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Christian Rock Goes Mainstream: Youth Culture, Politics and Popular Music in the U.S.
Title
Christian Rock Goes Mainstream: Youth Culture, Politics and Popular Music in the U.S.
Creator
Giagnoni, Silvia, Scodari, Christine, Florida Atlantic University
Abstract/Description
The dissertation analyzes Christian rock that goes mainstream and aims to explain such a phenomenon within the contemporary cultural, social and political context. This cultural study acknowledges the inherent tendency of Christian rock “to cross over” as part of the Evangelical ideology in which it is rooted. It also views it as a symptom of the augmented power of conservative Evangelical groups in today’s American political and social climate and of the current, increased presence of...
Show moreThe dissertation analyzes Christian rock that goes mainstream and aims to explain such a phenomenon within the contemporary cultural, social and political context. This cultural study acknowledges the inherent tendency of Christian rock “to cross over” as part of the Evangelical ideology in which it is rooted. It also views it as a symptom of the augmented power of conservative Evangelical groups in today’s American political and social climate and of the current, increased presence of discourses around religion and, specifically, Christianity in the public arena. Hence, the research offers an historical understanding of the social, cultural and discursive changes that have occurred within American Christianity in relation to politics, society and culture since Christian rock’s first appearance as an expression of the Jesus People movement of the 1970s, with the aim of better comprehending the nature of the contemporary crossover phenomenon. Additionally, the study considers rock as a discursive formation, interprets Christian rock as a primarily countercultural phenomenon and addresses the questions its crossover poses. Thus, it explores dimensions and issues highly debated in cultural studies concerning authenticity, resistance, generic labeling, lyrical content, pleasure, and experience. Specifically, it looks at Christian rock “fragments” as receptacles for a multitude of meanings that are constantly negotiated in public discourses. The research finally examines the music industry (marketing strategies, publications, distribution deals, and so forth) in relation to these phenomena, and reports on the interviews with emerging crossover Christian rock bands and other people operating in the industry. By investigating it as part of the larger endeavor of Evangelicals to impact and transform American culture and society, it is illustrated how Christian rock is able today to provide an alternative version of popular music to their own young people and to reach non-believers as well; this suggests further research and, specifically, the necessity of audience analysis, and concomitantly raises thought-provoking questions related to cultural theory. The study also demonstrates how Christian rock, an apparently oxymoronic manifestation of rock culture, is actually reproducing its very logic, thus catalyzing cultural change and symptomatically reflecting neoconservative cultural hegemony and ultimately supporting an emerging definition of rock.
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Date Issued
2007
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00000981
Subject Headings
Contemporary Christian music--United States, Popular culture--Religious aspects, Popular music--United States--History and criticism, Rock music--Political aspects, Popular music--Social aspects, Christian rock music--History and criticism
Format
Document (PDF)
No Surrender: Bruce Springsteen, Neoliberalism and Rock and Roll’s Melancholic Fantasy of Sovereign Rebellion
Title
No Surrender: Bruce Springsteen, Neoliberalism and Rock and Roll’s Melancholic Fantasy of Sovereign Rebellion.
Creator
Graves, Kaitlin N., Trapani, William, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, School of Communication and Multimedia Studies
Abstract/Description
This thesis builds from press accounts of Bruce Springsteen’s South by Southwest keynote address, taken by many to be a renewed call to arms of the classic mantras of the rock ethos in the age of a declining recording industry. In tracing the ways the speech circulated I argue that its discourse was rearticulated toward quite different (and concerning) ends. Throughout, I aim to show the apparatuses of power that sustains the rock liberation fantasy. I read the coverage of Springsteen’s...
Show moreThis thesis builds from press accounts of Bruce Springsteen’s South by Southwest keynote address, taken by many to be a renewed call to arms of the classic mantras of the rock ethos in the age of a declining recording industry. In tracing the ways the speech circulated I argue that its discourse was rearticulated toward quite different (and concerning) ends. Throughout, I aim to show the apparatuses of power that sustains the rock liberation fantasy. I read the coverage of Springsteen’s address as a therapeutic discourse meant to soothe the anxiety over the closure of agency in the age of neoliberalism. The general problematic for the thesis, then, addresses an anxiety over the collapse of freedom and as such works to offer broad reflections on the nature of radical agency in our increasingly neoliberal present.
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Date Issued
2017
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004945, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004945
Subject Headings
Springsteen, Bruce--Influence., Neoliberalism., Politics, Practical--United States., Popular culture--United States--History--20th century., Popular music--Social aspects--United States--History--20th century., Rock music--Social aspects--United States--History--20th century.
Format
Document (PDF)