IS THERE STRUCTURE IN THE MODERN POPULAR SONG? : A GENERIC STRUCTURE POTENTIAL STUDY OF THE SONGS OF BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

Abstract

This study was undertaken to establish the properties that a text must display if it is to be regarded as an instance of the genre, modern popular songs. The study was taken both at the macro and micro levels of analysis. The approach taken was that of genre analysis, particularly the narrative framework as set out by Labov and Waletzky (1967) and Labov (1972). At the macro level, each element of structure of the song was distinguished using a modified version of Labov and Waletzky's framework. At the micro level, Hasan's concept of Generic Structure Potential (1984b, 1985) was adopted to show the ordering of the elements; both obligatory and optional; and their linguistic realizations. Altogether twelve songs, by the singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, were analysed in detail. These fall into two categories, namely the Narrative Songs and the sub-category called Non-Narrative Songs. Relevant discussions of discourse analysis from the earlier periods to Halliday's Register Analysis and finally to the present Genre studies were reviewed, thus situating the present study in its context. This study is fairly new as not much research has been done on the modern popular song in the past. The study sought to describe and explain the nature of the sample song texts. As an instrument of analysis, the narrative framework by Labov and Waletzky (1967) and Labov (1972) was found to apply well though it was inadequate to explain the entire phenomenon displayed in the modern popular song. Thus modifications to the model were made to achieve a better understanding of the structure of the songs. The analysis in Chapter Three contains the main discussion of the findings of this study. It is hoped that the findings of this study will serve as a guide to and an inspiration for further theoretical and analytical developments in the study of modern popular songs. Finally, the narrative framework used here, may also be useful for the study of the works of other singer-songwriters of a different tradition so as to extend the breadth and depth of our present knowledge of the modern popular song as a genre.