"The Quiet, Wintry North": Digital Folk of the Upper Peninsula

Authors

  • Dan W. Lawrence Michigan Technological University

Keywords:

critical musicology, rhetoric of music, independent music, digital music publishing, digitization, Upper Peninsula, pedagogy, folk,

Abstract

In America's most "remote" of locations, a digital-centric music scene flourishes. But it's not electronic music that the folk of Michigan's wintry Upper Peninsula find interest in: it's a rootsy, quiet, lo-fi, experimental Americana that is self-produced and self-distributed. With no major venues or recording studies, and not even a well-founded independent record label, musicians of the Upper Peninsula turn to the Internet to organize musical performances and events, plan collaborative recording sessions using limited resources, and share their thoughtful, introspective music.


The author reflects on these issues of independent folk music and self-production, as well as the digitization of music. Further, the author advocates for a rhetoric of music and new pushes in ties between rhetoric and musicology. How can we start to appreciate music as something more than that which "moves" us emotionally? The author also explores the question of what it really might mean to be a "folk" artist amidst the influence of the music industry in the waves and throes of capitalism.

Author Biography

Dan W. Lawrence, Michigan Technological University

Dan W. Lawrence is a thinker, writer, musician, and night owl. He holds a position as a graduate teaching instructor at Michigan Technological University where he is also pursuing a PhD in rhetoric and technical communication.

Dan’s research investigates ancient Greek music pedagogy as an underpinning for a contemporary theory of the rhetoric of music, which might be used in a critique of ideology. He supplements this theoretical approach with his experience as a performing artist and independent music producer.

His latest publication, a book chapter titled “Press C to Play the Ocarina: Rhetoric and Game Music†appears in Digital Ethos and Online Credibility (2012), and explores the relationship between rhetoric and sound in digital media.

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Published

2013-04-02

Issue

No. 9 (2013): Sonic Rhetorics

Section

Issue #9: Sonic Rhetorics

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