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Lyrical Geographies and the Topography of Social Resistance in Popular Music in the United States

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Abstract

Popular music, in all genres, often contains both instrumental and lyrical melodies. While both of these elements are inherently geographical, lyrical content provides a special opportunity to express a critical perspective on social, political, and environmental issues. This chapter analyzes the lyrics of 20 songs in each of four topics: civil rights, environmental awareness, feminism, and antiwar movements. This project utilizes the mixed methods of word counts, word cloud technology, and narrative analysis to assess the key strategies and geographies of popular music’s ability to vocalize and affect change in socio-political structures in the United States.

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Correspondence to Chris W. Post .

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Post, C.W., Rhodes, M. (2019). Lyrical Geographies and the Topography of Social Resistance in Popular Music in the United States. In: Brunn, S., Kehrein, R. (eds) Handbook of the Changing World Language Map. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73400-2_70-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73400-2_70-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-73400-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-73400-2

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Lyrical Geographies and the Topography of Social Resistance in Popular Music in the United States
    Published:
    29 January 2019

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73400-2_70-2

  2. Original

    Lyrical Geographies and the Topography of Social Resistance in Popular Music in the United States
    Published:
    03 January 2019

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73400-2_70-1