Analysis of visual and musical elements of Michael Jackson's video for his song Black or White reveals it as a series of intertextual references that generate meaning through allusions to aspects of popular culture. Intertextuality is defined according to Gerard Genette's theories of transtextuality and therefore is taken to be a relationship between "two or more texts existing or showing their presence within a work," including quotation, plagiarism, and allusion as types of intertextuality. In every scene of the video, intertextual references can be found, including the use of quintessential heavy metal guitar and drum sounds, cinematic allusions to Hitchcock and the film Raising Arizona, evocation of the militant political groups the Black Panthers as Jackson morphs into a panther, a rhythmic reference to Buddy Rich drum solos, and the inclusion of a brief section of rap.

Works: Bill Botrell and Michael Jackson: Black or White.

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Sarah Florini

The 1978 NBC "docudrama," The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, is a humorous satire of the music and history of the Beatles. According to Schopenhauer, an amused reaction arises as a response to the "recognition of incongruity between a representation and a concept." Thus, for a listener to experience an amused response to musical satire, he or she must possess "stylistic competencies" that allow for the recognition of the congruity-incongruity dialectic in the music. The fictitious Rutles's Hold My Hand is modeled on three Beatles songs, and it incorporates elements of lyrics, pitch, rhythm, harmony and instrumentation from the sources. Evidence of modeling in Ouch!, a parody of the Beatles' song, Help!, is found in instrumentation and in formal and harmonic similarities to the source. The harmonic parallelism is such that a dialogue between Ouch! and Help! emerges, which is facilitated by diminution of the model's harmonic rhythm and partial reordering of the harmonic progression. Leonard Meyer's theory of style, in combination with the semiotic theory of intertextuality, can become a powerful analytic device in explaining musical satire. The humor arises from the listener's recognition of the model and the clever alterations and juxtapositions of the original material. This recognition must take place on three different levels of specificity: dialectic or general style (e.g., British invasion), individual idiom (e.g., early Beatles style), and intraopus style or the style within a single work (e.g., the style of Help!).

Works: Neil Innes: Hold My Hand (124-32), Ouch! (133-37).

Sources: John Lennon and Paul McCartney: I Want to Hold Your Hand (124-32), She Loves You (124-32), All My Loving (124-32), Help! (133-37).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular, Film

Contributed by: Victoria Malawey, Sarah Florini

Patti Smith's version of Van Morrison's Gloria transforms the meaning of the original through the use of textual tropes and altered vocal performance that ultimately decenters the "dominant male rock singer" to clear out creative space for herself. In her version, Gloria in excelsis deo, Smith adds a great deal of text to the original lyrics but retains some of Morrison's text without changing the male perspective, deliberately playing up the male sexual undertones. Smith also utilizes a number of subtle vocal inflections to emphasize specific words and phrases and bring out meaning in the text. These vocal performance techniques include qualities such as "raspy," "hard/nasal," "breathy," or "creaky," as well as exaggerated or closed vowel sounds and pitch inflections. An appendix contains the text to Morrison's Gloria and a transcription of Smith's version featuring both traditional staff notation and the author's notation for indicating vocal performance techniques.

Works: Van Morrison and Patti Smith: Gloria in excelsis deo.

Sources: Van Morrison: Gloria.

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Sarah Florini

The commercially available samplers invented in the 1980s have a long history that can be seen to include the early digital (but not binary) technology of the telegraph up until the invention of modern digital technology. After World War I inventors constructed and patented musical instruments based on available sound recording technologies as well as early versions of magnetic tape recorder dictating machines. This is generally considered the first "sampler." By 1948, Pierre Schaeffer initiated musique concrète and developed a technique similar to the later tape loop, the sillon fermé. Influenced by the invention of magnetic tape, Schaeffer transferred all of his disc recording techniques to the medium of magnetic tape and patented his Phonogène in the 1950s. In 1964, the first successful instrument based on magnetic tape technology, the Mellotron, was marketed. The first digital sampling instruments appeared in the early 1970s, and by the second half of the 1980s digital sampling technology had become a standard part of every electronic piano, organ, or synthesizer. Musicians have explored extensively the possibilities of the manipulation of recorded sound. The phonograph has been used for works like John Cage's Imaginary Landscape No. 5 as well as "scratching" by DJs in the popular music tradition. Other works have used this technology to manipulate pre-existing recorded works by other artists, generating conflict with copyright law. Among these works are James Tenney's Collage No. 1 ('Blue Suede') and John Oswald's Plunderphonics. Live manipulations of prerecorded magnetic tape material, such as Laurie Anderson's Tape Bow Violin, have also been explored. Commercial digital samplers are now used in a variety of contemporary composers' works, such as Michel Waisvisz 's The Archaic Symphony or Nicolas Collins's Devil's Music.

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Sarah Florini

Advances in technology in the twentieth century, such as the reproduction and manipulation of sound, have led to controversies regarding intellectual property, copyright law, and even the very definition of the "musical work." Modern sampling techniques allow artists to appropriate pre-existing musical material and then alter its codes of meaning through processes of recontextualization and alteration. This act of generating meaning through the use of existing "musical artifacts" can be highly subversive, as is the case with John Oswald's 1989 CD Plunderphonics and subsequent CD Rubaiyat (Elektrax). For Rubaiyat (Elektrax), commissioned by Electra records for the company's fortieth anniversary, Oswald utilized pre-existing material recorded by Electra artists as raw material that was then altered using various techniques that undermine and change the work's original meaning. Oswald's techniques include recontexualization of familiar material, the restoration of a previously controversial or "banished" text, and encouraging the listener to create similar works at home with available technology.

Works: John Oswald: O Hell (25-28), Vane (28-29), Mother (29-30), Plunderphonics (24-25), Rubaiyat (Elektrax) (25-34).

Sources: John Densmore, Robbie Krieger, Ray Manzarek, and Jim Morrison [The Doors]: Hello, I Love You (26-28), When the Music's Over (26-28); Carly Simon: You're So Vain (28-29), You're So Vain as performed by Faster Pussycat (28-29); Michael Davis, Wayne Kramer, Fred "Sonic" Smith, Dennis Thompson, and Rob Tyner [MC5]: Kick Out the Jams (29-30).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Sarah Florini

Though sampling only emerged with the invention of digital technology in the 1980s, it is best understood as part of the long history of musical borrowing. Specific melodic quotation, akin to literal sampling, can be found throughout western art music in the works of composers like Bach, Berlioz, Tchaikovsky, and Ives. In this repertoire, the context in which the quotation appears imposes commentary or new meaning on the original. A similar process occurs with digital sampling where meaning is often generated through recontextualization and juxtaposition of samples. In attempts to generate a "taxonomy" of sampling practices, scholars David Sanjek, Thomas Porcello, and Chris Cutler have created classification systems based, respectively, on reconcilability of the source, procedural methods, and in terms similar to Christopher Ballentine's "musical-philosophical" ideals. The central difference between digital sampling and traditional borrowing is that "the timbre is appropriated in addition to pitch and rhythm." In addition to illustrating the role of recontextualization of sampled material in creating meaning, John Oswald's works Plunderphonics and Plexure demonstrate the role of timbre in conveying musical meaning. For example, Oswald experiments with the timbre of Michael Jackson's voice in the piece "DAB" on Plunderphonics.

Works: Alex Paterson and Youth [Orb]: Little Fluffy Clouds (18-19); James Tenney: Collage #1: Blue Suede (19); John Oswald: Plunderphonics (20-23), DAB (21-22), Plexure (23-24).

Sources: Ennio Morricone: Score for Once Upon a Time in the West (18-19); Steve Reich: Electric Counterpoint (18-19); Carl Perkins: Blue Suede Shoes as performed by Elvis Presley (19); Michael Jackson: Bad (21-22).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Sarah Florini

John Oswald's now infamous works were created through analogue and digital editing and recombining of pre-existing musical material. Oswald adjusted the speed, timbre, pitch, and other aspects of various fragments of music and then combined and layered them to create a type of musical collage. In 1989, he generated a great deal of controversy with the release of his album Plunderphonics, which consisted of exclusively borrowed material. Though Oswald had produced the album at his own expense and was receiving no profit from the endeavor, giving the copies away to libraries, radio stations, and others for free, legal action was taken by Michael Jackson, CBS Records, and the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA). Oswald was forced to destroy the Plunderphonics master copy and any remaining copies in his possession. Since then, Oswald has produced Rubaiyat for Electra Records' 40th anniversary and the two-CD set Plexure. In Plexure, Oswald plays with the "threshold of recognizability" or the amount of material a listener must hear to identify the original source.

Index Classifications: 1900s, Jazz

Contributed by: Sarah Florini

While Brahms's relationship to his predecessors, in particular Beethoven, seems to warrant the application of Harold Bloom's theory of the anxiety of influence, it is perhaps more accurate to think of Brahms's anxiety as the result of tensions created by the expectations of his audience. Brahms realized that his audience would receive and judge his works in comparison to those of his revered predecessors. Therefore, he was faced with the task of creating music that was similar enough to his predecessors to be well-received by his audience while still maintaining the status of originality. Thus, Brahms foregrounded original, non-referential music while cultivating subtle and buried musical allusions that evoked his predecessors. These allusions served to invoke the music of Brahms's predecessors on a subconscious level while still allowing Brahms's music to be seen as highly original. It is this careful balancing act, not his feelings towards Beethoven and other composers, that created the anxiety for Brahms.

Works: Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in C Minor (10-16), Symphony No. 3 in F Major (16-25).

Sources: Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C Minor (11-15), Symphony No. 9 in D Minor (11-16), Symphony No. 3 in E flat Major, Eroica (19, 21, 23-24); Haydn: Symphony No. 97 in C Major (16-17, 19, 23-24); Schubert: String Quintet in C Major (16-17, 20); Schumann: Symphony No. 1 in B flat Major, Spring (18, 20, 24-25), Symphony No. 3 in E flat Major, Rhenish (18, 21, 24-25); Richard Wagner: Tannhäuser (19-20, 23-24).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Sarah Florini

In his book Palimpsestes: la littérature au second degree, Gérard Genette addresses intertextual and hypertextual relationships between texts utilizing a theoretical framework that could be enlightening if applied to recorded popular music. Genette defines intertextuality as the "actual presence of a text within another." Thus, the techniques of quotation and allusion fall into this category. Genette goes on to define hypertextuality as the modeling of a new text (the hypertext) on a previous text (the hypotext). Parody, which is defined as the alteration of subject matter while retaining style characteristics, and its converse travesty, in which the subject matter is retained but the style is altered, fall under this category. Also, included in the category of hypertextuality are pastiche, covering, copy, translation, instrumental cover, and various types of remixes. An additional distinction in the categorization of intertextual relationships is the differentiation between borrowings with a "sameness of spelling" or autosonic borrowing (e.g., sampling) and those with a "sameness of sounding" or allosonic borrowings (e.g., a performed allusion or quotation).

Works: John Bonham, Puff Daddy (Sean Combs), Mark Curry, Jimmy Page, and Robert Plant: Come With Me (39-40); Kurt Cobain, Nirvana, and Weird Al Yancovic: Smells Like Nirvana (41-42); Noel Gallagher: Wonderwall as performed by Mike Flowers (42); Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup: That's All Right as performed by Elvis Presley (46).

Sources: John Bonham, Jimmy Page, and Robert Plant [Led Zeppelin]: Kashmir (40); Kurt Cobain and Nirvana: Smells Like Teen Spirit (41-42); Noel Gallagher [Oasis]: Wonderwall (42); Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup: That's All Right (46).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Sarah Florini

While the popularity of "World Music" is growing, many have criticized collaborations between Western and non-Western artists, such as Paul Simon's Graceland, as being exploitive of non-Western traditional music. However, these cross-cultural germinations actually serve as cultural bridges leading to greater levels of understanding. In the 1960s and 1970s many Western artists, particularly jazz musicians, attempted to achieve a synthesis between Western musical traditions and the music of Eastern, African, and South American cultures. By the late 1980s "World Music" was a staple of the record store, and artists such as Peter Gabriel, David Byrne, and Paul Simon were incorporating elements of non-Western music into their work. More recently, artists like Ry Cooder, Henry Kaiser, and David Lindley have sought out collaborations with non-Western musicians to create a blending of disparate music traditions. Cooder's A Meeting by the River blends elements and performance techniques of Hindustani music with the American musical idiom of Delta blues, and his Talking Timbuktu seeks to blend Delta blues with traditional West African music. Kaiser and Lindley traveled to Madagascar and Norway to create albums steeped in these traditions. Rather than being thought of as appropriations, the work of Cooder, Kaiser, and Lindley should be seen as collaborations that attempt to preserve the integrity of non-Western sources while blending them with distinctly Western idioms.

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Sarah Florini

The ability of the digital sampler to mimic, reproduce, extract, and manipulate musical material has led to substantial discourse in issues of intellectual property and fair use. A series of interviews with studio engineers reveals a general, broad consensus regarding various aspects of sampling, such as payment to musicians, legal issues, and the threat to studio musicians, despite the disagreements about pragmatic aspects of actual use of sampling technology. The engineers interviewed all agreed that certain uses of sampling, such as the wholesale lifting of an entire phrase common in rap songs, are unethical and that sampling should not be "a technological free-for-all." Largely, the controversy centers around the question first raised by the Dadaist movement: can one actually own a sound? Where does one make the distinction between the material of a work and the work as a created, artistic whole? These questions have become even more difficult to answer after Foucault, who views all categories of authorship as spurious. Each engineer cited a "code of the West" that has evolved in the recording industry through general consensus, explaining that controversy occurs when someone is found to violate this unwritten code. Furthermore, since there is money to be made and saved though the use of digital sampling, its use ultimately serves to reinforce the asymmetrical power balance of the recording industry.

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Sarah Florini

Rap is often conceptualized as developing from the oral orientation of the African-American tradition but is rather a complex combination of orality and post-modern technology. The concept of rap as a "post-literate" oral tradition that is a natural outgrowth of oral Afro-American traditional forms is overly simplistic and romanticized. Rap lyrics, which are strongly identified with the rappers that wrote them, display the strong sense of authorship at work in the rap community, which stands in stark contrast to the concepts of orality. However, rap artists' use of sampling reveals the influence of the oral Afro-American tradition in which authorial authority is achieved not in creating a story but rather in its retelling, as texts are considered community property. By sampling, rap artists recontextualize pre-existing material, essentially using sampling technology as "de- and re-construction devices." Sampling, largely regarded as theft by the mass culture, consequently creates a type of resistance against that culture. The re-use of copyrighted material without permission can be read as undermining the legal and capital market authorities.

Works: Kool Moe Dee (Mohandas Dewese) and Teddy Riley: How Ya Like Me Now! (41); Eric B. (Eric Barrier) and Rakim (William Griffin Jr.): Paid in Full (42-43).

Sources: Jimmy Forrest: Night Train as performed by James Brown (41); Franne Golde, Dennis Lambert and Duane Hitchings: Don't Look Any Further as performed by Dennis Edward (42-43).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Sarah Florini

In a broader investigation of rap music and contemporary Black American culture, sampling is discussed (pp. 73-80 and 88-93). Rappers utilize sampling technology not as a shortcut to copy pre-existing music but rather as a means to achieve unique creative objectives. Often, the sonic qualities sought after by rap artists and producers can only be created through sampling, not through live performance or digital synthesized sound such as drum machines. The way in which digital samples are used by rap DJs is in line with what Walter Ong has identified in oral traditions as "narrative originality." According to Ong, narrative originality is achieved not through the creation of new material but through the "reshuffling" of the pre-existing material. However, in addition to this, use of sampling technology by rap artists can also be seen to constitute a means of composition. Samples in a rap song generate meaning through complex intertextual references, as does the process of "versioning," the reworking of an entire song so that it takes on new meaning in a new context. The use of sampling and versioning has generated conflict with existing copyright laws, and rap artists are often accused of stealing musical material. This problem arises partially because current copyright laws originated in the nineteenth century and were originally intended to protect musical scores. Sampling technology allows access to sounds that were previously "uncopiable" and therefore unprotected.

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Sarah Florini

The invention of digital sampling and its pervasive use in rap music creates problems regarding concepts of authenticity, originality, and ownership that manifest themselves as conflicts with copyright law. The prevailing legal attitude towards sampling considers it to be intellectual thievery as well as simply lacking in artistic merit due to the absence of creative "originality." However, according to the theories of Walter Benjamin, in the age of modern reproduction there exist no originals, only a "plurality of copies." This, in conjunction with the fact that all popular music is a product of technological alteration and production, makes the concept of "authentic music" that exists in a pure, unaltered form an illusion. This illusive concept is widely accepted in western Anglo society and forms the basis of current copyright laws. However, it stands in stark contrast to the practice of "Signifyin(g)" that forms the basis of Black discourse in which meaning largely depends on the "intertextual referencing of previous texts." This institutionalized belief in the illusion of "authentic" and "original" music helps to perpetuate the use of authorial designations to reinforce positions of social power as described by Foucault. In addition, control of capital is affected by this concept as the legal system relies heavily on profitability in making decisions of copyright violation.

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Sarah Florini

The album Broadway the Hard Way is a prime example of Frank Zappa's use of quotation and allusion to generate and alter meaning within his works. Zappa accomplishes this by invoking what he refers to as "Archetypal American Musical Icons." These icons are commonly known, readily recognizable material from American mass culture, such as the theme from The Twilight Zone or The Battle Hymn of the Republic, and carry with them connotations and associations that Zappa then manipulates to expressive ends. The associations carried with "Archetypal American Musical Icons" are deliberately invoked to create a subtext within a song that supplements and generates meaning. Zappa will also often alter a song's original meaning by adding style allusions and quotations to create a new subtext, a procedure referred to as "putting the eyebrows on it." An appendix outlines borrowings and allusions in portions of Rhymin' Man,Promiscuous, and Jesus Thinks You're a Jerk.

Works: Zappa: Dickie's Such an Asshole (40-41), When the Lie's So Big (42), What Kind of Girl? (42), Jesus Thinks You're a Jerk (43-44, 57-58), Rhymin' Man (44-48, 53-54), Promiscuous (49, 55-56).

Sources: William Steffe: Battle Hymn of the Republic (40-44); Marius Constant: Theme from The Twilight Zone (44-48, 53, 57); Lalo Schifrin: Theme from Mission Impossible (44-48, 53); Hava Nagilah (44-48, 54); Hail to the Chief (44-48, 54); La Cucaracha (44-48, 54); Julius Fucík: March of the Gladiators (44-48, 54, 57); Milton Ager: Happy Days are Here Again (44-48, 54); Frère Jacques (53-54); Ennio Morricone: Theme from The Untouchables (53); Berton Averre and Doug Fieger [The Knack]: My Sharona (54); Rock of Ages (57-58); Dixie (57-58); Richard Berry: Louie Louie as peformed by The Kingsmen (58).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Jazz, Popular

Contributed by: Sarah Florini