Keywords
alchemy, androgyny , archetype, camp, corporeal, counterculture, disembodiment, drag, embodiment, environment , fear, femininity, feminism, feminist theory, freaks, gender, horror , horror film, masculinity, masquerade, musicology, narrative, performance, popular culture, popular music, psychoanalysis, queer, ritual, sexuality, subculture, subjectivity, theatre, vocality
Jenny McAlone
Research Student
Broadly I am interested in what it means to be male or female, how this relates to masculinity and femininity, the formation of subjectivity and the perception/function of the body. How might these issues be explored musically? In what ways does the performance of gender affect the reception and performance of popular music? What might popular music have to say about contemporary gender issues? Ultimately using popular music as a medium, I am interested in gender/s, how they are appropriated, discussed and displayed as an articulation of wider social narratives and revolutions.
Thesis Title
The Seahorse Complex: Musical Explorations of the Androgynous Consciousness and the Social Omnipotence of Intermediate Sexualities
Thesis Outline
My research investigates the principles of androgyny through the performances of popular music artists, including Kate Bush, Jeff Buckley, The Cocteau Twins, The Cure, Nine Inch Nails and Antony Hegarty. I am particularly interested in reevaluating theories of androgyny to suggest the omnipotence of 'in-betweenness', to reveal the difficulties of living through and within male/female, sex/gender binaries. Without denying the difficulties of previous explorations and applications of androgyny, analysing and reconceptualising androgynies in relation to popular music may provide the necessary space to explore the problematic nature of masculinity and femininity.
Qualifications
BA Hons Music, International Centre for Music Studies, Newcastle University
MLitt Music, International Centre for Music Studies, Newcastle University, beneficiary of The Florence Hilda Yates Studentship
Supervised By
Debra Ferreday and Nicholas Gebhardt
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