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ABSTRACT
The aim of this article is to frame the Beatles’ White Album by linking it to other significant albums released in 1968 (by Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa, and the Soft Machine). These works contribute to two main trends for the development of rock music in subsequent decades: on the one hand, the desire to establish itself as an artistic expression in its own right, thanks to the inclusion of stylistic elements and creative approaches unrelated to its own tradition; on the other hand, reference to the roots of rock itself.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Italian journalist Alessandro Achilli for helping me with some precious details about the Soft Machine; musicologist Philippe Gonin for providing the Pink Floyd material; Luca Elmosi for language supervision; and my Ph.D. supervisor, professor Pierre Michel, for scientific support during the research that led to this article.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. There is no scientific consensus on the “beginning” of postmodernism (see CitationGendron, 11), if only in chronological terms, and there is even less agreement on the criteria for distinguishing between modernism and postmodernism. In his book, Gendron focuses this distinction on the blurring of the boundaries between “high” and “low” culture, a blurring advocated by postmodernism but rejected by modernist artists and intellectuals (who are members of the “high culture” elites, in Gendron’s narrative). To the contrary, the case of the Beatles (and there are many other examples in the history of popular music) shows that the typical features of modernism can also be found in “low” culture, without necessarily being accompanied by any forms of cultural elitism.
2. For an in-depth look at the economic-legislative context that saw the birth of rock and roll, refer to CitationPeterson.
3. For an in-depth look at the “rock discourse,” refer to CitationTeillet.
4. See CitationWicke 2–3. For a more in-depth discussion of the problem of “legitimate culture” see CitationHebdige (8–11) and CitationGendron (7–12). Specifically, Gendron argues that the legitimation of rock has been relatively rapid thanks to the historical precedent of 1940s jazz, a popular-music genre that claimed the status of intellectual art “in its own right.” Gendron’s book provides a detailed chronicle of “popular music discourse” (related to rock, but also to jazz and cabaret music), notably by tracing the history of the relationship between high and popular culture through the press.
5. CitationCutler was, among other things, the drummer of the English avant-garde rock band Henry Cow. He also contributed to the creation of the Rock in Opposition collective, founded the independent record label Recommended Records, and is the author of several essays on popular music (collected in his book File Under Popular).
6. For an in-depth look at experimental rock, refer to CitationCosta.
7. Regarding “Strawberry Fields Forever,” we could mention the notion of virtual performances–i.e. songs that cannot be played live the way we hear them on the record but that simulate live performances thanks to the editing process. See CitationCarr 137.
8. Regarding the esthetic motivations behind Smile:
The Smile dream … was born in the summer of 1966, when Brian and his visionary partner, Smile lyricist Van Dyke Parks, first began working together. In response to the musical British Invasion, their desire was to bring forth something very American and, in its humor and wide ranging subject matter, to create something radically different from the music being made by their contemporaries. (CitationLeaf)
Van Dyke Parks developed his solo debut album, Song Cycle, from a similar esthetic standpoint (see CitationHenderson).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Jacopo Costa
Jacopo Costa is a musician and doctor in musicology at the University of Strasbourg. The main subject of his research is experimental rock music, which he studies from the standpoint of music history, music analysis, sociology, and economics. Since 2013 he has been teaching in the popular music department of the University of Strasbourg. He is a member of GREAM laboratory (Groupe de Recherches Expérimentales sur l’Acte Musical). He is the founder of the art rock band Loomings and a member of the Italian avant-rock band Yugen.