Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T03:02:45.755Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Torpedoing the authorship of popular music: a reading of Gorillaz' ‘Feel Good Inc.’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2009

LARS ECKSTEIN
LARS ECKSTEIN
Affiliation:
Englisches Seminar, Universität Tübingen, Wilhelmstr. 50, D-72074Tübingen, Germany E-mail: lars.eckstein@uni-tuebingen.de
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article addresses problems of authorship and creative authority in popular music, in particular in view of a pervasive split between modes of aesthetic production (involving modernist assemblage, multiple authorship, and the late capitalist logic of major label policies) and modes of aesthetic reception (which tend to take popular music as the organic output of individual performers). While rock musicians have attempted to come to terms with this phenomenon by either performing a ‘Romantic’ sense of authenticity (basically by importing folk values to the production process) or ‘Modernist authenticity’ (by highlighting experimentation and alienation), Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, creators of Gorillaz, found a third way which ingeniously allows them to do both. By creating a virtual rock band, and by hiding their own media personalities behind those of their virtual alter egos, they brought themselves into a position which allows them to produce ‘sincere’ popular music which ‘playfully’ stages the absurdities of major label music business while very successfully operating within its very confines.

Type
Articles
Information
Popular Music , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , May 2009 , pp. 239 - 255
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Adorno, T.W. 1990 (1941). ‘On popular music’, in On Record: Rock, Pop, and the Written Word, ed. Frith, S. and Goodwin, A. (London and New York, Routledge)Google Scholar
Baltin, S. 2001. ‘Albarn going ape over Gorillaz: Blur frontman prefers animated life in the shadows’, The Rolling Stone (June), <http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/5931862?rnd=1122809851406&has-player=true&version=6.0.12.1212> (3 September 2005)Google Scholar
Clifton, T. 1983. Music as Heard: A Study in Applied Phenomenology (New Haven, CT, Yale UP)Google Scholar
Cone, E.T. 1974. The Composer's Voice (Berkeley, University of California Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fabbri, F. 1981. ‘A theory of musical genres: two applications’, in Popular Music Perspectives, ed. Horn, D. and Tagg, P. (Göteborg and Exeter, International Association for the Study of Popular Music), pp. 52–81Google Scholar
Frith, S. 1978. The Sociology of Rock (London, Constable)Google Scholar
Frith, S. 2001. ‘Pop music’, in The Cambridge Companion to Pop and Rock, ed. Frith, S., Straw, W. and Street, J. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press), pp. 93–108CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frith, S. 2002 (1996). Performing Rites: Evaluating Popular Music (Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press)Google Scholar
Frith, S. 2004. ‘General Introduction’, in Popular Music: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies, Vol. 1: Music and Society, 4 volumes, ed. Frith, S. (London and New York, Routledge), pp. 1–7Google Scholar
Gorillaz, Browne, C., and Hewlett, J. 2006. Gorillaz: Rise of the Ogre (New York, Riverhead)Google Scholar
Grossberg, L. 1992. We Gotta Get Out of this Place: Popular Conservatism and Postmodern Culture (New York and London, Routledge)Google Scholar
Jameson, F. 1991. Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (Durham, Duke University Press)Google Scholar
Keightley, K. 2001. ‘Reconsidering rock’, The Cambridge Companion to Pop and Rock, ed. Frith, S., Straw, W. and Street, J. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press), pp. 109–142CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Negus, K. 2004 (1991). ‘Between cooperation and consumer culture: culture and conflict in the British record industry’, in Popular Music: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies, Vol. II: The Rock Era, 4 volumes, ed. Frith, S. (London and New York, Routledge), pp. 24–41Google Scholar
Osgerby, B. 2004. Youth Media (London, Routledge)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherwood, A. 2005. ‘Gorillaz ape a Victorian parlour trick for a bit of stage presence’, The Times, 4 November, <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1856928,00.html> (22 November 2005)Google Scholar
Shumway, D.R. 1999. ‘Performance’, in Key Terms in Popular Music and Culture, ed. Horner, B. and Swiss, T. (Oxford, Blackwell), pp. 188–198Google Scholar
Stockfelt, O. 2004. ‘Adequate modes of listening’, in Popular Music: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies, Vol. 1: Music and Society, 4 volumes, ed. Frith, S. (London and New York, Routledge), pp. 375–391Google Scholar
Straw, W. 1999. ‘Authorship’, in Key Terms in Popular Music and Culture, ed. Horner, B. and Swiss, T. (Oxford, Blackwell), pp. 199–208Google Scholar
The Guardian. 2001. ‘Gorillaz interview’, <http://fans.gorillaz.com/band/press/interview-guardian.html> (3 September 2005)+(3+September+2005)>Google Scholar
The Observer. 2001. ‘Mercury Music Interview’, <http://fans.gorillaz.com/band/press/observer-mercuryintv701.html> (3 September 2005)+(3+September+2005)>Google Scholar
Wall, T. (ed.) 2003. Studying Popular Music Culture (London, Arnold)Google Scholar

Discography and videography

Gorillaz, Demon Days. Music CD/DVD pack (EMI 0724347441400). 2005Google Scholar
Gorillaz. Music CD (EMI 724353448806). 2001Google Scholar
Gorillaz Demon Days Live at the Manchester Opera House. DVD (EMI 0946 356244 9 6). 2006Google Scholar
Gorillaz Phase One: Celebrity Take Down. DVD (EMI 72434901300). 2002Google Scholar
Wakeham, M., and Brown, C.Gorillaz in ‘Charts of Darkness’, Dazed Film and TV production, in Gorillaz. Gorillaz Phase One: Celebrity Take Down. DVD (EMI 72434901300). 2002Google Scholar