Phono-somatics: gender, embodiment and voice in the recorded music of Tori Amos, Björk and PJ ...

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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON

FACULTY OF HUMANITIES

Music
Volume 1 of 2

Phono-somatics: gender, embodiment and voice in the recorded music of Tori Amos,
Björk and PJ Harvey

by

Sarah Boak

Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

October 2015

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON
ABSTRACT
FACULTY OF HUMANITIES
Music
Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
PHONO-SOMATICS: GENDER, EMBODIMENT AND VOICE IN THE RECORDED MUSIC OF
TORI AMOS, BJÖRK AND PJ HARVEY
Sarah Boak

This thesis is a feminist enquiry into the relationship between gender, embodiment and voice in
recorded popular music post-1990. In particular, the study focuses on the term ‘embodiment’ and
defines this term in a way that moves forward from a simple understanding of representing the
body in music. The expression of embodied subjectivity through the voice is crucial to this
interpretation, and therefore is the central concern of this thesis. I describe this relationship
between embodiment and voice in recorded music as phono-somatic. From the Greek, ‘phono’
suggests not only voice and sound, but also the process of recording itself. ‘Soma’ is the Greek for
body. By connecting the two, phono-somatic as a term highlights the interplay between body and
voice through the recorded medium.
Central to the analysis of phono-somatics is an exploration of the concept of ‘the feminine’. The
1990s saw a new kind of female artist emerge, writing songs that focused on intimate topics of
sexuality, gender and the body in an explicit, direct way. This study looks at the work of three
artists – PJ Harvey, Björk and Tori Amos – who make challenges to dominant conceptions of
gender and sexuality and looks at how they use phono-somatic strategies in their work. The thesis
explores three key areas: feminine vocality and pleasure, embodied trauma and maternal bodies.
It analyses the ways in which these women performers use an embodied language in their musical
practices, of what this language is made, and of what it allows them to speak. Through the
analysis, this study demonstrates that phono-somatic practices are used to move past
representation, into embodied experience whereby norms around gender and sexuality can be
challenged.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... i
List of Figures .............................................................................................................. iv
DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP .................................................................................... v
Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................... vi
Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................... 1
1.1 Thesis structure ........................................................................................................ 3
1.2 Methodology ............................................................................................................ 4
1.3 Embodiment........................................................................................................... 10
1.4 Gender: Feminism and the feminine ..................................................................... 13
1.5 Voice ....................................................................................................................... 18
1.6 Musicology and approaches to analysis ................................................................ 20
1.7 Musical context of the 1990s ................................................................................. 25
Chapter 2: Embodied Voices: feminine vocality and female pleasure ................. 31
2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 31
2.1.1 Paralanguage ........................................................................................... 33
2.1.2 Lexical Breakdown ................................................................................... 34
2.2 Feminine phono-somatics...................................................................................... 35
2.2.1 Feminine vocality ..................................................................................... 35
2.3 Voice and sexuality ................................................................................................ 38
2.3.1 Female orgasm in popular culture ........................................................... 38
2.3.2 Queer vocality .......................................................................................... 44
2.4 PJ Harvey ‘The Dancer’ (1995) ............................................................................... 45
2.5 PJ Harvey ‘The Letter’ (2004) ................................................................................. 49
2.6 Björk ‘Cocoon’ (2001) ............................................................................................ 52
2.7 Björk ‘All is Full of Love’ (1997) .............................................................................. 55
2.8 Tori Amos ‘Icicle’ (1994)......................................................................................... 58
2.9 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 59
i
Chapter 3: Violence embodied: traumatised bodies and post-9/11 ..................... 61
3.1 Traumatised bodies and the voice ........................................................................ 61
3.2 Narrative and witnessing ....................................................................................... 64
3.3 Gender, bodies and violence ................................................................................. 65
3.4 Individual and collective violence in the post-9/11 world .................................... 66
3.5 Tori Amos ‘I Don’t Like Mondays’ (2001) .............................................................. 67
3.6 Tori Amos ‘Me and a Gun’ (1991) ......................................................................... 73
3.7 PJ Harvey ‘Bitter Branches’ (2011) ........................................................................ 76
3.8 PJ Harvey ‘The Words that Maketh Murder’ (2011) ............................................. 81
3.9 PJ Harvey ‘Down by the Water’ (1995) ................................................................. 83
3.10 Björk ‘Earth Intruders’ (2007) ................................................................................ 84
3.11 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 88
Chapter 4: Maternal Bodies ................................................................................ 91
4.1 Popular music and the maternal body .................................................................. 92
4.2 Theorising the maternal body ............................................................................... 93
4.3 Tori Amos: Visible maternities .............................................................................. 95
4.4 Tori Amos ‘Spark’ video (1998) ............................................................................. 97
4.5 Tori Amos ‘Your Cloud’ (2002) ............................................................................ 100
4.6 Tori Amos ‘Playboy Mommy’ (1998) ................................................................... 104
4.7 Björk ‘It’s in our hands’ video (2002) .................................................................. 108
4.8 Björk ‘Mouth’s Cradle’ (2004) ............................................................................. 112
4.9 PJ Harvey ‘C’mon Billy’ (1995) ............................................................................. 116
4.10 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 117
Chapter 5: Conclusion ...................................................................................... 119
5.1 Historicising the case study artists ...................................................................... 120
5.1.1 Sexually explicit culture ......................................................................... 120
5.1.2 Sexual violence in popular culture ........................................................ 123
5.1.3 Politics and 9/11 .................................................................................... 124
5.2 Feminist theory during the period ...................................................................... 126
ii
5.2.1 Essentialism ........................................................................................... 126
5.3 Concluding remarks on the case study material in context ................................ 129
Bibliography ..............................................................................................................132
Discography ...............................................................................................................147
Videography ..............................................................................................................149

iii
List of Figures
Figure 1.1: PJ Harvey, Björk and Tori Amos, Q Magazine, May 1994............................................ 1
Figure 2.1: Table of sensory references in PJ Harvey’s ‘The Letter’ (2004) .................................. 51
Figure 3.1: The Boomtown Rats’ Introduction to 'I Don't Like Mondays' (1979) ......................... 70
Figure 3.2: Tori Amos' Introduction to 'I Don't Like Mondays' (2001) ......................................... 71
Figure 4.1: Amos’ Vanity Fair photoshoot (2000) ........................................................................ 96
Figure 4.2: Boys for Pele (1996) artwork ..................................................................................... 96
Figure 4.3: Introduction to ‘Your Cloud’ (2002) ......................................................................... 102
Figure 4.4: ‘Playboy Mommy’ (1998) Kurtzweil and piano accompaniment, bars 1-12. ........... 105

iv
DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP
I, Sarah Boak, declare that this thesis and the work presented in it are my own and has been
generated by me as the result of my own original research.
Thesis title: ‘Phono-somatics: gender, embodiment and voice in the recorded music of Tori
Amos, Björk and PJ Harvey’.
I confirm that:
1. This work was done wholly or mainly while in candidature for a research degree at this
University:
2. Where any part of this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree or any other
qualification at this University or any other institution, this has been clearly stated:
3. Where I have consulted the published work of others, this is always clearly attributed:
4. Where I have quoted from the work of others, the source is always given. With the exception
of such quotations, this thesis is entirely my own work:
5. I have acknowledged all main sources of help:
6. Where the thesis is based on work done by myself jointly with others, I have made clear
exactly what was done by others and what I have contributed myself:
7. Parts of this work have been published as:
Boak, Sarah (2015) ‘Mother Revolution: Representations of the maternal body in the work of
Tori Amos’ Popular Music, Volume 34, Issue 2, May 2015 (Cambridge University Press)
pp.296-311
Signed: .............................................................................................................................................
Date: .................................................................................................................................................

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