MUAR 392 Lecture Notes - Phil Ochs, Pete Seeger, Amy Ray
23 May 2012
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Document Summary
Associated with left-wing, power to the people politics. Key figure in development of pop music and r&r in early 1960s. Producer, songwriter, arranger, sometime performer, but not singer. Seen by many as visionary musical genius. But might this reflect worries over power shift towards female singers and songwriters in the early 1960s. Translation of german volk meaning, the (common) people, nation, lower classes. As plural, volk(e)s has generally negative connotations: mob, rabble, the common herd. R&b rhythm section mixed with pop singing style. Often called wangerian after aesthetics of richard wagner (1813- 1883), major opera composer whose grandiosity of vision is perhaps unparalleled in history of music, e. g. 4 opera cycle the ring of the nibelung. Argued that the folk not rabble, rather locus of authentic, true cultural and national expression. Cultures are incommensurable, cannot be judged according to external principles; each is different not better or worse.
