A semiotic analysis of the music of britpop: a phrase book for signification in popular music

David Machin, Tom Griffiths

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

It has been argued that categories of popular music are difficult to pin down but can be defined by sets of discourses about what that music means, whether it is, for example, authentic, gritty, aggressive or soulful. But there have been no systematic analyses of the discourses realised by the music itself. Musical motifs in melody, kinds of instruments, arrangements, rhythm, distortion etc., all have meaning potential that in combination allows them to signify particular discourses associated with music and society. In this paper we explore the idea of developing a phrase book of meaning potentials for one category of music that came out of Indie music in the early 1990s, Britpop.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)13-31
Number of pages19
JournalInternational Journal of Applied Semiotics
Volume6
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 2007

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