Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Popular Song Afterlives: Oral Transmission and Mundane Creativity in Street Performances of Chinese Pop Classics

Horlor, Samuel

Popular Song Afterlives: Oral Transmission and Mundane Creativity in Street Performances of Chinese Pop Classics Thumbnail


Authors



Abstract

Amateur live performances on the city streets of Wuhan give afterlives to songs of Chinese pop’s canon; they are sites for this repertory to be adapted and assimilated into musical worlds beyond those of the artists and industries responsible for its original production and dissemination. Singers here learn the songs by following commercial recordings, a process I understand with reference to oral transmission as it enables and constrains creativity in ways reflective of the social and technological circumstances of performers’ lives. Recordings feed into the spread of change among Wuhan’s amateur singers, with certain limitations and new possibilities also resulting from the technologies and skills available on the streets. Looking at popular song afterlives exposes mundane layers of creativity, and it comments more broadly on prosaic drivers of new meaning in current popular music practices.

Citation

Horlor, S. (2019). Popular Song Afterlives: Oral Transmission and Mundane Creativity in Street Performances of Chinese Pop Classics. Journal of World Popular Music, 6(1), 10-31. https://doi.org/10.1558/jwpm.34195

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Mar 17, 2019
Online Publication Date Jun 18, 2019
Publication Date Jun 18, 2019
Deposit Date Jun 18, 2019
Publicly Available Date Jun 18, 2021
Journal Journal of World Popular Music
Print ISSN 2052-4900
Electronic ISSN 2052-4919
Publisher Equinox Publishing
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 6
Issue 1
Pages 10-31
DOI https://doi.org/10.1558/jwpm.34195
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1294058

Files





You might also like



Downloadable Citations