Moving past the feeling

Emotion in Arcade Fire'sFuneral

Bibliographic Data

ID4883102
AuthorsMichael Spitzer (0000-0003-2173-9317, University of Liverpool, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume36
Issue2
Pages252-282
Publication date2017-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePopular Music (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0261-1430 • E-ISSN: 1474-0095
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0261143017000046
OpenAlexW2665972299
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited26

This article focuses on Arcade Fire's 2004 first album,Funeral. It is analytical in orientation, offering close (analytical) readings of Funeral's 10 tracks from the standpoint of reception of the album as particularly 'emotional'. In order to explain Funeral's generation of extreme emotion, the article applies tools from current formal theory, particularly the theory of sentence phrase-structure. It connects sentence form with Spicer's notion of (ac)cumulative processes. With a nod to Osborn's article on 'terminal climax', it shows how Arcade Fire's sentential forms are unusually directed towards anthemic climaxes, associated with emotional breakthrough. The article also explores the tension in the music, grounded in the indie ethos in general, between 'spectacular' stasis and forward motion

Ethos · Feeling · Linguistics · Phrase · Sentence · History · Media, Communication, and Education · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology · Sound Studies and Aurality

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