3) Co-writing, 4) Experimenting with new song forms, and 5) Using different textures in the song's production that draw in listeners from different genres.

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Section: Studies On Song Lyricsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Analysis of Common Songwriting and Production Practices in 2014-2015 Billboard Hot 100 Songs

Tough¹

2017

MEIEA Journal

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“…Neal (2007) has given country music a thorough examination through the lens of what she terms the "time-shift narrative." In this study, Neal points out the multiple layers of meaning that can be found in a host of country song lyrics and provides an impressive list of songs that invoke this model.…”

Section: Review Of Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…While there have been many analyses of song lyrics in a general or cultural sense (Tagg 1982, DeWall 2011 as well as studies on the effects of song lyrics on adolescents (American Academy of Pediatrics, Council on Communications and Media 2009, Peterson, Safer, andJobes 2008, Greenfield 1987), little has been written on the construction of narrative or the structure of narrative in pop music (Neal 2007, Nicholls 2007. Even most basic how-to books on songwriting give the subject little direct attention, approaching narrative merely in passing as an approach, often comprised of just a section on archetypical story songs that have a very linear beginning, middle, and end (Brahemy 2006, Pattison 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Untitled

2013

MEIEA Journal

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“…While songwriters frequently use formal structure to create narratives (Neal 2007), both the voice (Hawkins 1996, pp. While songwriters frequently use formal structure to create narratives (Neal 2007), both the voice (Hawkins 1996, pp.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Narrative, vocal staging and masculinity in the ‘Outlaw’ country music of Waylon Jennings

Stimeling¹

2013

Pop. Mus.

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Emerging in the early 1970s, the work of Outlaw country artists might be heard as exploring a crisis of masculinity resulting from developments in the women's liberation movement. Building on recent research in recorded sound studies, this essay explores how the vocal staging practices deployed in Outlaw country recordings offer a unique musical exploration of the duality of the outlaw's masculinity. Using case studies drawn from Waylon Jennings' Outlaw-era recordings, this article examines how Jennings, working with co-producers 'Cowboy' Jack Clement, Chips Moman and Willie Nelson, among others, deployed vocal staging practices in conjunction with other musical practices to construct narratives that reveal the 'outlaw' character's psychological turmoil and reflect the complicated state of working-class American masculinity in the age of women's liberation.having worked for RCA Victor since the mid-1960s, negotiated new contracts that challenged Nashville's producer-centred model and granted artists the right to select the songs they would cut, record with their road bands rather than studio musicians, and serve as the final arbiter of decisions about mixes, publicity and tours (Tucker

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Narrative Paradigms, Musical Signifiers, and Form as Function in Country Music

Cited by 26 publications

References 4 publications

An Analysis of Common Songwriting and Production Practices in 2014-2015 Billboard Hot 100 Songs

An Analysis of Common Songwriting and Production Practices in 2014-2015 Billboard Hot 100 Songs

Untitled

Narrative, vocal staging and masculinity in the ‘Outlaw’ country music of Waylon Jennings

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