Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-sjtt6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-06T09:46:58.707Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Capturing the Zeitgeist: Preserving American Music and Culture in the Mashups of DJ Earworm

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2023

Jeffrey Scott Yunek
Jeffrey Scott Yunek*
Affiliation:
Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA, USA
*
Email: jyunek@kennesaw.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The discussion of narrative in mashups typically involves how a preexisting message is reinterpreted by the incorporation of new musical material. However, many scholars note how DJ Earworm's technique of creating new lyrics through the combination of samples from up to fifty different tracks conveys an original message that is distinct from its borrowed sources. In his various interviews, DJ Earworm elaborates that his mashups are original compositions that act as musical time capsules that capture the zeitgeist of the age. Nevertheless, DJ Earworm only provides brief commentary on the meaning of his mashups and there is no close examination of these narratives in the literature. This raises the question: To what degree do DJ Earworm's mashups reflect cultural issues in American society? By merging Zbikowski's concept of conceptual integration with Almén's theory of musical narrative, this paper will demonstrate how DJ Earworm's mashups show a consistent pattern of having complex narratives with cultural messages that resonate with contemporary issues in American society, including fossil fuel dependence, income inequality, and political and racial division.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Society for American Music , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , August 2023 , pp. 273 - 299
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for American Music

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

Adams, Kyle. “What Did Danger Mouse Do? The Grey Album and Musical Composition in Configurable Culture.” Music Theory Spectrum 37, no. 1 (2015): 7–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Almén, Byron. A Theory of Musical Narrative. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Atkinson, Sean. “Musical, Textual, and Visual Meanings in Bang on a Can's Lost Objects.” Indiana Theory Review 30, no. 2 (2014): 1–26.Google Scholar
Boone, Christine. “Mashing: Toward a Typology of Recycled Music.” Music Theory Online 19, no. 3 (2013). https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.13.19.3/mto.13.19.3.boone.html.10.30535/mto.19.3.1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradby, Barbara. “‘She Told Me What to Say’: The Beatles and Girl-Group Discourse.” Popular Music and Society 28, no. 3 (2005): 359–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brøvig-Hanssen, Ragnhild and Harkins, Paul. “Contextual Incongruity and Musical Congruity: The Aesthetics and Humour of Mash-ups.” Popular Music 31, no. 1 (2012): 87–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burkholder, J. Peter. All Made of Tunes: Charles Ives and the Uses of Musical Borrowing. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Burns, Lori. “Vocal Authority and Listener Engagement: Musical and Narrative Expressive Strategies in the Songs of Female Pop-Rock Artists, 1993–95.” In Sounding Out Pop: Analytical Essays in Popular Music, edited by Covach, John and Spicer, Mark, 154–92. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Butler, Mark. “Taking It Seriously: Intertextuality and Authenticity in Two Covers by the Pet Shop Boys.” Popular Music 22, no. 1 (2003): 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chattah, Juan. “Conceptual Integration and Film Music Analysis.” Semiotics 21 (2008): 772–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cook, Nicholas. Analysing Musical Multimedia. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Davis, Sheila. The Craft of Lyric Writing. Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books, 1985.Google Scholar
de Clercq, Trevor. “Sections and Successions in Successful Songs: A Prototype Approach to Form in Rock Music.” Ph.D. diss., Eastman School of Music, 2012.Google Scholar
de Clercq, Trevor. “The Logic of Six-Based Minor for Harmonic Analyses of Popular Music.” Music Theory Online 27, no. 4 (2021). https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.21.27.4/mto.21.27.4.de_clercq.pdf.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fauconnier, Gilles and Turner, Mark. “Conceptual Integration Networks.” Cognitive Science 22, no. 2 (1998): 133–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Genette, Gérard. The Work of Art: Immanence and Transcendence. Trans. Gary M. Goshgarian, Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Gunkel, David J. “What Does It Matter Who is Speaking? Authorship, Authority, and the Mashup.” Popular Music and Society 35, no. 1 (2012): 71–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holm-Hudson, Kevin. “Quotation and Context: Sampling and John Oswald's Plunderphonics.” Leonardo Music Journal 7 (1997): 17–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Tom. “Mashups and Mediation of Multimedia Meaning.” Paper presented at the 32nd Annual Meeting of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music-Canada. University of Ottawa, 2015.Google Scholar
Johnson, Tom. “Analyzing Genre in Post-Millennial Popular Music.” Ph.D. diss., City University of New York, 2018.Google Scholar
Lakoff, George and Johnson, Mark. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Marshall, Sandra K. and Cohen, Annabel J.. “Effects of Musical Soundtracks on Attitudes Toward Animated Geometric Figures.” Music Perception 6, no. 1 (1988): 95–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLeod, Kembrew. “Confessions of an Intellectual (Property): Danger Mouse, Mickey Mouse, Sonny Bono, and My Long and Winding Path as a Copyright Activist-Academic.” Popular Music and Society 28, no. 1 (2005): 79–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neal, Jocelyn. “Narrative Paradigms, Musical Signifiers, and Form as Function in Country Music.” Music Theory Spectrum 29, no. 1 (2007): 41–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Negus, Keith. “Narrative, Interpretation, and the Popular Song.” The Musical Quarterly 95, no. 2/3 (2012): 368–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicholls, David. “Narrative Theory as an Analytical Tool in the Study of Popular Music Texts.” Music & Letters 88, no. 2 (2007): 297–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nobile, Drew. “Double-Tonic Complexes in Rock Music.” Music Theory Spectrum 42, no. 2 (2020): 207–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nunes, Joseph C., Ordanini, Andrea, and Valsesia, Francesca. “The Power of Repetition: Repetitive Lyrics in a Song Increase Processing Fluency and Drive Market Success.” Journal of Consumer Psychology 25, no. 2 (2015): 187–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richards, Mark. “Tonal Ambiguity in Popular Music's Axis Progressions.” Music Theory Online 23, no. 3 (2017). https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.17.23.3/mto.17.23.3.richards.html.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roseman, Jordan (DJ Earworm). Audio Mashup Construction Kit. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2007.Google Scholar
Serazio, Michael. 2008. “The Apolitical Irony of Generation Mashup-Up: A Cultural Case Study in Popular Music.” Popular Music and Society 31, no. 1 (2008): 79–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Summach, Jason. “Form in Top-20 Rock Music, 1955–89.” Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 2012.Google Scholar
Vallee, Mickey. “The Media Contingencies of Generation Mashup: A Žižekian Critique.” Popular Music and Society 36, no. 1 (2013): 76–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yunek, Jeffrey Scott, Wadsworth, Benjamin K., and Needle, Simon. “Perceiving the Mosaic: Form in the Mashups of DJ Earworm.” Music Theory Spectrum 43, no. 1 (2021): 19–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zbikowski, Laurence. Conceptualizing Music: Cognitive Structure, Theory, and Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zbikowski, Laurence. “Aspects of Meaning Construction in Music: Toward a Cognitive Grammar of Music.” Almen Semiotik 17 (2007): 43–72.Google Scholar