Over the past two decades, the music industry has become
thoroughly and permanently globalized. Digital downloads and various online
listening venues have allowed practically anyone with internet access to
explore music from across the globe. Such exploration is not limited to passive
listening, but often extends into the reimagination of that music by the
receiving culture, including the speedy appropriation of foreign musical forms
into local musical practices.[1]
This has in turn altered America’s impact on other countries’ music scenes,
allowing for resistance to (although rarely the outright rejection of) American
cultural domination. Cultural studies scholars have concerned themselves with
unpacking these complicated, refigured receptions, and try to answer how
popular music relates to individuals’ national and cultural identities.
In order to explore these theoretical issues, I will focus
on the international reception of the song “Let It Go,” from Frozen (Disney, 2013). The film has some
pretention of internationalism, as it is based on a Hans Christian Andersen
story, and is set in an unspecified but recognizably Scandinavian country.[2]
Yet the “Let It Go” is undeniably American in sound and origin: it follows a standard
ABAB song structure, is accompanied by a traditional Western Concert Orchestra,
and features Idina Menzel, a renowned Broadway actress, performing in an
American accent (as do all the characters).
The first section of my analysis will first consider what makes the song an
international success. The song is not merely an outgrowth of Frozen’s success, but displays many of
the traits that have historically marked American songs for global appeal,
including a multi-generational appeal, a depoliticized subject matter, and a combination of "fun" with artistic merit.[3]
The majority of my analysis will then examine how the song has been reimagined by
international audiences: for example, the plethora of dubbed versions of the
song in other languages on YouTube. I will argue these adaptations only add an
additional layer of local meaning to the song’s core American identity, which
is ultimately more dominant than any unique cultural elements added by the new
language. This is evidenced in the multi-language tracks (“Let It Go in 25
Languages”, etc.) that are even more popular than single-language dubs.
In order to account for how much the study of popular music
has changed over the ten years since the publication of European Cultural Studies’ special issue on Popular Music[4],
I will incorporate more recent work on the meaning and importance of YouTube
and cyberculture to the global music exchange. I will also address the older
but ever-relevant work of Adorno on popular music and Simon Firth on the nature
of music globalization, among others.
[1] René
Boomkens terms this “glocalization” (“Uncanny Identities: High and Low and Global
and Local in the Music of Elvis Costello, European
Journal of Cultural Studies 7.1 p. 71.)
[2]
This is perhaps because Disney intends the film to be consumed by children and
their families wherever movies are projected. My paper will discuss Disney’s
role only briefly, as the
international marketing strategy of Disney could fill a paper by itself.
[3] See Boomkens,
“Uncanny Identities,” p.63, 64-65; Keith Kahn-Harris “The ‘Failure’ of Youth
Culture: Reflexivity, Music and Politics in the Black Metal Scene,” European Journal of Cultural Studies 7.1
p. 108.
Slight correction to the scheduling document: my journal issue addresses largely addresses the exchange of music between America and the rest of the globe from a European (or at minimum non-American) perspective. My teaching project will therefore reflect that focus, rather than discussing “European Pop Music” specifically.
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