Notes on the Enduring Popularity of a Signature Doors Song

Abstract

Recordings by the Doors remain remarkably popular, but the constituents of the lasting popularity of Doors texts for contemporary audiences remain unexamined. This study of the Doors' first single and first track on their first album reviews both scholarly and popular criticism dating from the song recording's 1967 release and argues that it remains popular due to (1) its lyrics, which thematically appeal to today's U.S. adult because of their mythic significance and to today's U.S. adolescent as they appealed to the U.S. adolescent of the 1960s; (2) its nonverbal musical variables, such as vocal performance and contrapuntal instrumental ostinatos; and (3) its links to Jim Morrison's image. This study grasps all of the above as communication phenomena that communication theories can help elucidate. Conversely, the study shows that communication inquiry into popular music can benefit from some musicological terms of analysis rarely encountered in communication literature.

A Young Lion, the Lizard King, and Erotic Politician

“…Analyzing the reasons for the continuing popularity of the Doors first single Break on Through , Wolfe (1999) argues that it is Morrison’s image, among other reasons, 4 that allows the song to endure. He elaborates this reasoning by using Dyer’s definition of the image as “a manufactured public impression created with the help of visual images” (p. 40).…”

“…In the past 20 years, the Doors and Morrison have also become topics of the academic papers (e.g., Crenshaw, 2014; Fournier & Jiménez, 2000; Kuwahara, 1992; Magistrale, 1992; Wolfe, 1999). To some extent, Morrison’s poetry has also been a subject of analysis—most notably Wallace Fowlie’s book Rimbaud and Jim Morrison: The Rebel as a Poet .…”

“…This continuous interest in Morrison and the Doors is tackled in many of the mentioned papers. Wolfe (1999) explains how fans, regardless of their age, are continuously drawn to Morrison “because of his expressive gifts, his risk-taking reputation, his sexuality, and his death” (p. 56); Kuwahara (1992) names as the reason for this attraction the “youthful rebellion which he epitomized and which, regardless of time periods, appeals to teenagers who rebel against authorities” (p. 55) while Magistrale (1992) notes the appeal of “his focus on the self” in a combination with his “naked, apolitical rejection of all authority and institutions” (p. 141).…”

“…4 The other reasons stated by Wolfe (1999) are lyrics that appeal to adolescents of today and of the 1960s as well as musical elements like Morrison’s vocal performances (p. 39). The importance of the song, apart from the lyrics analyzed by Wolfe, also lies in the promotional video the band shot for their first single, best described by Davis (2004): “Shot in color on a stark black set lit by club lights, the clip featured mostly Jim’s face and features—the blue eyes, pillowy lips, and long hair of a beautiful new rock star” (p. 150).…”

Mass Communication and Identity Construction: Theory and a Case Study of Song-Recordings by a Popular Musician

“…We grant that communication researchers as diverse in orientation as Grossberg (1983Grossberg ( -1984Grossberg ( , 1984Grossberg ( , 1985Grossberg ( , 1986aGrossberg ( , 1986b, Christenson (1993), Cooper (1985), Chesebro, Fougler, Nachman, and Yannelli (1985), Fedler, Hall, and Tanzi (1982), Ono and Sloop (1995), and Sellnow (1996) plumb the appeal of the post-World War I1 popular music Grossberg (1986a, p. 50) calls "rock and roll." But with the exception of Wolfe (1995Wolfe ( , 1999, neither communication nor popular music scholars have asked, let alone answered, "What precisely accounts for the lasting appeal of an enduringly popular musical text?" (emphasis added.)…”