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Article published In: The Politics of Sound: Intersections of Music, Discourse and Political Communication
Edited by Lyndon C.S. Way
[Journal of Language and Politics 18:4] 2019
► pp. 598–616

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The multimodal construction of place in English folk field recordings

ORCiD logo with link | Newcastle University
Published online: 3 July 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.18062.ord
Abstract
This article considers the sonic construction of place in English folk music recordings. Recent shifts in the political context have stimulated renewed interest in English identity within folk music culture. Symbolic struggles over folk’s political significance highlight both the contested nature of English identity and music’s semantic ambiguity, with texts being interpolated into discourses of both ethnic purity and multiculturalism. Following research in popular music, sound studies and multimodal communication this article explores the use of field recording to explore questions of place and Englishness in the work of contemporary folk artists. A multimodal analysis of Stick in the Wheel’s From Here: English Folk Field Recordings (Childs, Andy. 2017. “From Here: English Folk Field Recordings.” Caught by the River (blog) 18 March 2017. [URL]) suggests that a multimodal approach to musical texts that attends to the semantic affordances of sound recording can provide insight into folk music’s role in debates over the nature of English identity.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Context: The folk tradition and Englishness
  • 3.Musical ambiguity and multimodality
  • 4.Case study: Stick in the Wheel’s From Here: English Folk Field Recordings (2017)
    • 4.1Englishness in domestic and national space
    • 4.2Textual and visual constructions of English place and identity
    • 4.3The recordings: Sound, mediation and authenticity
    • 4.4The meaning of field recordings
    • 4.5Reception
    • 4.6Recording, performance and the construction of social intimacy
    • 4.7Recording, place and Englishness: Bringing the songs home
    • 4.8Intertextual dimensions
  • 5.Conclusion: The sound of England
  • Notes
  • Works cited
  • Discography
References (46)
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Discography
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Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Way, Lyndon C. S.
2021. Populism in musical mash ups: recontextualising Brexit. Social Semiotics 31:3 ► pp. 489 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

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