Violence and the negotiation of musical meaning in rock, pop, and rap cover songs

• Main Author: Woods, Alyssa
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: University of Ottawa (Canada) 2013
• Subjects: Music.
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10393/26810; http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-9803

My thesis uses a synthesis of literary, cultural, and music theoretic frameworks to explore the social and musical meanings of mainstream popular cover songs. In Chapter 1 I examine two versions of the song "'97 Bonnie and Clyde", a song that explores an extreme case of domestic violence. The original, written and performed by rap artist Eminem, and a cover interpretation by female singer-songwriter Tori Amos. I examine how, using the same lyrics, each artist conveys their own social position and message through their vocal and musical presentation. In Chapter 2 I explore how Eminem appropriates music from a female pop artist; Dido. Eminem samples a portion of the song and structures his song "Stan" around the borrowed musical material. In doing so he alters the meaning of her lyrics and music, casting it in the context of his dark narrative. In Chapter 3 I explore a similar case of musical borrowing. Eminem appropriates the chorus of rock band Aerosmith's well known song "Dream on". Using Stuart Hall's theories of representation I argue that Eminem barrows music and video techniques from the rack genre in order to make an identity claim. In Chapter 4 I examine three different version of the song "Happiness is a Warm Gun": the Beatles' original which uses the gun as a sexual metaphor, and covers by U2 and Tori Amos which both express social commentary on gun violence and gun control. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)