Article

In Pursuit of Haunting Noises: Two Case Studies from Irish Popular Music in the Digital Era

Michael Lydon

Published in: Ethnomusicology Ireland 8 (2022)

Pages: 30-45 | Published Online: December 2022

https://doi.org/10.64208/RVGM9777

Abstract

This article considers the use of both media noise and environmental noise by Irish popular musicians Sinéad O’Connor and Damien Dempsey in select studio recordings. I present both musicians as representative of Irish popular musicians’ use of the signalling agency of noise (Thompson 2017) as a response to the creative challenges realised by digital modes of reception (Bennett 2019; Taylor 2011). These creative challenges are shown to pertain to the omnipresence of digital media, and the development of disconnected practices of listening to recorded music. I incorporate critical theories from popular music studies; sound studies; poststructuralist theories relating to hauntology and the omnipresence of the photographic image; and phonomusicology to arrive at a new critical approach to examine Irish popular music’s creative response to the digital era. Ultimately, the article assesses two case studies from Irish popular music, where musicians/recordists in their response to the digital era utilise the communitive agency of noise as part of a hauntological metalanguage of remembered punctums.

Keywords: Popular music, digital era, noise, hauntology, punctum

Author: Michael Lydon | ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2295-1996