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S ubjectivity and the C onstruction of E motion in the M usic of B jörk
Author(s) -
Dibben Nicola
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
music analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.25
H-Index - 18
eISSN - 1468-2249
pISSN - 0262-5245
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2249.2006.00237.x
Subject(s) - unison , subject (documents) , embodied cognition , subjectivity , feeling , expression (computer science) , identity (music) , psychology , communication , linguistics , aesthetics , computer science , art , social psychology , world wide web , philosophy , epistemology , artificial intelligence , physics , acoustics , programming language
A commonly held reception theory for popular song is that it constitutes an expression of emotional experience belonging either to the performer(s), to the listener, or to a virtual third person. Drawing on the belief that music is capable of affording subject positions on behalf of its listeners, the present article argues that organised sound is not only capable of representing or embodying a pre‐existent affective experience, but that it contributes uniquely to the idea of what emotion is and of how it is perceived. In this respect music can be understood as participating in the cultural construction of feeling that has helped to shape the identity of the modern Western subject. Two tracks by Björk are presented as case study illustrations of this thesis: ‘Unison’ ( Vespertine 2001) and the music video ‘Jóga’ ( Volumen 1999). Thus Björk's music, along with the discursive media surrounding it, is shown to rely upon a distinctive expressive vocabulary aimed at communicating a particular kind of embodied subjectivity.