<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">T</div><span lang="EN-GB">his special issue of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal">Popular Music</i> will focus on the intersection of popular music with
‘magic’, however authors may wish to define the term. </span>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Despite its relegation to ‘entirely misunderstood
hocus pocus’ (Henry 2001) since the development in the 17<sup>th</sup> century
of modern music and acoustic science (see Gouk 1999), the notion of magic has
continued to shape and influence our engagement with the world as one
particular mode of knowledge –typically (but not necessarily convincingly) when
pitted against so-called reason and science. </span>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal" class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br></span></p><p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal">Totem and Taboo</i>, originally published in 1913, Freud contends that magic
is a body of instructions, a technique that primitive men and neurotics
mobilise when they are confident about their possibility to control the world
–when they believe, specifically, that their acts can influence other persons
or things, by a rather straightforward process of imitation. This does not just
concern neurotics and savages, however, but also artists : in the modern,
scientific age, ‘only in art does it still happen that a man who is consumed by
desires performs something resembling the accomplishment of those desires and
that what he does in play produces emotional effects –thanks to artistic
illusion- just as though it were something real’ (Freud 1975 p.90). </span>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span lang="EN-GB">The desire,
and sometimes the ability, to produce emotional effects thanks to an imitative
process with one’s inner wishes is a fundamental characteristic of magic, which
Freud also defines as ‘the omnipotence of thought’ (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal">ibid</i>. p.85). Further, and although he does not develop this point,
Freud claims that the frequent comparison of artists to magicians is not just a
matter of hyperbole, but also indicative of something more significant, a sense
that artists (musicians?) can control or change the world.</span>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span lang="EN-GB">There is no doubt that magic has its sceptics and
critics. For Roland Barthes (1957), magic is the shutting-down of critical
faculties, the regrettable depoliticisation of language, the acceptance of the
world as it is presented to us by dominant discourse, most powerfully that of consumer
capitalism. In a similar vein, although only in passing, David McGuiness (2016)
recently took issue with the mobilisation of a vocabulary of magic in popular
music criticism, alleging that it amounted to analytical ignorance.</span>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span lang="EN-GB">Conversely, however, it is often for these very
reasons of orderly appearance or satisfaction with the state of things that
magic also appeals to many. For those regarded as mystics today, from Plotinus
writing in 200AD to Schopenhauer and since, music can be an enchantment, a
‘form of sorcery that raises no question’ with the capacity to calm thought, to
transcend the human condition of suffering, and/or to grant access to the world
of ‘the Beyond’ (Godwin 1987). </span>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal" class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br></span></p><p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">On a certain level, contemporary popular music
is saturated with magic, with many artists following rituals prior to
performance, like Beyoncé and Adele who reportedly invoke their respective
alter egos (Denham 2015), and others who use a ‘magical’ language to transform
and assert their gender identity, such as the Japanese hip hop artist Hime (</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial" lang="EN-GB">Condry 2006). Others suffuse
their compositions and performance with the presence of sometimes long-dead others,
including African American vocalists from </span><span lang="EN-GB">Billie
Holiday to Tracy Chapman who capture the memory of slave escapees (Davis 1999).
Audiences and critics, too, frequently report having been mesmerized by
performers (Looseley 2015 provides such accounts about Edith Piaf). </span>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span lang="EN-GB">In fact,
given that the academic sub-field of Star Studies hinges on the premise that stars
exist thanks to the propitious alignment of factors external to our control,
i.e. the right type, place and time (Dyer 1998), an argument exists for the recognition
that pop stars are fundamentally magic figures, our contextual analysis of
their success being necessarily incomplete. Back in 1981, Simon Frith insisted
that myths and magic existed insofar as cultural participants believed in them
and found them comforting, giving the example of rock songs that conjured up,
for those who so desired, a working-class street culture. Eric Weisbard (2005) similarly
proposed to focus our academic study on the ‘magic moments’ of musical
experiences, insisting that scholars should accept and recognize those instances
when rapture, accidents, a sense of vertigo or one’s perplexity (‘the
quizzical, not the categorical’) takes centre stage in life, and all thanks to
music.</span> <br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span lang="EN-GB">These different interpretations of magic relate to
control, with magic offering an illusion of coherence and confidence to
artists, consumers and critics, and having the ability to re-enchant an
implicitly and excessively rational world –whether this is interpreted as welcome
comfort or as political disengagement.</span>
<span lang="EN-GB"></span><br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span lang="EN-GB">So, when is magic actually mobilised in and around
music-making? What does the mobilisation of magic reveal about the values and
practices that underpin our contemporary popular music culture? What does the
idea of magic bring to music, and to our understanding of the world? </span>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">
<span lang="EN-GB">This special issue seeks to explore these issues,
asking its contributors to think through the musical implications of the
concept of magic and to re-examine the habitual polarisation of the term
against reason and science. Below are some non-prescriptive suggestions for
contribution: </span>
</p>
<ul class=""><li><span style="mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri" lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-list:Ignore"><span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman""></span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB">Music as a metaphor for cosmic
organisation, for social ‘harmony’</span>
</li><li>
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri" lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-list:Ignore"><span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman""></span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB">Magic and musical
inspiration,<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>the artist’s connection
with ‘the other side’ </span>
</li><li>
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri" lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-list:Ignore"><span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman""></span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB">Magic and fascination, listeners
and consumers ‘under the spell’ of music</span>
</li><li>
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri" lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-list:Ignore"><span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman""></span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB">Fetishes, rituals</span>
</li><li>
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri" lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-list:Ignore"><span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman""></span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB">Music and magic-related
notions, including (alphabetically listed): angels, chance, charisma, destiny,
fate, incantation, luck, saints, shamans, stars, supernatural, trances,
visions, voodoo, witchcraft… </span>
</li></ul>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">
<span lang="EN-GB"></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span lang="EN-GB">Deadline for
abstracts (500 words): 30 April 2017</span></b>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span lang="EN-GB">Deadline for
articles (max. 10,000 words, bibliography inclusive): 28 February 2018</span></b>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span lang="EN-GB">Peer-review
process in Spring 2018</span></b>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span lang="EN-GB">Planned
publication: January 2019</span></b>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span lang="EN-GB">Bibliography:
<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></span></b>
</p>
<br>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"" lang="EN-GB">Barthes,
Roland<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal">Mythologies</i> (Paris: Points Seuil, 1957)
<br><br>
Condry, Ian. <i>Hip-hop Japan: Rap and the paths of cultural
globalization</i> (Duke University Press, 2006)
<br><br>
Davis, Angela Yvonne. <i>Blues Legacies and Black Feminism:
Gertrude" Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday</i> (Vintage
books, 1999)
<br><br>
Denham, Jess. ‘Chris Evans confuses Adele with
Beyoncé’, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">The Independent</i>, 23 October
2015.
<br><br>
Dyer, Richard. <i>Stars</i> (London: British Film Institute,1998 [1979]).
<br><br>
Freud, Sigmund. ‘Animism, Magic and the Omnipotence of
Thoughts’ in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Totem and Taboo</i>
[originally 1913], <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">The Standard Edition
of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud</i>, vol.xiii (London: The
Hogarth Press, 1975), 75-99.
<br><br>
Frith, Simon. ‘“The magic that can set you
free”: the ideology of folk and the myth of the rock community’, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Popular Music</i>, 1 (1981), 159-68.
<br><br>
Godwin, Joscelyn (ed). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal"><span style="mso-font-kerning:18.0pt">Music, mysticism and magic: a
sourcebook</span></i><span style="mso-font-kerning:18.0pt"> (</span>London:
Arkana, 1987).
<br><br>
Gouk, Penny. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Music,
Science and Natural Magic in 17<sup>th</sup> century England</i> (Yale, 1999)<br><br>
Henry, John.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Music, Science and Natural Magic in 17<sup>th</sup>
century England</i> by Penny Gouk’, book review, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal">The English Historical Review</i>, 116 (467), 2001 p.723-4. <br><br>
Looseley, David. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Edith Piaf. A Cultural History</i>
(Liverpool University Press, 2015). <br>
<br>
McGuinness, David. ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Let’s Talk about Love</i> by Carl
Wilson’ (book review), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Popular Music</i>
35 (2), 2016, 280-81.<br>
<br>
Weisbard, Eric. ‘The magic moments: pop, writing, and the little stuff’, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Popular Music</i> 24 (3), 2005, 307-310. </span>
<p>
</p><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div>carlos palombini, ph.d. (dunelm)<br>professor de musicologia ufmg<br>professor colaborador ppgm-unirio<br><a href="http://www.proibidao.org" target="_blank">www.proibidao.org</a><br><a href="http://goo.gl/KMV98I" target="_blank">ufmg.academia.edu/CarlosPalombini</a><br></div><div><a href="http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Carlos_Palombini2" target="_blank">www.researchgate.net/profile/Carlos_Palombini2</a><br><a href="http://scholar.google.com.br/citations?user=YLmXN7AAAAAJ" target="_blank">scholar.google.com.br/citations?user=YLmXN7AAAAAJ</a><br></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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