Marienberg, Evyatar. Assoc. Professor, Department of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Abstract:
“Authorship, Intention, and Biography in Popular Music: Religion in Sting’s Work”
In this presentation, I will discuss methodological questions about how and if one can, or should, use what we know about a songwriter in analyzing that person’s work. What should we do with what the author says about his or her songs in interviews, performances, or other written pieces? Can we analyze lyrics without their musical setting? What about ideas expressed in music videos created to accompany the songs? Where does biography end and creativity begin? It is obvious that not all songs written in first person are autobiographical, but some are. Is there a reasonable way to know which is which? What should a scholar do when the work studied was composed by a living person and the scholar has a direct channel of communication with that person? Should one ask the author such questions, and if one does, what should one do with the answers? This presentation will include methodological discussion of these questions and others, together with presentation of particular cases of lyrics composed by the British songwriter and performer Sting (Gordon Matthew Sumner, b. 1951). The issue of religion in his work will be particularly emphasized.