PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2005, College-Conservatory of Music : Theory

The central issue addressed in this dissertation is that of progressive and retrogressive harmonic motion as it is utilized in the repertoire of pop-rock music. I believe that analysis in these terms may prove to be a valuable tool for the understanding of the structure, style and perception of this music. Throughout my study of this music, various patterns of progressive and retrogressive harmonic motions within a piece reveal a kind of musical character about it, a character on which much of a work's style, organization and extramusical nature often depends. Several influential theorists, especially Jean-Phillipe Rameau, Hugo Riemann, and Arnold Schoenberg, have addressed the issues of functional harmony and the nature of the motion between chords of a tonal harmonic space. After assessing these views, I have found that it is possible to differentiate between two fundamental types of harmonic motions. This difference, one that I believe is instrumental in characterizing pop-rock music, is the basis for the analytical perspective I wish to embrace. After establishing a method of evaluating tonal harmonic root motions in these terms, I wish to examine a corpus of this music in order to discover what a characterization of its harmonic motion may reveal about each piece. Determining this harmonic character may help to establish structural and stylistic traits for that piece, its genre, composer, period, or even its sociological purpose. Conclusions may then be drawn regarding the role these patterns play in defining musical style traits of pop-rock. Partly as a tool for serving the study mentioned above I develop a graphical method of accounting for root motion I name the tonal “Space-Plot.” This apparatus allows the analyst to measure several facets about the harmonic motion of the music, and to see a wide scope of relations in and around a diatonic key.

Committee: Dr. Robert Zierolf (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2015, Interdisciplinary Arts (Fine Arts)

This dissertation engages the state of rock music in Western popular culture over the past twenty years. Taking inspiration from the philosophy of Theodor W. Adorno, the project utilizes the concepts of progress and restoration to describe how musicians, scholars, and journalists have confronted challenges facing the continued practice of rock music into the twenty-first century. I argue that the tension between this progressive impulse in rock and a restorative response provides an explanation for aspects of rock's recent history and its creative challenges. Via interpretations of musical texts, references to artistic statements, and engagement with aesthetic theory, the chapters reveal how these concepts have been navigated in the evolving state of rock, including responding to anxieties such as the “death of rock.” Emphasis includes advocacy for a renewed focus in academic scholarship on rock as a musical phenomenon. This approach asserts that stylistic and formal development are integral to thinking about the music's social history and cultural impact. As a critical study of the recent history of aesthetic ideas, I argue that progress and restoration influence rock culture, and that diagnosing their function within the genre is vital for understanding rock's history and trajectory.

Committee: Vladimir Marchenkov (Committee Chair); William Condee (Committee Member); Judith Grant (Committee Member); Garrett Field (Committee Member) Subjects: Aesthetics; Music; Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2008, Communication Studies

This study was conducted to better understand Detroit's unusual amount of rock music success. From the 1960s on, Detroit has continuously produced some of the nations most successful and influential rock and roll musicians. Through oral history research, this study looked specifically at the musical industry (record labels and radio stations), musical artists (recording artists and recording studios), and musical outlets (music venues and music retailers) with the intention to better uncover the aspects that allow the Detroit community to maintain an ongoing rock music success streak.Through conducted interviews with many influential Detroit orientated musical leaders as well as referencing scarce existing literature, this study finds four distinct avenues that lead to Detroit's longitudinal success. The study references the aspect of defiance as one of the key traits that allows Detroit to evade musical homogenization. This study also finds that Detroit's unique publicity outlets (radio stations, music publications, counterculture promotions, and venues) offer a stronger voice and a larger audience for local musicians that translates into a larger musical fan base for Detroit musicians. This study documents how the unique suburban layout around the Detroit community provides segmented pockets of unique creativity. Finally, this study acknowledges that Detroit has maintained the direction and overall ideals of the early rock music pioneers of 1960s without letting evolving cultural trends dilute the regional music climate.

Committee: James Foust PhD (Advisor); John Warren PhD (Committee Member); Victoria Ekstrand PhD (Committee Member); Andrew Schocket PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; History; Music

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2007, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2023, College-Conservatory of Music: Theory

This dissertation presents an analytical theory of musical groove as layered rhythmic schemata, and proposes archetypes based on a new taxonomy of tresillo rhythms. The scholarly origins of both groove and tresillos are traced back to ethnomusicology. Embracing the dual nature of groove established across disciplines as simultaneously musical structure and experience, the dissertation defines groove as the rhythmic gestalt which impels our body to motion. The analytical apparatus is generalized with respect to repertoire and rhythmic schemata, but the dissertation emphasizes rock music and the tresillo family of rhythms. A perceptually-bounded taxonomy is proposed for tresillos, which unfold a 3:2 temporal conflict constrained by pure duple metrical cycles. The fundamental theoretical contributions are to contextualize musical rhythm by discerning an irreducible counterpoint between the prevailing musical meter and the temporal structures implied by the rhythms themselves, and to put forward methods for discerning said structures from musical surfaces. The two cornerstones of the analytical framework are the Grooveline and the NonGroove Accent (NGA). Groovelines are middleground rhythmic schemata which emerge from cyclical layers of the musical texture, and enter into structural counterpoint with the prevailing meter, producing a total groove which contextualizes rhythmic activity. A rhythmic event's relative consonance and dissonance is thus framed according to alignment with both the meter and grooveline(s). Groovelines are identified via contextual associations and gestalt well-formedness principles. Loosely inspired by tonal NonChord Tones (NCTs), NonGroove Accents (NGAs) are those which participate in constituting the structure of a given grooveline, yet are subordinated by the process of multiple groovelines competing for perceptual efficacy. Guided by perceptual constraints on metrical entrainment, tresillo rhythms are taxonomized accor (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Cristina Losada Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Christopher Segall Ph.D. (Committee Member); Samuel Ng Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Master of Music (MM), Ohio University, 2022, Music Theory (Fine Arts)

This study is focused on the music of HIM, a Finnish band formed in the early 1990's. Harmonic, melodic, and contrapuntal features in some of HIM's songs has been studied with two different analytical lenses. First, functional harmony in HIM's riffs has been examined based on the work of Nicole Biamonte, Guy Capuzzo, and Christopher Doll. Analysis of harmonic function obscures melodic and contrapuntal features that shape and create structure in the music of HIM. Alternate analytical approaches by Ciro Scotto, Drew Nobile, Aaron Van Valkenburg, and John Clough have been studied to observe these linear characteristics in the music of HIM.

Committee: Anne Scotto (Committee Member); Ciro Scotto (Advisor) Subjects: Music

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2022, Sociology (Arts and Sciences)

In building from the #MeToo movement, this thesis aims to understand textual, online allegations made publicly by survivors of gendered violence within the specific scene of alternative music. The purpose of this research is to explore themes within these online posts, as well as responses made by alleged perpetrators who are alternative musicians. This research answers questions concerning how survivors and alleged perpetrators construct their narratives of gendered violence, as well as how gender hierarchies are invoked within these accounts. This study uses a qualitative thematic content analysis. Findings suggest that alleged perpetrators construct their responses by using techniques of neutralization and participate in some degree of denial of allegations. On the other hand, survivors construct their allegations through explicit and implicit discussions of consent--specifically about age and use of alcohol or drugs. Lastly, survivors build a community of solidarity through their allegations. These findings indicate how abuse continues to take place within progressive spaces such as alternative music, as well as the importance of survivors' voices in communicating that harm.

Committee: Holly Ningard (Committee Chair); Rachel Terman (Committee Member); Cynthia Anderson (Committee Member) Subjects: Gender Studies; Sociology; Womens Studies

Master of Music, Youngstown State University, 2021, Dana School of Music

Despite calls to broaden and diversify course offerings in music education, many music programs remain focused on large ensembles such as band, choir, and orchestra. One way to expand music programs can be through the inclusion of non-traditional music ensembles. An example of a non-traditional music ensemble is a rock band. This convergent mixed design study surveyed high school music teachers in the state of Ohio (N = 73) on their perspectives toward the inclusion of rock ensembles in their high school music classrooms. Statistical analyses showed a moderate relationship between jazz ensembles and rock bands and suggested that teachers who prefer and feel prepared to teach jazz may be more likely to offer a rock ensemble (p < .05). The results from open ended questions indicated complexity within teachers' factors surrounding the inclusion of rock band ensembles in a music curriculum. Teachers reported a variety of factors that would motivate or prevent them from offering rock ensembles, which included a fear of losing students from traditional ensembles and concern that students would be too busy to participate in a new ensemble. Furthermore, this study indicates that music teachers feel that they need training to feel more comfortable in offering non-traditional ensembles such as rock bands. The results of this study could have implications for both collegiate music education programs and high school music programs. University music education programs may consider creating a course in popular music pedagogy or incorporating popular music pedagogy into current methods courses. High school music programs may consider incorporating elements of rock music into established jazz programs.

Committee: Daniel Keown PhD (Advisor); Ewelina Boczkowska PhD (Committee Member); Kivie Cahn-Lipman PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Music; Music Education

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2020, Musicology

Oftentimes, we think of the concepts of the “primitive” and the virtuosic as being unrelated, contradictory, or even diametrically opposed. In rock drumming, however, the concepts can and do overlap. Consider the way that The Who's drummer Keith Moon embodies the wild-man drummer stereotype of the Muppets character Animal in both his persona and his performance style while simultaneously executing complicated parts that require a high degree of technical proficiency. In this dissertation, I argue that rock drumming operates as a site where the concepts of the “primitive” and the virtuosic overlap. Before considering drumming's relationship to each concept individually, I dive into drumming's complex relationship to the body and embodiment, through which I develop a theory of rock drumming based on patterns of tension and release called the Tonic Beat Pattern Theory (henceforth “the Theory”). Each chapter demonstrates how the Theory can be applied through an in-depth analysis of a single rock song that sheds light on that chapter's concept. The culminating chapter uses the Theory to demonstrate Keith Moon's ability to embody “controlled chaos” in his drumming style. In any band, the drummer is the main driver of rhythm and groove. Drummers cause us to move, shake, twist, and mosh along to the music that gives meaning to our lives. Scholars have only begun to scratch the surface of uncovering the power of the drums and considering the moves that drummers make in their analyses. This dissertation offers a model of how to analyze the ways that drummers contribute to affect, narrative, and meaning in rock music. It begins to uncover why rock drumming matters.

Committee: Daniel Goldmark PhD (Advisor); Susan McClary PhD (Committee Member); David Rothenberg PhD (Committee Member); William Deal PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; European History; European Studies; History; Modern History; Music; Performing Arts

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, Music

This dissertation explores the relationship between guitar performance and the functional components of musical organization in popular-music songs from 1954 to 2019. Under an ecological theory of affordances, three distinct interdisciplinary approaches are employed: empirical analyses of two stylistically contrasting databases of popular-music song transcriptions, a motion-capture study of performances by practicing musicians local to Columbus, Ohio, and close readings of works performed and/or composed by popular-music guitarists. Each offers gestural analyses that provide an alternative to the object-oriented approach of standard popular-music analysis, as well as clarification on issues related to style, such as the socially determined differences between “pop” and “rock” music.

Committee: Anna Gawboy Dr. (Committee Chair); Nicole Biamonte Dr. (Advisor); Daniel Shanahan Dr. (Advisor); David Clampitt Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Psychology; Music

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2018, Popular Culture

The subculture of jam bands is often publicly held to multiple stereotypical expectations. Participants in the subculture are expected to fall into one of two camps, coastal elites or “dirty hippies.” Members of the Northwest Ohio jam scene often do not have the kind of economic privilege that is assumed of them based on the larger jam subculture. Not only do these perceptions create difficulties for audience members of the Northwest Ohio scene, but there are added complications for the musicians in the scene. This research explores the challenges of class and belonging faced by participants in the Northwest Ohio jam scene. More specifically, this thesis focuses on the careful social negotiations scene members and musicians are required to navigate in order to maintain insider status while dealing with the working-class realities of life in the area. In this thesis, I argue that subcultural capital is one of the most significant factors for belonging to the larger subculture, and that its necessity, which requires sufficient economic support, demands more nuanced practices by local scenesters in order to maintain. I dissect the complexities of the concept of “family” in the jam scene, including its meaning for audiences and musicians, as well as how it intersects with class and public perceptions of class in the scene. Finally, I argue that musical forms and practices hold significance in establishing genre authenticity, but I maintain that class is a determining factor in the decisions bands make about whether or not they hold completely true to genre boundaries. This thesis attempts to address the complexities of class and how it functions in small, local rock scenes, specifically in the Northwest Ohio jam scene.

Committee: Jeremy Wallach (Advisor); Esther Clinton (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1978, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Mass Communications

Master of Music, Youngstown State University, 2015, Dana School of Music

Within the music of Coldplay there often exists a disconnect between the melody (vocal line) and the harmony (chord pattern/structure). It is often difficult to discern any tonal center (key) within a given song. In several of the songs I have selected for analysis, the melodies, when isolated from the harmonic patterns, suggest tonal centers at odds with the chords. Because of its often stratified pitch organization, Coldplay's music is sometimes in two keys simultaneously. Exploring the disconnect between melody and harmony, I will show how that can lead to tonal ambiguity in the sense that there is no one key governing an entire song. Rather, these songs often exemplify sectional centricity, where one or more pitches act as a tonal center in one section of a song.

Committee: Jena Root PhD (Advisor); Randall Goldberg PhD (Committee Member); Tedrow Perkins PhD (Committee Member); Steven Raele PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

DMA, University of Cincinnati, 2012, College-Conservatory of Music: Composition

The work consists of two contrasting panels. The first panel reflects life; the second, death. While grieving over the recent death of someone in my life, I sketched two separate formal shapes that would eventually become the basis of “Reflections.” The resulting music adheres to the shapes that I sketched. This piece, in which I integrated elements of minimalism, jazz, progressive rock, and sound mass composition, is scored for saxophone quartet (alto, alto, tenor, baritone), and amplified acoustic guitar. In addition to this version, there is an alternate version of this piece, which is scored for horn quartet and amplified acoustic guitar.

Committee: Mike Fiday PhD (Committee Chair); Mara Helmuth DMA (Committee Member); Joel Hoffman DMA (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2010, Music Ethnomusicology

Disco-rock, composed of disco-influenced recordings by rock artists, was a sub-genre of both disco and rock in the 1970s. Seminal recordings included: David Bowie's Young Americans; The Rolling Stones' “Hot Stuff,” “Miss You,” “Dance Pt.1,” and “Emotional Rescue”; KISS's “Strutter '78,” and “I Was Made For Lovin' You”; Rod Stewart's “Do Ya Think I'm Sexy“; and Elton John's Thom Bell Sessions and Victim of Love. Though disco-rock was a great commercial success during the disco era, it has received limited acknowledgement in post-disco scholarship. This thesis addresses the lack of existing scholarship pertaining to disco-rock. It examines both disco and disco-rock as products of cultural shifts during the 1970s. Disco was linked to the emergence of underground dance clubs in New York City, while disco-rock resulted from the increased mainstream visibility of disco culture during the mid seventies, as well as rock musicians' exposure to disco music. My thesis argues for the study of a genre (disco-rock) that has been dismissed as inauthentic and commercial, a trend common to popular music discourse, and one that is linked to previous debates regarding the social value of pop music. The result is a study that compiles the work of previous disco scholars and provides a first step towards the study of disco-rock within the social and musical culture of the 1970s.

Committee: Jeremy Wallach PhD (Advisor); Katherine Meizel PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2010, American Culture Studies/Popular Culture

Acknowledging the unique ontological nature of sound recording, this project seeks to outline a framework for working with archival sources in popular music scholarship. The proposed theoretical lens combines influences from cultural studies, historical audience studies, and performance studies in order to encourage a broader appreciation of the popular music archive and the identity-making cultural practices surrounding the popular music archive. Such an endeavor requires the acknowledgement of three theoretical considerations: technology, performance, and tangibility. To illustrate the breadth of readings that this approach to the popular music archive can yield, each chapter uses source material from the Music Library and Sound Recordings Archives at Bowling Green State University. Chapter Two analyzes the contents of rock promotional materials and argues that these technologies of representation code rock music according to semiotic markers of masculinity, whiteness, and mythic America. Chapter Three argues that themes of inclusion and exclusion in punk fanzines work to unite individual, localized scenes into a translocal scene that transcends time and geographical boundaries through shared narratives and common values. Chapter Four examines the construction of audience identity through teen-oriented artist biographies and argues that such technologies of representation police (female) fan behavior through narratives of “proper” fandom. Chapter Five explores themes of physical separation and reunion through the American Top 40 Long Distance Dedication segment and argues that the format's affective qualities are inextricably bound to physical embodiment and common physical vulnerability. The project concludes with a revisiting of the concepts of tangibility, performance, and technology in the age of the digital archive through brief case studies of the iPod, the play count, and the ubiquity of Auto-Tune in contemporary popular music. Ultimately, the project mak (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: William Schurk (Committee Chair); Vivian Patraka (Committee Member); Donald McQuarie (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Gender; History; Mass Media; Music

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2009, American Culture Studies/Popular Culture

This dissertation is an analytical survey of four amateur musician narrativescreated between 1981 and 2001. Unlike purportedly true, marketing-driven uses of amateur narratives, the four narratives chosen for this project are unabashed total fictions. Despite this, the films achieve levels of perceived “authenticity” by way of cultural value and influence. None of the narratives deal with amateur musicianship as a stage or step in an inherent progression towards professionalism, as seems a prerequisite for the recollections of the now professional. But all include narratives of amateur musicians struggling to make it against “insurmountable commercial odds” resulting from an artist's gender, talent, ability, or identity. Despite this, none treat hegemonically dictated concepts of commercial success, wealth, fame, and stardom as the ultimate and/or desired goal of amateurism or semiprofessionalism. The films all present concepts of accomplishment in challenge of hegemonic notions of professional dominance and commercial success as markers of success. The four films, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains (1981), Ishtar (1987), Half-Cocked (1995), and Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), are culturally representative of their respective eras, but have experienced lasting cultural influence in both filmmaking and music making. The films exist as prototypical examples of amateur musicians narratives, performance, and media common to the 20th Century “rise of the amateur” as found on the Internet, in realty programming, and marketing tragedies.

Committee: Jeremy Wallach PhD (Committee Chair); Irina Stakhanova PhD (Committee Member); Vivian Patraka PhD (Committee Member); Awad Imbrahim PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2013, Comparative Studies

This dissertation centers on the role of musical experience in the production and maintenance of intimate, interpersonal relationships. Music acquires meaning in its ability to enable and amplify personal relationships among participants who share musical experience—not only through the semiotic decoding of lyrics and musical sounds that characterizes much music scholarship. Because there is scant language available for describing musical experience without reference to non-sonic elements such as lyrics, communal identity, or performers' personae, this research relies on textual and ethnographic methods to examine how human experiences of musical sound are understood via racialized and gendered discourses of embodiment, intimacy, pleasure, and danger. Specifically, this project consists of textual analyses of music censorship discourse and ethnographic analyses of female musicians and listeners who seek out shared musical experiences in explicitly gendered contexts including a feminist punk movement, a girls' rock music camp, and a long-standing women's music festival. The introductory chapter offers an overview of the scholarship and theory that has influenced this project and sets up the theoretical framework I have developed through my own research. To establish the stakes of this project, the second chapter focuses on discourses of musical danger to reveal a persistent and anxious fascination with music's relationship to the body and intimacy in the American imagination. Subsequent chapters explore how music is deployed precisely for its ability to engage the body, incite pleasure, and enable intimacy. The first of these case studies takes as its subject riot grrrl, a 1990s feminist punk movement, in order to explore how musical intimacy was enabled within the movement through its “Girls to the Front” policy, and how efforts to forge relationships through shared, embodied musical experience served as antidotes to young women's gendered experiences of isolati (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Barry Shank Ph.D. (Advisor); Mary Thomas Ph.D. (Committee Member); Maurice Stevens Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Music; Womens Studies

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2021, Popular Culture

The heavy metal scene has a long history of crossover with punk rock, with many subgenres of heavy metal being influenced by punk. Previous research on punk and metal understood the punk subculture to be strongly tied with the middle class, while the heavy metal subculture was understood to be mostly working class. Over the past twenty years, however, the class demographic of the heavy metal subculture has shifted to be primarily middle class. This thesis is an attempt to understand how heavy metal's shift in class demographics has influenced crossover between punk rock and heavy metal musics. To understand the relationships between class, punk rock, and heavy metal, this thesis makes use of Steve Waksman's metal/punk continuum and Pierre Bourdieu's theory of distinction and cultural capital, as well as lyrical analysis and ethnographic research conducted in between July 2019 and February 2020 in the heavy metal scene in the greater Detroit area. In this thesis, I dissect the differences between heavy metal and punk rock. When viewed as Weberian ideal types, I found that, as a genre, heavy metal tends to avoid overt discussions of politics, whereas punk rock openly engages with politics. I argue that the heavy metal subculture has retained a working class habitus, which is seen in metal's avoidance of overt discussion of politics. This working class habitus in the heavy metal scene is in tension with the middle class habitus of many metalheads. As a result of this, middle class metalheads use various techniques to navigate this tension, including enjoying metal music which more openly discusses politics due to punk rock influences. Finally, I argue that the subgenre of metalcore, a hybrid of hardcore punk and heavy metal, is a product of the middle class fanbase in heavy metal, as it focuses on topics such as sociopolitical troubles and mental health. In doing so, metalcore reflects the lived experiences of the middle class metalhead

Committee: Jeremy Wallach PhD (Advisor); Esther Clinton PhD (Committee Member); Katherine Meizel PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2021, History

During the Allied Occupation of Japan, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) Douglas MacArthur set forth on a mission to Americanize Japan. One way SCAP decided this could be done was by utilizing forms of media that were already popular in Japan, particularly the radio. The Far East Network (FEN), a network of American military radio and television stations in Japan, Okinawa, Guam, and the Philippines, began to broadcast American country & western music. By the early 1950s, Japanese country & western ensembles would begin to form, which initiated the evolution toward modern J-pop. During the first two decades of the Cold War, performers of various postwar subgenres of early Japanese rock (or J-rock), including country & western, rockabilly, kayokyoku, eleki, and Group Sounds, would attempt to break into markets in the West. While some of these performers floundered, others were able to walk side-by-side with several Western greats or even become stars in their own right, such as when Kyu Sakamoto produced a number one hit in the United States with his “Sukiyaki” in 1963. The way that these Japanese popular music performers were perceived in the West, primarily in the United States, was rooted in centuries of Orientalist preconceptions about Japanese people, Japanese culture, and Japan that had recently been recalibrated to reflect the ethos of the Cold War.

Committee: Walter Grunden Ph.D. (Advisor); Jeremy Wallach Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Asian Studies; History