Papers by Noel McLaughlin
Irish Studies Review, 2014
A history and detailed analysis of popular music in Ireland from the 1960s to 2010. The book expl... more A history and detailed analysis of popular music in Ireland from the 1960s to 2010. The book explores the ways in which popular music in Ireland responded to changing local, regional, national and global factors to build a body of work that is celebrated and revered ...
Popular Music History, Dec 18, 2017
This document may differ from the final, published version of the research and has been made avai... more This document may differ from the final, published version of the research and has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies. To read and/or cite from the published version of the research, please visit the publisher's website (a subscription may be required.) 'How Belfast got the blues': Towards an alternative history Noel McLaughlin and Joanna Braniff 'We gotta get into this place' The decision to return to Belfast in 1965 was surely based on what the Stones (and their management team) had experienced there the year before. While similar scenes of riotous enthusiasm at the band's performances had occurred almost everywhere they played (and were widely reported with the requisite moral outrage), it was the otherness of Belfast, and Northern Ireland's residual conservatism (Belfast and Ireland's apparent 'primitivism' to the Stones' 'modernity') that may have attracted the group in cinematic terms. Charlie is My Darling, in this regard, is replete with very specific images: horses and carts in the streets; the presence of a member of the clergy in the audience; and a young male in the front row, weeping uncontrollably, in one of Whitehead's long, unbroken takes, 'the boy's preconceptions about everything' in Victor Coelho's words, 'being systematically dismantled' (Coelho 2011: 179). The response of the Belfast audience in 1965, therefore, did not break the trend, and resulted in front-page 'public order' news (Nixon 1965). This was, after all, a time when popular music-beat, R'n'B and blues-were little covered in the mainstream press. As with the Beatles earlier appearance in 1963, the Stones' debut concert played a pivotal role in folding Belfast into the broader burgeoning beat scene narrative. Indeed, these two visits by the group in 1964 and 1965 were to be, if anything, more important to the city's scene than their Merseyside rivals; with the Stones' appropriation of the blues forming the most influential template for local bands. To set the scene for what follows, it marks the fact that this contentious capital and trade port was both a vibrant rhythm and blues city and a place apart with a distinctive identity. It was also one with an audience that evidently 'got' the blues, was increasingly 'plugged-into' a rapidly-internationalizing British-led 'beat' culture and possessed, an albeit small, yet enthusiastic beat group scene. The majority of these groups, like Whitehead's rarely-screened film, are barely known outside of their locale, having been eclipsed by the 'big bang' moment, and our second, and more important reason, for claiming 1964 as the pivotal year. This is the moment when the city bequeathed Them and Van Morrison to national and international renown, and furnished Belfast (and Northern Ireland) with a prominent presence-performing representatives, as it were-in the broader 'British Invasion' movement (as well as inaugurating Morrison's long-standing international career). Thus, the spring and summer of 1964 is celebrated in the current context, over five decades later, as the city's seminal popular musical event.
Popular Music History, 2011
... Gerry Smyth, Music in Irish Cultural History. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2009. 196 pp. £40... more ... Gerry Smyth, Music in Irish Cultural History. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2009. 196 pp. £40. ISBN 978-0-7165-2984-2 (hbk). Noel McLaughlin. Full Text: PDF. Equinox Publishing Ltd, Unit S3, Kelham House, 3 Lancaster Street, Sheffield, S3 8AF, UK.
... Title: Rock, fashion and performativity. Authors: McLaughlin, Noel. Citation: McLaughlin, N.,... more ... Title: Rock, fashion and performativity. Authors: McLaughlin, Noel. Citation: McLaughlin, N., (2009) "Rock, fashion and prefomativity", in McNeil, P., Karaminas, V. (eds.) The men's fashion reader, chpt. 28. Publisher: Berg Publishers. Issue date: Jan-2009. ...
This article explores a neglected area of popular music scholarship: the different aspects of aut... more This article explores a neglected area of popular music scholarship: the different aspects of auteur producer Brian Eno’s often complex relationship with Irish rock band, U2 and their home nation. It considers the cultural and political significance of Eno’s technical, aesthetic and philosophical innovations in his work with U2 in relation to wider debates about Irish cultural identity as articulated through music. It also explores how U2 and the Irish context may have reciprocally influenced aspects of Eno’s approach to artistic production. The article also seeks to situate these ideas within broader popular historical discourses that frame the Eno and U2 relationship.
Popular Music History, 2015
Popular Music History, 2012
... Cork: Cork University Press, 2011. 260 pp. ISBN: 978-185918-461-5 (hbk). £35.00. ISBN 978-185... more ... Cork: Cork University Press, 2011. 260 pp. ISBN: 978-185918-461-5 (hbk). £35.00. ISBN 978-185918-490-5 (pbk). £20.00. Noel McLaughlin. Full Text: PDF. Equinox Publishing Ltd, Unit S3, Kelham House, 3 Lancaster Street, Sheffield, S3 8AF, UK.
Masculinity and Irish Popular Culture, 2014
Masculinity and Irish Popular Culture, 2014
Popular Music, 2000
The article explores the possibility of a national music culture within the global form of rock m... more The article explores the possibility of a national music culture within the global form of rock music. The various theoretical approaches to the issue are examined and then specific examples of Irish rock music are explored as forms of hybridity which marry a sense of the local with the sounds of the global. Among the artists considered are Van Morrison, Horslips, Sinéad O'Connor and the Pogues
Rock and Popular Music in Ireland: Before and After U2, 2012
This is chapter 2 of the book 'Rock and Popular Music in Ireland: Before and After U2' and traces... more This is chapter 2 of the book 'Rock and Popular Music in Ireland: Before and After U2' and traces the beginnings of Irish rock in the island's two main cities, Belfast and Dublin. The argument here is that Belfast bands had a harder, more rhythm and blues feel than the more poppy and folky music in Dublin. Eventually, though, Dublin becomes the more dominant force in popular music as Belfast was wracked by the 'Troubles'.
Pop & the Periphery: Nationality, Culture & Irish Popular Music. Noel McLaughlin ... more Pop & the Periphery: Nationality, Culture & Irish Popular Music. Noel McLaughlin 1999.
Film, Fashion &# 38; Consumption, Jan 1, 2011
and Rattle and Hum (Joanou, 1988), and looks at how popular musical performance and sub-cultural ... more and Rattle and Hum (Joanou, 1988), and looks at how popular musical performance and sub-cultural style are intertwined with the representation of city space and the construction of metropolitan identities. It does this via consideration of filmic style but in a manner sensitive to the broader sociopolitical and popular musical discourses that frame these representations. The article argues that popular music's relationship to the cinema, and to representations of place, has been much neglected in Film Studies. As such, it considers the rock/ performance/fashion/place nexus in some detail.
Irish Studies Review, Jan 1, 2004
Puritan Ireland in both its Protestant and Catholic manifestations has a long history of seeking ... more Puritan Ireland in both its Protestant and Catholic manifestations has a long history of seeking to regulate, even prohibit, dancing owing to its perceived associations with sexual behaviour. In fact the idea of Irish dance music still conjures up the image of traditional ...
Cineaste, Jan 1, 2001
Аннотация Presents information on the production of short films in Great Britain. Features of Bri... more Аннотация Presents information on the production of short films in Great Britain. Features of British short films; Information on several initiatives between film companies and broadcast television to promote the British short film; Discussion on several short films, such as' Field' ...
Popular Music History, Jan 1, 2011
Abstract This article argues that the band U2 and lead singer Bono have been largely neglected in... more Abstract This article argues that the band U2 and lead singer Bono have been largely neglected in popular music studies. It aims to address this through a detailed consideration of the band's negotiation of Irish identity, examining music press discourse about the band ...
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Papers by Noel McLaughlin