Semiotics on music charts: The signification of late-blooming hits in contemporary popular music
By: Georgios Sklavounakis
| ARTICLE INFO: Volume: 09 Issue: 02:Winter 2023 ISSN: 2459-2943 DOI: 10.18680/hss.2023.0025 Pages: 189-208 Lic.: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 |
KEYWORDS: Consumption Distribution Popular Music Scarcity Streaming |
ABSTRACT
Eliseo Verón’s approach to circulation focuses on the gap between production and recognition and the consideration of texts in relation to their contexts of production and consumption. In this paper, we employ Veron’s concepts of grammar of production and grammar of recognition to examine popular songs that reached their peak of success several years after their release. Drawing our case studies from the Hot 100 American singles chart, we combine social semiotics and semiotics of popular music to examine the contexts of the initial songs’ release and their eventual commercial peak while considering changes in the media ecology and how these songs re-entered popular culture. The corpus of songs examined is split into three major categories: Songs that re-entered popular culture after their performer’s passing, recurring Christmas-themed songs, and hits featuring in audiovisual productions like films and television series.
Download full text: PDF
