Musicology and Identity

If there is one issue dominant in my mind as it relates to musicology it is that issue of identity. The collateral issues regarding identity seem to be thoroughly entwined into every portion of musicological study. Though efforts to address identity separate from the belongings of issues such as race, heritage, and culture have been made, the results of such efforts, like the opposing efforts to give identity primary dominance, seem problematic; in the extreme cases filled with effects of overreaching autoethnographical views or overzealous attempts to be all-inclusive to all [peoples]. The complexity of identity is substantive. Examine identity too closely and the vision of other possibilities may be obscured. Examine identity from too far a distance and the subject becomes too vast or nebulous to clearly define anything. It is for these reasons that addressing the importance of identity is important to me.

Examine a musical work like the song Señorita[1] and the complexities addressing the song’s identity become evident. The original release, a chart topper in 2004, still remains tremendously popular song in numerous commercial markets (including pop, r&b, urban, and latin). The song is performed by Justin Timberlake (very much Anglo), but co-written and produced by The Neptunes, Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo (African American and Philippino respectively). The subject matter of the song is arguably universal (love and “hooking up”) in terms of ideas expressed in Western pop music, yet the musical construction (of the form, melodies, and harmonies) contains both Western and non-Western components strongly connected through non-traditional musical concepts. Depending on the music retailer where the single (or album) is sold, the music itself may be classified as R&B, Pop/Rock, or Urban. The music video features multiple ethnicities performing including the “Señorita” featured as the subject of Timberlake’s eye. It is also disputable whether the original release is a fusion of many individual styles used in the song or is simply the product of the many styles juxtaposed against each other. If a musician in Nepal remixes the song to include Nepalese instruments, does it make the song Nepalese? If a remix of the song is released featuring a banjo or an ude, or a Spanish language version, what does that do to the identity of the music? In this example, as is the case for many of the world’s music, it is highly improbable that this selection can be identified only in one genre, let alone assigned to a sole ethnic group or identity. Indeed, these are issues that can be addressed, but navigating through the intricate details of each component of the song may present more complications in study than it will resolve.

As discussed in Jean-Jacques Nattiez’s book Music and Discourse, it can be said that within conversations of musical identity (and musical meaning) “There is no musical fact that does not engender an evaluative reaction.” [2] As a symbolic fact, music has the potential to refer to something” [3] As such, persons talking about music often find themselves addressing the subject in the many ways in which music itself can be interpreted. In particular for musicologists, understanding and explaining a musical work often involves a substantive effort to balance the opinions collected and derived from personal (or normative) judgments, technical judgments of the properties of a musical stimulus, judgments involving extra musical meaning, and “affirmations of interior order related to the psychological effect experienced by the subject.”[4]

Each manner of interpretation has the potential to demonstrate relevance, or not to do so at all, for the subject of study. And so, as Gracyk states, “we arrive at a sort of crossroads. Musicians project an identity by situating themselves in relation to other musicians. Listeners derive meaning and value from popular music by contributing cultural capital to the process-which seems to imply that their own identity as members of a certain audience depends on the ability of others to employ cultural capital situating them properly. For both musicians and audience, the construction of a meaningful identity demands a historical perspective on the music as a dialogue with the past, not just with the present scene.” [5]

Perhaps issues around identity seem so very thorny not only because of the reasons previously addressed, but also because at stake are of the effects that issues of identity have on the perceptions of [effects] such as race and authenticity. “[It] is connected with understandability, belonging, and ownership, all which is encapsulated as forms of identity.” [6] All of these perceptions have had (and may continue to have) fundamental effects on the ontologies of music, the critique on aesthetics of the musical subject itself, and on the commentary about the culture (or cultures) in which the musical subject exists. It is therefore important to remember that “with mass art, there is no stability in the process. No cultural capital is common throughout the audience. Historical perspective is often lacking, or seriously misguided. Leanings aren't contested so much as muddled, lost, and misunderstood.”[7]

And so in dealing with the complexities regarding identity, the most practical of efforts becomes to recognize that within the study of every subject, it is beneficial neither to overestimate nor underestimate the significance of identity. Identity exists as part of the whole of a musical work, not as a summative classification of it all. Indeed, identity’s inclusion into a subjects’ overall discourse may be very helpful to understand a musical work. As music is examined, it is important to balance the opinions gathered and “acknowledge the complexity and fluidity of meanings involved in the act of constructing and rearticulating identities through music.” [8]

[1] Justin Timberlake. Justified. With Chad Hugo and Pharell Williams. ©2004 by Jive Records, Compact Disc.
[2] Jean-Jacques Nattiez. Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music.(New York, NY: Princeton University Press 1990).
[3] Nattiez, 103.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Daniel Grayck. I Wanna Be Me. (New York, NY: Temple University Press, 2001).
[6] Ronald Radano and Philip V. Bohlman. Music and the Racial Imagination. (New York, NY: University of Chicago Press, 2000).
[7] Nattiez, 103.
[8] Jocelyne Guilbault. “Interpreting World Music: A Challenge in Theory and Practice,” Popular Music, 16 (1997): 33.